Facebook to Launch Mobile Ad Network

Mike Isaac wrote on Recode that Facebook will be launching their own mobile ad network.

Lots of people have wanted Facebook to build an ad network for a long time.

Here it comes. Facebook will take the wraps off its plans for a mobile ad network at its “F8″ developer conference in San Francisco at the end of the month, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

Facebook will pitch the ads to publishers and developers as a way to leverage the social network’s vast database of user information for better ad targeting. And Facebook wins by expanding its ad reach — now it can make money from its billion-plus users even when they’re not on Facebook’s own properties.

Facebook declined to comment.

In the past, Facebook stayed away from building out an ad network because it was busy trying to sell ads on its own Web site. And it couldn’t contemplate a mobile ad network until recently because it didn’t have any mobile ads of its own.

But that has changed dramatically in the last two years. In the last three months of 2013, mobile ads generated $1.24 billion for Facebook —  more than half the company’s overall ad revenue. And we’ll get another peek at how well that business is doing when Facebook reports its first-quarter earnings later this week.

A good chunk of that — perhaps 50 percent or more — comes from “app-install” ads, which prompt users to download apps or re-engage with apps they’ve already installed. The ad product was initially an afterthought in Facebook’s mobile ad strategy, led by Facebook engineering and platform leader Mike Vernal, who at one point only had a single engineer working on the project.

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Facebook will report its earnings on Wednesday, it will be interesting to see where mobile ad revenues stand, and if they mention anything about a new ad network.