Facebook has confirmed that it’s adding mobile web ads to its in-app advertising network, Facebook Audience Network.
The company has announced a beta test after reports surfaced that the company was looking to unify in-app and mobile web advertising in a single offering.
In a blog post, Facebook said it’s tested Audience Network ads on mobile sites owned by Hearst, Elite Daily, USA Today and Time Inc. Other publishers have now been invited to join the beta and begin selling their ad inventory on the network.
Facebook’s carrot for publishers is the native ad formats it’s created, which nestle into a mobile site’s content feed and are less intrusive (and better-performing) than banner ads.
Facebook says that 80% of the ads it currently serves to publisher’s apps via Audience Network use its native formats. Joining the network is a much less involved process than installing an app software development kit — Facebook says that publishers just need to add a JavaScript tag to their site, and they can get started running ads the same day.
The company also says Audience Network will reward publishers that drive quality ad engagement with it’s Advertiser Outcome Score. The more often a site drives outcomes that Facebook measures (like sales or app installs), the higher it will score, and the more it will be favoured for ad placements.
Many publishers are struggling to monetize mobile, so joining Facebook’s network may look like an attractive way to stimulate demand, even if it means cutting Facebook in on a percentage of the take. Facebook, meanwhile, will add a significant new pool of inventory to its already massive supply of in-app ads, and give advertisers access to a larger potential audience.
