Brief:

• Advertising on Facebook now extends beyond its News Feed, Instagram, Messenger and Audience Network to its Marketplace, the company announced online. The social network is also testing a service that gives people who post classified ads the ability to "boost" views of their listings by paying to have their Marketplace ads appear in the News Feed section. A small percentage of U.S. users will see the boosted ads, and Facebook says it's too early to know if it will roll them out further, according to TechCrunch.
• Facebook posted that Thread Wallets boosted its return on ad spend by 41% from a year earlier after the accessories maker added Marketplace ads for its conversions campaigns. FabFitFun, a women’s lifestyle subscription box and media company, boosted its subscription base, with Marketplace ads generating a 2.2x return on ad spend.
• In a separate blog post Facebook said that Audience Network now supports in-app bidding, which means that advertisers who are willing to pay the most for an ad placement will have their ads appear in mobile apps. Facebook said this arrangement leads to more revenue for publishers, a more relevant ad experience for users and a better return on investment for advertisers.

Insight:

By selling ads on Marketplace, Facebook is seeking to monetize its growing classified section, which doesn't take a cut of sales made through the platform. Marketplace was launched in 2016 to compete with services like Craigslist, and has expanded into car sales, home rentals and, as of last month, home services such as cleaners, plumbers and contractors. Letting businesses advertise on Marketplace would provide an opportunity for revenue without alienating users who use the service because of its fee-free structure.

Other updates to the social network's advertising model include the addition of in-app bidding on its Audience Network. Facebook hopes to address the inefficiencies and lack of transparency seen in mobile web header bidding, which lets publishers offer their ad inventory to multiple bidders through exchanges. Those pitfalls can result in lost revenue for the app publisher, a suboptimal return for the advertiser and a less relevant ad experience for users.

Facebook’s in-app bidding on Audience Network means that the company is getting on board with ad placements already offered by Google’s AdMob, Oath, MoPub and other third-party vendors, according to AdExchanger. Working with partners like MoPub, Fyber and MAX or a publisher’s own server-side solution means that Facebook doesn't have to develop a proprietary adtech solution for publishers. Rather, the in-app inventory is offered to advertisers through real-time auctions. In the past, Facebook has withdrawn from adtech endeavors, shutting down its video SSP, turning off its ad exchange and abandoning a plan to build a DSP for Atlas.