Facebook to place adverts in timeline of every user

Facebook will allow companies to inject unsolicited adverts into users' news feeds in a drive to make the social-networking site more appealing to advertisers.

Facebook said it would be "gathering feedback from people" about the new placement of the ads and they would be able to delete unwanted ads.

The company said: "We can confirm that Facebook is beginning a very small test that will allow marketers to promote Page posts to people beyond their fans in the newsfeed. These ads may appear on both desktop and mobile.

Read more: Facebook news | social networking guides

"The ads will be clearly labelled as sponsored, but will otherwise look like other Page post ads in the news feed. The ads will also have all of the same options as other ads on Facebook, so people can hide ads that they do not wish to see by clicking the ‘x' in the corner of the ad."

Currently, adverts from companies a user has ‘Liked' usually show up on the right of the users' news feeds but since January this year some of these ads have started appearing in news feeds.

By placing adverts in news feeds of users who have not previously ‘liked' them on their pages, advertisers hope to reach a wider audience. Facebook said feeds wouldn't be flooded with unsolicited adverts - in the trial it will be one a day.

Facebook also said adverts would be targeted to make them "as relevant as possible" to the user. The social-networking site would not comment on what revenue the new scheme would possibly bring in and said the pilot scheme is limited; but would not reveal how many users were involved or where.

The news of the scheme comes as Facebook shares at $19.90 remain perilously close to their lowest level of $19.38 - almost half the $38 they were sold for on the first day of trading in May.

There are fears that this price could fall further today if major shareholders decide offload their shares.

This would require some information about the Facebook user. There are also concerns about security as fake adverts appear on Facebook which then have to be removed if reported.

But the Information Commissioner's Office said that at the moment it was not aware of any privacy problems the new advert placement scheme could pose. But the privacy watchdog said if a company placing an ad used personal details there may be an issue