Facebook took a step towards offering a mobile ad network on Wednesday with a small test running Facebook ads in mobile apps from other publishers.
"Our aim is to demonstrate even greater reach with the same power of Facebook targeting for advertisers both on and off Facebook," the company wrote in a blog post. "While we have run similar tests in the past, this current test is more like a mobile ad network in that we are working directly with a small number of advertisers and publishers rather than an outside ad-serving platform."
For the user, there won't be a noticeable difference. An ad you see on a third-party app may have been presented by Facebook, but it would look the same. In theory, advertisers are getting the benefit of Facebook's deep targeting. If you want to reach 26-year-old men from Toledo, Ohio, who are into beach volleyball, Facebook will help you do that, via Facebook and now, through other mobile apps as well. Which apps? Facebook declined to say.
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Facebook first tested a mobile ad network in late 2012, but pulled it after three months. The company resumed the effort in September 2013. As the blog post notes, the difference this time is that Facebook is taking a direct role in connecting advertisers and publishers. Previously, Facebook had sold ads through existing ad-serving networks and publishers.