We knew this was coming. We just didn’t know when. Now it’s begun.

So late last night I started doing some “ad recon” in which I start brainstorming and mind-mapping large advertising sources to add to our already extensive portfolio.

Rumors have been circulating for quite some time about Facebook extending their advertising reach beyond their own domain. However, I stayed out of it because I’m more of a “I have to see it to believe it” type of marketer. However, straight from the Facebook help center comes this:

• You’ll only see sponsored stories about activity that has been shared with you
• You can remove ads that don’t interest you by clicking the X
• Facebook doesn’t sell information that tells advertisers who you are

Both Sponsored Stories and traditional Facebook ads — those with headlines and body copy — appear on Zynga.com. It’s unclear whether ads for competing games are prevented from being displayed on the site. We’ve reached out to both companies for more details.

Now according to Inside Facebook, FB is saying this not happening right now, but TechCrunch is saying different.

Now the really hypocritical part to all of this is that for years, Google Adsense has stated that you weren’t allowed to run competing ads alongside theirs. I guess that doesn’t apply to Zynga?

The ads appear in the sidebar at Zynga, which was traditionally where they have placed Google ads.  They still run Google ads at the bottom of the screen however.

Now we already know that Facebook is sharing ad revenue with Zynga but what we don’t know is how to “opt-out” of advertising on Zynga. Yes, Facebook can you please show me where the option to opt-out of advertising on Zynga is in the advertisers interface because I seriously cannot find it. The reason being? Because the placement of the ads are complete SHIT (IMO.)

This is some really shady shit if you ask me. Not being able to opt-out of these placements is ridiculous ESPECIALLY considering the ads are toward the bottom which normally produces low CTR’s. I actually connected to Zynga for the first time early this morning to check this out (I don’t play time-wasting games). Here’s the low placements I’m talking about:

Take a gander at the bottom right corner. Here’s a closer snapshot of the ads I’m seeing:

Last year, Facebook said it had agreed to work with Zynga to provide ads on their properties beyond Facebook, though at the time it was unknown what the “Zynga Platform” would be.

Both Sponsored Stories and traditional Facebook ads — those with headlines and body copy — appear on Zynga.com. It’s unclear whether ads for competing games are prevented from being displayed on the site.

Now for “Branders” with “burn budgets” who don’t have a real clue what positive ROI driven advertising is, and just throw money at getting some eyeballs on their brand – this might be good.

However, if that was me advertising – I would be pissed.

What do you think – good or bad? I realize this new ad unit on Zynga from Facebook is just the starting point. However, without the option of “turning off” advertising on Zynga, Facebook is leaving advertisers with no choice. In the long run we all know Facebook will be successful. It’s inevitable. But in the short term – sort of a dodgy move no?

Ralph Ruckman

Founder & Entrepreneur at IMGrind & Mobgrind, Revived Media (our Mobile CPA Network) and iMobitrax (our Proprietary Mobile Tracker). I dedicate myself inside our Private Internet Marketing Forums teaching Entrepreneurs how to be successful with their businesses. Connect socially with me: