Ad-Free Subscription for Facebook and Instagram in UK

Now there’s an ad-free subscription in the UK. It’s spreading across Europe.

Here’s what you need to know…

Meta’s Announcement

Meta announced that users in the UK will have a new option in the coming weeks.

1. They can continue using Facebook and Instagram the way they have with ads for free.

or

2. They can pay a monthly fee of £2.99 per month on desktop for an ad-free experience.

From the announcement:

Over the coming weeks, in response to recent UK regulatory guidance and following extensive engagement with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), we will introduce Subscription for no ads in the UK. This will give people based in the UK the choice between continuing to use Facebook and Instagram for free with personalised ads, or subscribing to stop seeing ads.

Why?

If you think that Meta is doing this willingly as a way to replace advertising revenue, think again. This comes as a result of pressure from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) since early this year.

This isn’t something that Meta wants to do. By giving users the option of a way to use the apps without giving up their data that can be used for ad targeting, this allows Meta to otherwise continue their ad business as normal.

But, of course, that subscription cost is unlikely to fully replace what would have been made in ad revenue.

Not to Be Confused…

If this sounds like old news, it’s not. Meta announced a similar plan for users in the European Union nearly two years ago. In both cases, Meta offered the ad-free option in response to regulatory pressure.

One major difference is that the cost of the plan in the EU is nearly twice as high as that of the price in the UK, even after a price cut last year. While Meta originally priced the EU subscription in a way that no one would sign up, the UK version is clearly priced to sell.

How Will This Impact Advertisers?

What does this new option mean for advertisers? I think it’s a bigger deal than most want to admit, and I’ll cover that in my next video.

More to come…