Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) will unveil its mobile ad network this week at its F8 developer conference. According to TechCrunch, the company has named it “Facebook Ad Network” or FAN. It will allow the social networking giant to generate revenues even when users are outside its domain, in third-party apps. That means advertisers will be able to distribute their Facebook ads outside the News Feed to third-party applications.
How the Facebook Audience Network would work
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) already has user data of over 1.2 billion people. It knows their likes, preferences, books they have read, movies they have watched, places they have visited, people they connect with, and a lot more. Now the company will be offering location-based advertising and a “Nearby Friends” feature. The company has already shown its ability to target ads with reasonable accuracy. The Facebook Audience Network will allow it to find which apps the users have installed on their mobile and where they are.
The killer combination of known user preferences and location will help Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) alert people to outlets and services are genuinely interested in, and avoid annoying users with irrelevant ads. TechCrunch says that app developers will be able to use a set of code to replace their existing ad network with FAN to run better-targeted banner ads and effectively monetize their apps. FAN will reportedly be able to show the viewer an ad that matches their interests and preferences.
Facebook COO downplays meaningful revenue prospects from FAN
Though Facebook Audience Network seems promising, the social networking giant’s COO Sheryl Sandberg downplayed the meaningful revenue prospects from the ad network during the last week’s Q1 earnings conference call. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) started testing the ad network in 2012. Sandberg said during the conference call that the initial feedback from marketers has been promising.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has capped the number of ads it shows to its more than 600 million daily mobile users. So, advertisers were able to deliver only limited volume of impressions. But FAN will easily accommodate bigger campaigns that some advertisers want.
