The social network is currently testing out advertisements placed on mobile web pages for a considerable expansion.
The largest social network in the world is using its Facebook Audience Network (FAN) in order to test new mobile ad placements on smartphone friendly web pages according to recent reports issued by AdExchanger.
The initial reports of this new mobile marketing effort has said that the placements are being made with almost 10 publishers.
Prior to this recent mobile ad placement strategy, FAN had been used for placing advertisements in smartphone apps. In the last quarter of 2015, there was a reported $1 billion run rate achieved by FAN. Therefore, by adding mobile web pages on top of the placements that are already being added to apps, there could be a considerable opportunity for Facebook and advertisers, alike.
Among the firms to test out the new mobile ad placements is the social publisher called Diply.
That publisher is testing out the mobile marketing strategy in a closed beta test. This was confirmed officially by Facebook by way of the AdExchanter report. This latest step in mobile advertised is believed to be the most recent move that Facebook is taking in order to provide advertisers and marketers with an alternative to using AdSense through Google.
By heading in this direction, it means that Facebook’s FAN will gain access to a full new range of publishers that are looking for new opportunities in mobile marketing. This could potentially present a threat to the market share held by smartphone ad network operators that have already established themselves such as Apple, Google, and Millennial Media (owned by AOL).
FAN was first launched two years ago when Facebook acquired LiveRail. Last year, it was upgraded in order to be able to include native video, greatly changing the nature and scope of this advertising path.
As FAN starts to make its first mobile ad steps into the smartphone optimized web, it has also been speculated that Facebook could start to shake up the current situation in desktop media, as AdSense is currently very established there as the leader but where alternatives have been attempting to chip away at that vast advertising share.
The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and Opera Media Works have released the results of their Q3 State of Mobile Advertising research in which they discovered that “In India, 75% mobile users have smartphones. Even in markets where the transition from feature phones to smartphones has been slower (Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines), about half of the mobile user base has moved to smartphones.”