Facebook are about to launch their mobile ad network, which will be called Facebook Audience Network, according to a report in TechCrunch.
It will use Facebook’s huge store of personal data for targeted banner ads and custom ad units.
Facebook began actively testing FAN in September 2013, and it is set to be announced next week at developer conference f8.
According to TechCrunch’s Josh Constine, the mobile ad network will allow advertisers to show targeted ads, shown to different people, based on their location, biographical and cookie-based data.
Facebook currently have a cap on the number of News Feed adverts allowed, but by tailoring adverts using this personal data, they can show customised adverts depending on the user.
Developers will also be able to switch to Facebook Audience Network from whichever ad network they are using, by easily integrating code.
As Constine says: “If it’s easy to adopt and FAN drives higher ad performance that earns developers more money, Facebook believes they’ll switch. It just has to convince them it’s better than Twitter’s MoPub, AdMob, InMobi, and the rest.”
The other main feature is custom ad units, tailored to fit the apps they’re hosted in
Constine gives the example of a navigation app advertising nearby restaurants or bars, or a dating app showing adverts for a TV show in the form of fake profiles – Ã la Tinder and the Mindy Project.
He says:
“The Facebook Audience Network doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel for mobile advertising, it just needs to make the wheel spin faster. While piping in advertisers and targeting doesn’t sound revolutionary, it just needs to be better than what’s out there.
“Ads are a straightforward business. If Facebook Audience Network can show people more relevant ads that are more effective, and it can deliver a better return on investment for advertisers and bigger payouts to developers than they can get elsewhere, they’ll adopt it.”
In the last three months of 2013, mobile ads generated $1.24 bn for Facebook – more than half the company’s overall ad revenue.
Read Josh Constine’s article here.