Facebook has unveiled a mobile advertising network letting advertisers target users on apps based on the information they have shared with the social network.
Revealed at its annual F8 developer conference, the Facebook Audience Network has been tested since 2012.
Advertisers can use both standard banner ads and custom units, and the feature will compete with companies like Google’s AdMob and Apple’s iAds.
Meanwhile independent ad networks such as InMobi, Millennial Media and Flurry are all promoting their own versions of programmatic buying via apps baed on demographics, times and geographic location.
Facebook’s decision to launch the Audience Network has the potential to disrupt the ad sector thanks to the depth of knowledge the firm has about its users.
Facebook suggested it would deliver better click-through rates than its rivals because it had a better chance of delivering “relevant and interesting” material to the public.
An IAB industry study suggested more than £1bn was spent on mobile ads in the UK alone in 2013, a rise of 93% on the previous year.
“The mobile ecosystem needs a way to deliver these kind of native, personalised ads to people, and I’m glad that we can deliver more than one million active advertisers to your apps,” said Facebook’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg at the conference.
Stronger privacy controls give developers less data
Other announcements made at F8 included news that Facebook is changing the way data is shared with other developers.
In the past the network’s members had been able to authorise third-party apps to obtain information about their Facebook friends.
That is now changing so that each user instead has to give permission to an app before it can see any data about them.
Analysis
Naveen Tewari, CEO of mobile advertising network, comments on the move: “The launch of the Facebook Audience Network is another clear sign that Facebook is evolving to become a mobile first platform, which is a huge validation of the mobile ad business which we have been invested in for over 6 years. How Facebook manages to balance advertiser interest since they have their ONO property is a critical aspect of whether they will succeed in this business.
“While Facebook’s latest development is important, social media remains just one of the many reasons why people use their phones. We believe the widespread adoption of native advertising i.e. the democratization of native ads, across all mobile apps will be the most significant shift in the mobile advertising sphere.
“Native is completely changing the way we look at advertising, in the same way the introduction of colour television changed the broadcast media landscape all those years ago. Now app developers of all sizes and budgets have the potential to create genuinely engaging in-app advertisements to create a positive user experience. At the end of the day this is what is important, because an ad’s effectiveness ultimately comes down to its ability to encourage an action.”
Watch this video demonstrating how the ads work here:
Read the official announcement here