What Facebook’s Audience Network means for your business marketing strategy

Facebook recently announced the launch of Facebook’s Audience Network, a mobile advertising network that allows advertisers to buy ads from Facebook that will appear in other mobile apps and games.

Usually, changes to Facebook’s advertising algorithm don’t hold much significance for business marketing strategies. This is because Facebook isn’t really a main player in B2B marketing – LinkedIn is far more relevant.

Of course, business decision makers are people too, and as such they might use Facebook. However, they probably use Facebook far less than younger audiences do, and when they are browsing their news feed they’re probably not looking for solutions to business challenges.

Because Facebook’s Audience Network gives you access to mobile networks beyond Facebook, however, it could hold relevance for your business marketing strategy.

The move by Facebook to sell mobile advertising outside of the social network itself suggests that Facebook is on the hunt for ways to stay relevant as its popularity declines. The fact that Facebook has chosen to sell mobile advertising is also telling; more and more people are browsing the internet and conducting business on their mobile phones and tablets.

Mobile should be an essential part of any business marketing strategy

CEOs and business decision makers wake up in the morning and read the news on their iPads while they’re eating breakfast. They reply to emails on their smartphones while they wait to catch a flight to an out-of-town business meeting. While they’re in the air they use a currency conversion app to check the exchange rate. They tend to stay in work mode even after they’ve left the office, so later that evening they use another app to compare time zones before using their phone to Skype a business associate in New York about a potential new deal.

It’s not just CEOs and top decision makers who are so plugged in to their mobile phones and devices; the average man on the street in South Africa frequently accesses the internet via a smartphone. That said, employees who are lower down in the company food chain usually spend the majority of their workday in front of a computer or laptop. As you climb the corporate ladder, however, the nature of your work changes, allowing you to perform most of your tasks on a tablet. If your business marketing strategy aims to target decision makers, including a focus on mobile is absolutely essential.

Facebook will also give advertisers access to useful data about its users

So why should advertisers choose to buy mobile ads through Facebook? The social network says that advertisers will have access to user data that will provide valuable insights into which apps and games your particular target market likes.

The idea is that if you’re targeting football fans, Facebook will be able to tell you that a large number football fans on Facebook also happen to like a particular mobile game that involves playing a virtual pinball machine (for instance). Placing an ad in the pinball machine mobile game should increase the chances of football fans seeing it.

Facebook’s Audience Network isn’t a new idea

The ability to buy mobile ads from Facebook isn’t going to revolutionise business marketing strategies. Advertisers have been able to book mobile advertising from the Google AdWords advertising network for some time. Advertisers are also able to book search ads and online display ads, all from the same place. This has always given Google a competitive edge, and it could be for this reason that Facebook is looking at allowing brands to book advertising beyond the Facebook network.

Image: Martin Fisch via Flickr.