Facebook’s Audience Network To Drive Mobile Traffic Rolls Out Worldwide

There has been a great deal of talk about the development of Facebook’s expanded ad network, and the time is now here as the company has released its “Audience Network” for more marketers worldwide.

Facebook’s “Audience Network” positions the social media giant as a major player in the mobile ad space, with the potential to expand their earning reach beyond the Facebook interface and take a piece of the display market from Google’s domination of this powerful space.

By using the Audience Network, marketers can increase their reach to mobile apps beyond Facebook by using banner, interstitial and native mobile ads. The ads have the potential to drive traffic in a variety of ways, including app installs, app engagement and link ads that will drive traffic to a mobile site. The addition of driving mobile traffic is a major move by Facebook, and the potential to take over portions of the control from Google, Yahoo and other major players is significant.

This news will be of particular interest to SMBs that do not have their own apps, but are seeking out methods for driving mobile traffic via the targeting and reporting precision that Facebook provides. Certainly, small and medium-sized business marketers are taking note. “In addition to making the Audience Network more widely available, we’re also expanding the types of ads it displays,” wrote Facebook in its announcement. “Along with app install and app engagement ads, the Audience Network now supports link ads, meaning any advertiser can use the network to drive traffic to its mobile website.”

According to reports by Facebook and marketers, this is already proving to be an effective strategy. “Businesses are already seeing strong results with the Audience Network,” writes Facebook. “Relative to other Facebook campaigns, Walgreens increased its reach by 5% and improved its click-through rate by 4-5X during tests with the Audience Network.”

These statistics are certainly impressive, and they are confirmed by direct statements from select companies. “Facebook understands how to connect with customers any time, on any screen, and with the right message and the Audience Network only further supports this approach,” wrote Adam Kmiec, Senior Director, Mobile, Social and Content Marketing at Walgreens.

The publishing company HarperCollins is similarly impressed with the results, reporting a 16% increase in impressions when using the Audience Network. “The Audience Network has helped us reach potential new readers outside of News Feed,” said Jennifer Hart, SVP, Associate Publisher and Group Marketing Director of William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins. “We’ve found the Audience Network to be a very effective marketing tool and we’ve used it for some of our bestselling authors, including Susan Elizabeth Phillips and James Rollins, just to name a few.”

These statements illustrate significant success, and many SMBs will likely be experimenting with Facebook’s Audience Network over the coming period. As of now, all app ads and link ads are eligible to appear in the Audience Network, with all of these ads using the same targeting and measurement that are used in traditional Facebook ads.