Launching Audience Network, Facebook (FB) has shown how surefooted its mobile strategy is now. Advertisers who sign up for the Network will be offered the precise targeting for their ads that they get on Facebook, on other apps that use Facebook log-ins. Which means that advertisers looking to extend their campaign beyond FB can pay and use the insights from the social media giant?s user data. Of the amount FB charges the advertiser, it gets to keep the bulk and passes on the remainder to the app on which the ad is published. Thus, it becomes a win-win-win situation.
With 609 million daily users on the mobile platform, Facebook can expect staggering revenue growth with Audience Network. But there are other competing ad platforms as well?apart from Google?s AdMob and Apple?s iAd, there are many smaller firms in the fray as well. Where Facebook scores much higher is that it has gotten users to volunteer personal details at many levels, from employment history and political leanings to their exact location. Therefore, it makes a more compelling case as an enabler of the narrow targeting that advertisers seek. But the winning proposition for Facebook has to be that the Network will allow it to monetise the Big Data it holds without conceding space on its own app. That would mean happier users, given there has been very vocal opposition to using the News Feed or any other page for displaying ads.
