Facebook is expanding its advertising reach in a big way with the launch of its own mobile ads network.
What this means is Facebook will essentially act as a portal between advertisers and publishers, offering the use of its valuable user data as a custom targeting tool. Not only will advertisers now be able to place ads within Facebook apps, they’ll now be able to use Facebook’s user data to place targeted ads within other apps that are part of Facebook’s ad network.
Re/code’s Mike Isaac reported the news, which is expected to be made public at Facebook’s F8 developer conference in San Francisco at the end of this month.
In essence, this allows Facebook to make money off advertising even when it’s not on the Facebook platform. In one go, Facebook gets to act as a third party data source, an ad buying network as well as a publishing platform, which gives it three very lucrative revenue streams. However, as Isaac writes, it can expect some heavy competition in the space:
Facebook won’t be playing in the space alone. The company will take on Google’s existing AdMob mobile network, as well as smaller players like Millennial Media. And now Twitter is entering the fray, by linking its MoPub ad network to its ad buying platform, and rolling out app install ads of its own.
