Dive Brief:

• Marketing Land reports that Facebook has been testing a new look for its brand Pages on desktop, including an ad-free version that gets rid of the usual right hand column filled with ads.

• Facebook confirmed the test to Marketing Land. Based on screenshots, Marketing Land speculates that the social media giant is testing four different ad-free layouts for desktop Pages.

• Although Pages appear likely to become ad-free at some point, there is no indication the desktop homepage and user profile pages won't have ads.

Dive Insight:

Facebook has been clear about wanting to provide its users with a good experience, as well as offering advertisers value. The social media giant hasn’t been shy about dropping ad units (such as banner ads) that it felt didn’t meet both criteria. Removing ads from Pages could have the benefit of a cleaner-looking Page, offsetting the loss of revenue from ads served on those Pages.

Desktop ads made up 18% of Facebook’s total ad revenue in Q1 this year, while mobile accounted for 80%. Marketing Land reporter Tim Peterson argues that Facebook would rather open up desktop real estate on Pages to make them more of a hub for businesses, publishers and celebrities, a move it has already madeon the mobile app.