Facebook Audience Network
Over the past decade, online social networks have become ubiquitous. Companies such as Facebook, Google(Google+) and LinkedIn have used networks to facilitate the process of making relevant connections on the web. On the other hand, companies like Twitter, Tumblr, and StumbleUpon have used networks to provide enriching content. These applications do a really good job of predicting what I may like to see based on my friends circle. By studying and analyzing the connections between different nodes(people), these companies are able to use some of the basic concepts learned in Networks to construct practical and useful features. Personally, my interests lie in the advertising sphere; I am the CEO and co-founder of an advertising startup: CladNetwork, Inc. What I find most interesting is the concept of using networks to allow businesses to more effectively target their advertising.
Companies have made tremendous leaps in using networks to optimize advertising on the web. Just to name a few: Bing, Google Ad Sense, and Facebook Ads. However, in my personal opinion, there hasn’t been that many advancements in mobile advertising. Facebook’s audience network released May 2014 attempts to fix exactly that. The audience network has two facets to their product. For the application developer, with some trivial copy-paste(from API) code, Facebook has allowed an easy integration of ads into the developer’s application. The ads are tailored, using networks, to target the audience of the mobile application. This new product gives developers a simple way to monetize their application. On the other hand, for the advertiser, with just a few clicks they can deploy an ad and have complete flexibility over its deployment.
Should companies be using our networks to analyze and decide what advertisements are relevant to us? Some would argue that this form of advertising targeting is invasive, and a detriment to privacy. I would argue that this is a step in the right direction. Before the launch of the Facebook’s Audience Network, if I invested 300 hours in building a mobile application, what is my return on investment? The hope that eventually – just maybe – it would take off, and I could sell it on the App Store or Google Play store for a $1 or maybe even $2. However, with the advent of Facebook’s Audience Network, I can make money the day my application is launched. There is a direct correlation between the number of people using my application, and the amount of money I make. Instead of worrying about the financial sustainability of the product, I can focus more on what’s important: the actual application. As companies continue to innovate and make mobile advertising an easier process, I believe that more developers will pursue that one big idea that they have always had; I believe this is one concrete example of the power that lies with analyzing networks.
Read more about Audience Network at: https://www.facebook.com/business/news/audience-network