Facebook (FB) Updates on Audience Network Improvements for Businesses

The Audience Network launched just over a year ago, and in that short span of time, it’s grown into one of the largest ad networks in the world. In fact, mobile apps running on the Audience Network represent 6% of all time spent in mobile apps,¹ giving advertisers a valuable opportunity to connect with people off Facebook in the apps where they’re spending their time. In light of the growth of the Audience Network, today we’d like to share how businesses are using the network to connect with people off Facebook and some ways that we’ve improved the Audience Network over the last year.

The Audience Network is a collection of mobile apps where Facebook advertisers can serve ads using the same targeting and measurement tools that they use on Facebook. Essentially, running ads in the Audience Network extends an advertiser’s reach beyond Facebook and into mobile apps. Audience Network ads come in both native and display format for photos and videos, and advertisers can enable their Facebook ads to run on the Audience Network by checking “Audience Network” in the placement section when they create or edit an ad.

The Audience Network is suitable for any advertiser looking to expand their Facebook campaigns. In fact, on average, advertisers using the Audience Network scale their ad impressions by an additional 6 - 10% per campaign.² Here are a couple of examples of businesses using the Audience Network.

iProspect, a Dentsu network company, is a digital marketing agency that’s been using the Audience Network to run ads for their clients. They report that compared to mobile News Feed, the average revenue per user from the Audience Network is nearly 11% higher.

“We have seen some fantastic results through the Audience Network...In fact, the Audience Network has become our top performing channel. We look forward to scaling our efforts with the Audience Network and continuing to drive optimal outcomes for our advertisers.” - Stuart McLennan, Head of Biddable Activation, iProspect

Spotify also uses the Audience Network to connect with people off of Facebook and say they were able to expand their reach by 20% by opting into the Audience Network.

“We are thrilled with our results from the Audience Network. Utilizing the Audience Network, we were able to increase our reach, but more importantly, find and engage with our highest quality users when promoting our new Discover Weekly feature. The Audience Network has delivered great efficiency and scale and it has become our network of choice when marketing products to our users. Building on top of their superior targeting and native ad products, Facebook has delivered yet another game changing product, and we look forward to scaling our efforts in the Audience Network.” -Dimitar Dzharov, Growth Marketing, Spotify

We have high standards for the publishers we bring into the Audience Network and believe those standards should be on par with News Feed, so we’re constantly monitoring and improving the Audience Network to help drive results for advertisers.

The Audience Network employs a thorough review process for every publisher that applies to add their app to the Audience Network. Right now, publishers in the Audience Network are reviewed by people on the Facebook Publisher Operations Team, who look to see that the app is high quality and brand safe.This unique review process assures advertisers that their campaigns will be seen in high-quality environments.

To make sure Audience Network ad placements effectively drive advertiser outcomes, we recently launched Advertiser Outcome Score, which tells publishers in the Audience Network how ads on their platform perform compared to News Feed. Advertiser Outcome Score encourages publishers to evaluate how their ads are working and make changes to their placements to improve their ability to deliver valuable outcomes for advertisers. And because Advertiser Outcome Score calculates scores based on real outcomes from real people, it effectively eliminates fraudulent actions, like bot traffic, from the network, making the Audience Network virtually fraud-free.

Finally, Audience Network publishers and advertisers know that ads that look nice and suitable to their environment perform better. In fact, native ads are up to 5x times more engaging than banner ads,³ and Audience Network publishers know it: 80% of Audience Network impressions are now native.

The Audience Network helps advertisers extend their reach off of Facebook and into high-quality mobile apps. To have your ads run in mobile apps in the Audience Network, select “Audience Network” under placement when you create or edit an ad.