The new ad push marks a first for Tumblr – putting sponsored content in the same context as regular posts. First reported by AdAge, users will now see as many as four of the new ads per day. You’ll be able to tell the difference between the ads and the normal posts by a dollar sign that accompanies the sponsored content.

You may recall that this dollar sign is the same way that Tumblr identified its current ads – the decidedly less-intrusive “Radar” ads that Tumblr debuted in May of last year. These ads appear on the “Spotlight” page, which highlights editor-selected blogs, as well as the Radar, which is seen on the sidebar of Tumblr pages. Back in May, the starting bid for these “Radar” ads was reported to be around $25,000.

“This mobile advertising opportunity is native to how our consumers experience content on our apps; as a continuous stream,” said Tumblr sale head Lee Brown in a statement.

Tumblr is launching the new ads with a handful of high-profile partners, including ABC Entertainment and ABC Family, GE, Pepsi, and Warner Bros. You can expect to see heavy promotion from Warner Bros, who will be serving up ads for upcoming films to the Tumblr mobile community.

This is a mobile-only push, but only for now. Tumblr confirmed to AdAge that these new types of in-stream ads will eventually pop up on the desktop version of Tumblr, but they were unwilling to give a specific date.

Tumblr recently announced that they had crossed the 100 million blogs milestone. As of now, there are over 48.6 billion posts on the site.

According to All Things D, White will work closely with Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom in an effort to “expand partnerships, improve user operations and, presumably, come up with ways to make some money.”

White has a history of working on monetization, both as head of Facebook’s mobile partnerships and as a Senior Director of Emerging Business in marketing and ads with Google. Facebook stole White from Google back in 2010.

Here’s what Systrom had to say about the move:

“I’m excited to bring Emily White onto the Instagram team. As we continue to scale our operation to support over 100 million active users, her experience with partnerships and business operations will play a major role in our future success.”

It’s no shock that Facebook is making moves to monetize Instagram, which it bought for close to $1 billion last year. Presumably, White will work on finally bringing ads to the service. As you may remember, that concept sparked quite a bit of controversy last year when Instagram changed its terms of service to allow for future use of user content in advertising.

The lead photo is from White’s personal Instagram account, on which she’s already changed her title to Director of Business Operations at Instagram.

The new ads for apps work kind of like Facebook’s Promoted Posts. App-makers can chose which of their apps they wish to promote to more users, designate a target audience, and set a budget. After that, Facebook takes control and promotes the app to the selected group of users. You may have seen these “ads” pop up in your news feed under a “try these apps” heading.

Now, Facebook is testing a new look for these mobile ads for apps that makes it a little more apparent to users that they should install the app. The new ads also look better and provide more information on the apps in question.

Inside Facebook obtained a screenshot of the new test ads, which feature better images (coming from the app’s page in the App Center) and also include the app’s star rating and an indicator of how many of a user’s friends are using the app.

There’s also a giant “Install Now” button, which doesn’t exist on the current design.

The current “try these apps” mobile ad uses the app’s icon and features no star ratings or friend info. It also has an icon that takes users to the install page instead of the words “install now.”

To be honest, this is a test that Facebook should eventually promote to the big leagues. It’s a much better design, both for users and app-makers. Have you seen this new ad design while browsing Facebook on mobile? What do you think?

J.P. Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth predicts the boost in mobile ad revenue in a research note, saying that the company could soon be looking at $300 million+ per quarter:

As indicated in our June 27 initiation report, we are bullish on Facebook’s mobile monetization potential and we believe mobile ad revenue per user could exceed that of existing desktop levels, driving mobile ad revenue of $300M+ per quarter at some point within the next year as higher pricing and visit frequency offset fewer overall impressions. Beyond positive early returns on mobile Sponsored Stories in the News Feed, location-based advertising could also drive greater mobile ad traction.

He also mentions reports that Facebook is planning a new ad product centered around targeted mobile ads based on app usage as evidence for the projected swing:

Advertisers will be able to display ads for other mobile apps that users may be interested in based on their current mobile app usage, in contrast to Sponsored Stories that enable advertisers to amplify user preferences and activities. Facebook could potentially charge advertisers every time an app is installed on a user’s mobile phone, and the eCPMs could be well ahead of existing advertising.

Facebook generated $872 million in total advertising revenue in 2012, up 37% from 2011. A projection of $300 million+ per quarter in mobile ad revenue alone suggests that those figures could increase well beyond 37% in the next year.

Although some recent reports suggest that advertisers are souring on paying for Facebook ads, new information regarding click-through-rates show that mobile ads are actually much more successful than desktop ads. Facebook just recently allowed advertisers to purchase mobile-only ad packages.

[via Business Insider]

In short, they sued because Facebook has been using their likeness as advertisements without their consent, without compensation, and without the ability to control how it’s being used.

What we didn’t know, however, is that as part of the settlement, Facebook has also agreed to amend its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities as well as implement an opt-out mechanism for users who do not wish to have their past activities used as Sponsored Stories.

Reuters reports that “Under the terms of a settlement agreement filed on Wednesday, Facebook members will be able to control which content can be used for Sponsored Stories. Facebook agreed to maintain these changes and other new disclosures for at least two years, according to court documents.”

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you won’t see Sponsored Stories in your news feed, just that you’ll now have more control over which of your activities can be used as Sponsored Stories that your friends see.

Here’s exactly what the settlement says under “User visibility and control over Sponsored Stories”:

Facebook will create an easily accessible mechanism that enables users to view the subset of their interactions and other content that have been displayed in Sponsored Stories. Facebook will further engineer settings to enable users, upon viewing the interactions and other content that have been used in Sponsored Stories, to control which of these interactions and other content are edible to appear in additional Sponsored Stories.

This little change is supposedly worth about $103.2 million in lost revenue for Facebook, according to the settlement.

As you can see, the future “mechanism” will allow users to opt out of past activities being used as Sponsored Stories, and there’s no mention of a blanket “opt out of any and all association with Sponsored Stories” option. The fact that users are going to have to go into settings and chose which stories they don’t want appearing as Sponsored Stories again, at least for the time being, seems to be a saving grace for Facebook. The other, more inclusive opt out would be a much bigger problem for the social network.

The opt out mechanism isn’t the only thing included in the settlement. Facebook will also have to amend its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities to say something like:

You give us permission to use your name, profile picture, content, and information in connection with commercial, sponsored, or related content (such as a brand you like) served or enhanced by us. This means, for example, that you permit a business or other entity to pay us to display your name an/or profile picture with your content or information. If you have selected a specific audience for your content of information, will will respect your choice when we use it.

So, it’s basically fleshing out what a Sponsored story really is in their Terms of Service. Facebook has never misled users in regards to what a Sponsored story is, but this puts it a little more front and center in the SRR. Facebook also agreed to update their Family Safety Center with more information on advertising.

Earlier this week, we told you how Facebook’s mobile advertising (which only consists of Sponsored Stories) was succeeding in terms of click-through rate – much more than other forms of advertising on the site. After the IPO fallout, analysts have been concerned with Facebook’s ability to monetize mobile – and allowing users to opt out of Sponsored Stories is obviously detrimental to Facebook’s plans in this area.

Check out the full settlement below, courtesy TechCrunch:

[TechCrunch] Facebook Sponsored Stories Class-Action Lawsuit Settlement

That quote is straight from the mouth of Facebook, as part of their amended IPO filings prior to going public in May. It was this sort of speculation that was echoed by analysts during Facebook’s massive stock plunge following the IPO. One such analyst cited Facebook’s struggle to monetize their mobile platform as reasoning that the company would “disappear” before 2020.

Class-action lawsuits were even filed that accused Facebook of concealing “severe and pronounced reduction” in revenue growth prior to the IPO.

The general consensus from Facebook doubters has been a complete lack of faith that the company could successfully monetize mobile, and since everyone is moving towards mobile, that’s a pretty big kink in their plans. Mobile ads on the Facebook platform have only existed for a few weeks, and as of right now the only type of mobile ad appearing on Facebook are Sponsored Stories in the News Feed (no traditional, right-side ads).

But some new information from some of Facebook’s Ads API partners suggests that Facebook mobile ads are wildly successful – much more so that desktop ads.

SocialCode data reported by AdAge suggests that the click-through rate for Facebook’s mobile ads (appearing as Sponsored Stories in the mobile News Feed) is more than quadruple the CTR of all ad placements – and more than double that of ads in the desktop News Feed. They report a CTR of 0.79% for mobile-only ads, as opposed to 0.148% when it comes to all five types of ads combined (mobile only, desktop News Feed only, desktop right-side ads, mobile & desktop news-feed only, and ads across all platforms).

When it came to the same types of Sponsored Stories ads on desktop, the CTR was 0.327%. CPMs for the mobile-only ads were $7.51, compared to $1.62 across all ad platforms. SocialCode suggested that these mobile Sponsored Stories are “less disruptive” that traditional ads – a point that we’ve speculated on for some time.

TechCrunch got a hold of some more partner data and the trend appears to be the same. TBG Digital reported mobile Sponsored Stories with a CTR of 1.14% at $0.86 CPC. Total this out and you get $9.86 per 1000 impressions. Compare that to the stats for desktop Sponsored Stories, which see a .588% CTR at $0.63 for a CPM of $3.72.

You find even more discrepancy when you look at their data for ads across all platforms – 0.083% CTR at $0.88 CPC for a CPM of $0.74.

Data from Spruce Media and AdParlor followed suit – the latter reporting a 25x better CTR for the mobile ads.

So…are the mobile ads working? It appears that Facebook’s recent decision to break up the ad offerings and allow advertisers to buy mobile-only sponsored stories has paid off – and will continue to pay off when advertisers see these numbers.

When you couple that with the fact that Facebook is working on a real-time ad bidding service for more targeted ads and are rumored to be possibly working on location-based mobile ads, the company’s monetization outlook doesn’t look so dire. Don’t look now, but Facebook stock it up for a third-straight day to close Monday at $31.41 – up nearly $6 from its low point but of course still way below the initial IPO price of $38.

Earlier, we told you that Facebook’s Carolyn Everson confirmed the development of the product to Bloomberg, who reported that the company was “readying” a mobile ad product that would target users based on their precise location.

We’re not talking generic location ads based on zip code like you might see on the web – but real-time advertising based on your GPS coordinates. Let’s say you are driving around near a pizza place – Facebook could push a sponsored story to your News Feed about how your friend recently liked that pizza chain, or even recently checked-in there.

But Facebook didn’t actually confirm any new product, they say. The quote from Everson simply talked about the possibilities of such a product.

“Phones can be location-specific so you can start to imagine what the product evolution might look like over time, particularly for retailers,” said Everson. “We’ve had offers being tested over the last couple of months.”

Facebook has said that the statements were misinterpreted and a spokesperson told me that “We’re always looking at different opportunities across mobile, but we have nothing to announce this time.”

So, there may not be any imminent location-based mobile ad platform coming our way, but you have to admit that it sounds like something that could wind up happening in the near future. Talk about mobile monetization? Super-local ad targeting could be just the ticket.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: To anyone concerned with Facebook’s future ability to monetize their mobile platform, this could be some comforting news. For some users, it is bound to be a little less exciting.

According to a report from Bloomberg, Facebook is in the process of “readying” a mobile advertising product that will target users based on their geographic location. The ad platform would use up-to-the-minute data to determine the most effective ads to show users – for instance I might see an ad for a pizza place around the corner from where I’m standing.

Of course, location-based advertising isn’t new to Facebook – users have been shown desktop ads based on their zip code for awhile now. Real-time mobile targeting could greatly enhance the specificity of the ads, however.

“Phones can be location-specific so you can start to imagine what the product evolution might look like over time, particularly for retailers,” said Carolyn Everson, Facebook’s vice president of global marketing solutions. “We’ve had offers being tested over the last couple of months.”

As of right now, the only types of ads the appear on Facebook’s mobile platform are Sponsored Stories, which appear in the news feed. With Sponsored Stories, advertisers can pay to promote a user’s activity (for instance “liking” their page or playing a game) after the fact, so the ad appears to have originated organically, from users’ friends.

And earlier this month, Facebook broke up their advertising packages to allow for mobile-only Sponsored Stories. Advertisers now have five different ways to specifically target their ad dollars.

Plus, Facebook is reportedly making some moves in another form of targeted advertising. Last week, we told you that the company is planning on launching what they call “Facebook Exchange,” a real-time ad bidding platform that will let advertisers target users who were just looking at a product on their site, but left before making a purchase.

Now, if you want to be a mobile-only advertiser, you can do so with Sponsored Stories. Before, advertisers couldn’t specify exactly where they wanted their Sponsored Stories to appear. Starting today, they can pinpoint exactly where they want their ads to show up.

Facebook now gives five options to advertisers making purchases through the ads API and Power Editor:

• All placements: this option includes right-hand side +News Feed desktop+ News Feed mobile
• All desktop placements: this option includes right-hand side + News Feed desktop
• News Feed (desktop and mobile): this option includes News Feed desktop + News Feed mobile
• News Feed desktop: this option includes News Feed desktop only
• News Feed mobile: this option includes News Feed mobile only

As you can imagine, this kind of control has been oft requested from those who purchase Sponsored Stories, so advertisers have to be happy. And the happiness that comes with the ability to target to just the news feed or just the mobile news feed could entice them to be a little more free with the ad dollars.

Here’s what Facebook had to say in a statement:

Facebook is always looking for ways to improve products and has responded to requests from marketers to control the placement of their sponsored stories. As companies are promoting services more frequently on mobile, this option gives them the opportunity to focus on specific placements that will impact them most directly.

Sponsored stories that appear in the news feed (whether it’s desktop or mobile) feel more natural than stories that appear on the right-hand side, and may be a better option for some businesses. Sponsored stories simply take already-completed activities such as “liking” a page or topping a high score in a game and promotes them, so they often feel more organic that other types of ads. Users’ inability to opt out of sponsored stories has been a point of contention, however, and Facebook just settled a lawsuit out of court a couple of weeks ago regarding that point.

But, these Sponsored Stories are the only ads that users currently see when accessing Facebook mobile, and they aren’t going anywhere. Having the ability to put all their eggs in that basket could excite some advertisers who wish to use a scope instead of a shotgun when it comes to their targets.

When you consider the fact that Facebook had 845 million active users at the end of the year, these statistics make the importance of their mobile market even more resounding.

In the filing to the SEC, Facebook says they anticipate the mobile usage rate to far out way the expected growth for PCs, citing their concentration on developing mobile products to encourage this. In April of 2011 Facebook acquired Snaptu, and in October they launched the app for iPad.

Facebook plans to take full advantage of these facts by introducing “Premium on Facebook”, which will allow advertisers to post ads on mobile users homepages, Logout screen and news feed. According to Facebook, this is the only way they can justify the mobile version, citing their excessive expenses and unproven record in mobile advertising.

As expected, mobile ads have Facebook fans in an uproar. Tell us what you think.