The free ride is over for many businesses who have been relying on Facebook promotional posts to push their products, as the social network has announced it will make those posts less prominent to users in a move that is more to improve the user experience rather than get businesses to buy ads. In the end, it may improve the effectiveness of ads, the company argued.

Beginning in January, the message from Facebook execs to promoters who want to reach the 1.35 billion users of the social network is simple: buy an ad, according to SF Gate.

Up until now, Facebook users have been bombarded by brand pages urging them to download a new mobile app or watch a new TV show. This practice was free advertising for the companies, who were able to reach “fans” of a particular brand.

However, in an effort to improve the user experience, Facebook will cause unpaid posts to drop out of a user’s news feed, even for big Facebook advertisers.

Facebook is concerned that the promoted posts force the user to filter through ads on a news feed, and the social network now wants companies to go through the traditional route of simply purchasing ads.

It’s the latest in a series of efforts by Facebook to tweak its system. The company feels that users would rather see videos, news stories, and updates from friends and family rather than promoted posts.

Facebook recently reported a 64 percent jump in advertising revenue to $2.96 billion in the third quarter, as ad prices rose 274 percent compared with last year.

However, a Facebook exec said the changes were not to raise ad revenue, but to improve the user experience, which could help advertisers in the long run.

Mainly, the company was responding to complaints that people were seeing too many “junky” promotional posts in news feeds, and about two-thirds of them weren’t even paid ads.

While some promotional content from companies can add to the user’s experience, a lot of it gets into the category of spamming by urging users to sign up for sweepstakes or to watch a new TV show.