Facebook Pages Releasing a Redesign – Say Bye to Right-Rail Ads

Facebook appears to be releasing a redesign of desktop Pages that removes right-rail ads in order to make room for larger cover photos, among other changes.

After overhauling the mobile Pages layout, Facebook appears to be releasing a new design for the desktop version of Pages that drops right-rail ads from the page, among other changes.

The redesigned desktop Pages adopt the kind of changes Facebook made to mobile Pages last year, such as call-to-action buttons more prominently displayed at the top the page which allow people to click on to open a business’s site or contact.

The full-width cover photo, which is no longer partially obscured by overlaid profile photo, isn’t the only cosmetic change though. The redesigned desktop Pages omit the display ads that previously appeared on the right-hand side of desktop Pages.

This doesn’t mean that Facebook will be phasing out right-rail ads entirely though. It appears that Facebook’s removal of the right-rail ads is to make room for the redesigned Page elements. In addition to the larger cover photo, the page navigation menu is repositioned along the left-hand-rail, and the page information boxes, such as the like count and “about” boxes, are switched over to the right-hand rail.

Don’t worry about the right-rail ads though, they aren’t very important to Facebook’s business (or yours), considering that they’re desktop-only and Facebook’s audience and business is mobile-heavy. It’s unclear how much the right-rail ads contribute to Facebook’s desktop ad revenue and how that contribution has trended over time, but it seems safe to assume it’s a minority share, considering they bring in less money per ad than Facebook’s news feed ads.