Facebook Logout Ads, Bing First to Advertise

Martin Brinkmann
Mar 3, 2012
Updated • Jan 4, 2018
Companies, Facebook, Microsoft
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In the past year, Facebook and Microsoft have started to work closely together. Microsoft has for instance added Facebook to its recently purchased Skype software, and to the company's Bing search engine, where Facebook users who are logged in to their account will see their friend's likes in the search results.

Bing on the other hand became Facebook's web search provider. Facebook yesterday has launched a new ad unit that is poised to increase the company's revenue noticeably.

The new Facebook logout ad unit is displayed to users who log out of their account on the social networking site. The Facebook header with the company's logo and log in options is still showing up on the logout page, but the rest of the page is filled with the new ad unit.

facebook logout ads

The first company to take advantage of the new ad format? Microsoft with their Bing search engine of course. The ad looks like a cross-breed of Bing's homepage and a new Facebook timeline profile. The Bing logo, search form and background image are displayed on top, while likes and popularity information are displayed in the ad's footer.

Users who use the search form to search on the Internet will notice that their results open in a new tab in their browser, and not in the same tab.

According to Techcrunch, there are 37 million users in the U.S. alone that log out of Facebook every day.

Some Facebook users are already seeing the new ad unit when they log out, while other's do not. It is not clear if the ad unit is only displayed to Facebook users from the U.S., or if it's visible worldwide. With Bing being mediocre in localized markets, it is likely that the campaign is targeting Facebook users from the U.S. only. There has been no official confirmation though yet.

The ad campaign could help Bing snag away additional search market shares from its main competitor Google. Facebook users who are not interested in the ad can click on the close button to see the usual Facebook logout page instead.

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Comments

  1. akshay said on March 7, 2012 at 6:30 am
    Reply

    gave my open account

  2. Robert Palmar said on March 3, 2012 at 5:54 pm
    Reply

    This does not add an extra step or click for the user
    therefore I see no real issue with this advertisement.

    The trend that is spearheaded by Facebook of requiring
    log-in to even visit and view a site is the troubling one.
    Should it grow as intended then others will follow its
    lead similarly requiring their log-ins for websites.

  3. Mike said on March 3, 2012 at 12:56 pm
    Reply

    This seems to be getting a bit ridiculous … the internet is becoming one giant commercial break.. I think facebook have been pushing their luck for a while now and would expect a social networking user backlash to start affecting them sooner rather than later.

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on March 3, 2012 at 1:15 pm
      Reply

      I do not think it is that bad, as it is not really taking away functionality from the page. Most users are probably either closing the tab after log out, or clicking in the address bar or search form of their browser to navigate away.

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