Earlier this week, rumors came out that Facebook will be unveiling a mobile ad network at f8 on Wednesday. Mike Isaac at Re/code first reported that the company will pitch the ads to publishers and developers as “a way to leverage the social network’s vast database of user information for better ad targeting.”
Such a network would put Facebook in direct competition with Google’s AdMob, Twitter’s MoPub, and various other mobile ad networks.
The network’s name is Facebook Audience Network, according to a report today from TechCrunch’s main Facebook reporter Josh Constine. He says it will let developers target standard banners and custom ad units with Facebook’s personal data. He writes:
To start, Facebook will strike the deals with advertisers, pushing the 1 million that already pay for promotion on its own site and app to take advantage of new inventory on other apps. Many are already eager to do so. Given more specific targeting parameters, Facebook could previously only deliver a limited volume of impressions because it caps the number of ads it shows each of its 609 million daily mobile users. FAN will let it accommodate bigger campaigns some advertisers want.
He says ads will be delivered two ways: developers can integrate code to run the ads a replacement for whatever other network solution they’re using, and custom ad units will be tailored to fit apps they’re hosted in.
Constine goes into quite a bit more detail, so read his article if you’re really interested in what the company is planning on unveiling. Or you could just wait for them to unveil it.
Facebook has taken the last couple years off from hosting f8. You can find the schedule for this year’s here.
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