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Interest based mobile ads will be delivered by Facebook to non-users

The social media giant is broadening its Audience Network outside the reach of its platform.

Facebook has announced that it is expanding its Audience Network to make it possible to deliver interest based mobile ads to smartphone and tablet users who either aren’t members of its social media platform and to those who simply aren’t signed in.

The goal is to be able to further solidify Facebook’s position as the second biggest mobile advertising network.

According to the social network, it will be able to obtain enough usable data about non-Facebook users or users who aren’t logged in, through its own technology, to make it possible to generate relevant interest based mobile ads to serve to those individuals. Those mobile ads will be displayed to smartphone and tablet users via various apps and partner sites.

This is accomplished through the Facebook Audience Network (FAN), which was initially created in 2014 and makes it possible for mobile marketers to place targeted ads in Facebook’s signature style onto various mobile friendly partner sites and apps.

These interest based mobile ads will help to keep Facebook just behind Google in smartphone advertising.

Interest Based Mobile Ads - FacebookAccording to Facebook, among all the impressions received on FAN, 80 percent of them are native. Within the mobile app ecosystem, Facebook has said that 6 percent of all time users have spent on mobile applications is on apps that are partners in the FAN. Back at the start of this year, the social network announced that Q4 2015 had a $1 billion annual revenue run rate. Comparatively, that same figure for Google Network was $4.14. Though Facebook still has less than a quarter of the Google mobile ad revenue, it is still the next closest to that top spot.

Among FAN’s strong points is that it is able to glean granular data from Facebook users, of which there are 1.6 million actively using the platform around the world. That said, it can now step beyond that specific group of people and may be able to strategically obtain data of the right quality in order to ensure that the targeting accuracy will remain high.

Recently, Andrew Bosworth, the Facebook vice president of ads and business platform explained the importance of interest based mobile ads. He said that “One of the things we’ve heard from people is that many of the ads they see are annoying, distracting or misleading. We think companies can do better, and that’s why we’ve been focused on improving ads both on and off Facebook.”

Nintendo mobile game Miitomo turning out to be a bust

It seems users may already be growing bored with the video game company’s first smartphone app.

Almost two months ago, Nintendo entered the mobile gaming market, launching its first game app, Miitomo. Unsurprisingly, it was a huge success when it first hit app stores, surpassing 4 million active users in mid April and pulling in an impressive $280,000 per week for the company. Since its launch, the Nintendo mobile game has had over 10 million downloads. However, it seems to have lost momentum, and interest for the game appears to be waning, turning this somewhat social network-style game into a ghost town.

Currently, only an estimated 2.5 million users play Miitomo.

A recent study conducted by Survey Monkey Intelligence found that while the game has had 10 million downloads, not all of these players have returned to the game. In fact, according to the study, it is estimated that presently only 2.5 million users actively play it, which is a low number considering the millions of downloads the game has had.

Furthermore, the study found that when compared to two popular mobile games, King’s, Candy Crush Jelly Saga, and Supercell’s, Clash Royale, Miitomo is only played half as much per week. It also has a fairly high weekly churn rate at 48% compared to Clash Royale’s 20% rate and Candy Crush Jelly Saga’s 23%.

This is problematic for Nintendo because since the game is like a social network, the gameplay relies on users interacting with one another. Therefore, once the user-base drops, there isn’t too much that can be done to maintain interest.

The fact that this Nintendo mobile game also functions like a social app could be one of its downfalls.

One of the reasons why Miitomo may be declining so rapidly is due to the fact that it is a social app/game hybrid. Once a player’s Mii is fully customized, all that’s left for a player to do is explore little quests and play the app’s solitary games. While players can use their Mii to interact with other players, unless players want to interact with random strangers more than their friends, it likely won’t be that fun.

That said, it’s still too early to tell if Miitomo will become the Japanese gaming giant’s first mobile app blunder. Nevertheless, even if it turns out to be a bust, this Nintendo mobile game won’t be the company’s last.