Mobile is silently winning the internet. And this has big consequences.
As of the fourth quarter of 2019, mobile devices (not counting tablets) amounted to nearly 53% of global internet traffic according to Statista.
Interestingly, one of the reasons for the skyrocketing growth of mobile traffic is the rising digital markets in India and most African countries that skipped the desktop internet era due to financial restraints and lack of infrastructure.
Naturally, people have become addicted to using mobile devices like never before.
In a poll conducted by Morning Consult, 52% of respondents hoped that features like a weekly usage activity report or modes like Do Not Disturb would help them handle their smartphone addiction.
Along with mobile device addiction, demand for app install advertising is growing as well. In 2019, marketers spent nearly $58 billion on app installs. This amount is anticipated to reach $118 billion by the end of 2022.
And who knows how much of that revenue goes to the Facebook family of apps and services?
A lot, we dare say! In 2018, mobile advertising accounted for 92% of Facebook’s total ad revenue.
In 2017, the world’s largest social media network generated more than $35 billion on mobile ads. In 2018, this number went up to almost $51 billion.
The Facebook Audience Network played a significant role in generating this massive revenue.
What is the Facebook Audience Network?
The Facebook Audience Network is an ad system that allows businesses to promote their products and services across thousands of mobile apps and websites whose publishers provide ad space as a means of monetization.
Since we don’t know which side you’re looking to join, our tutorial will consist of two parts.
If you want to monetize your mobile app, the first part of our guide is for you. If you want to show your ads across the Audience Network, you’re welcome to proceed straight to the second part.
Part 1. Facebook Audience Network for Developers
According to internal data, in 2018 Facebook paid out over $1.5 billion to mobile app developers and website publishers all around the world.
In this part, you’ll discover the major elements you need to get started with monetizing your app and find out how to set up monetization step by step.
Additionally, we’ll mention a few tips on how to effectively monetize your app with the Audience Network and how to handle possible challenges.
Let’s start!
How to Monetize Your Mobile App Using the Audience Network
4 Monetization Components to Get Started
Make sure you have everything you need to start taking advantage of your app monetization.
Component 1 — A mobile app that’s available on the App Store or Google Play Store.
Component 2 — A Facebook Business Manager account to be able to use Monetization Manager.
Component 3 — Access to your mobile app’s code to add the Audience Network SDK to your app.
Component 4 — Payment account details to allow Facebook to make payouts.
8 Steps to Begin Monetizing Your Mobile App
Step 1 — Go to Facebook Business Manager, open the drop-down menu in the top left corner, and choose Monetization Manager in the Shortcuts section.
Step 2 — Now you need to create a property. This is a structure that makes it easier to manage your app properties. One property can include one Android app, one iOS app, one Instant Game, and one Instant Article Page.
Before you create your property, read the Facebook Audience Network Policy to make sure you do it right.
Step 3 — After you’ve created and named your property, you need to choose the platform for your app to add it to Monetization Manager.
Note that it will take nearly 72 hours for Facebook to review and approve your mobile app.
Step 4 — Pick your ad placements. When it comes to choosing Facebook placements, the Audience Network offers the following options:
- Rewarded video ads is a placement you can choose to monetize a gaming app and reward people who have watched your ad.
For instance, Pretty Simple achieved a 20% higher CPM using rewarded videos on the Audience Network.
NOTE: In the Facebook Audience Network, CPC (cost per click) is unavailable.
- Playable ads are one more Facebook ad format available on the Audience Network for mobile gaming apps.
A playable ad consists of three parts: a video intro, a game demo, and a call-to-action screen.
- Interstitial ads are full-screen video ads that appear soon after a mobile app user takes an action and before they’re about to take the next.
Interstitial videos can be launched in two formats: autoplay and click-to-play.
- Native ads are image ads that you can customize in any way you like to organically fit your mobile app design.
These ads provide a native user experience by receiving data from the Native Ad API.
- Display ads are traditional banner ads that show up at the top or bottom of the screen.
Facebook claims this ad placement performs the worst because people are used to ignoring banners.
Step 5 — Integrate with the Facebook Audience Network SDK. You can do this with or without mediation.
Here’s a list of guides on how to integrate with the Audience Network if you’re using multiple platforms to monetize your app:
If the Audience Network is the first platform you’re monetizing your mobile app with, here are guidelines for iOS and Android developers.
Step 6 — Test the SDK to prove the Facebook Audience Network effectiveness. You won’t be able to monetize your app if the SDK isn’t working properly.
To check your SDK functionality, click Integration and then Testing in Monetization Manager.
After that, enter all the information necessary to get started with testing your SDK on one or a few test devices.
Step 7 — Go to Payouts and enter your payment information.
Step 8 — After you choose your placements, integrate and test the SDK, enter payment information, and feel free to publish your mobile app.
Monetization Tricks to Boost Audience Network Payouts
Here are some tips that will help you monetize your mobile app faster and more efficiently.
Monetize Other Properties
There are many ways to monetize your app using the Audience Network on Facebook, examples of which you can find on the internet.
Aside from monetizing your mobile app with different types of ads, keep in mind that you can also monetize space for Instant Articles, Instant Games, and in-app purchases.
Test Different Placements
You never know which ad placements will work best for your app until you try them. It makes sense to take advantage of several ad options to increase the ways you monetize your app.
Prevent Ad Blindness
Accidental clicks are one of the most challenging issues you have to deal with when preparing your ad placements in order to walk users to the end of the sales funnel and get them to finish conversions.
Best Practices for Rewarded Video Ads:
- Write a clear call to action
- Don't devalue your reward by showing too many videos
- Provide users with informative messaging
- Don’t show your videos too early
Best Practices for Interstitial Ads:
- Place blank space to tell people they’re about to see an ad if your ad shows up too slowly.
- Don’t show interstitial ads to users who have declined to watch your rewarded video ads so as not to lower the quality of clicks.
- Know where to show your interstitial ads: don’t show ads when users leave an app but rather after users have completed an action.
- Avoid showing your ads too frequently.
Best Practices for Native Ads:
- Draw borders for blocks where you show your native ads and leave enough space between blocks so as not to confuse users.
- Stress Sponsored Ad labels to make sure users see them clearly.
- Test your native ads to find the best way to show them.
Best Practices for Display Ads:
- Show your display ads only at the top or bottom of the screen.
- Don’t place banners on clickable areas of your app.
Ask a Question
To fully take advantage of monetizing your app with the Audience Network, you’ll need to know how to program or have access to someone who can.
Your team will definitely experience some underwater rocks when optimizing your mobile app monetization.
If you run into any challenges, go to the Audience Network Developer Support page and:
- Use the community forum to find answers to your questions
- Report bugs
- Ask about payments
- Appeal decisions about your mobile app
Spend Payouts on Facebook Ads
Last but not least, spend your monetization earnings on boosting your own mobile app by launching ad campaigns in Facebook Ads Manager.
This is a wonderful idea, especially since we’re now going to answer the question, What is the Facebook Audience Network for advertisers?
Part 2. Facebook Audience Network for Advertisers
Facebook claims that over 1 billion people see an ad from the Audience Network every month.
One case study revealed ad campaigns that run on Facebook, Instagram, and the Audience Network achieve eight times higher conversion rates than ad campaigns launched solely on Facebook.
In another case study, Lost My Name achieved 36% greater reach, 25% more conversions, and a 19% cheaper cost per action when experimenting solely with Audience Network ads in Germany, France, and the United Kingdom.
Facebook Audience Network Advertising Checklist
Make sure you have a Facebook Business Account to start advertising on the Facebook Audience Network. To launch your ad campaigns, you’ll need to use the Ads Manager platform.
Here are things you need to do before launching your Audience Network ads.
Choose the Right Audience Network Objective
Not all marketing objectives in Ads Manager support the Audience Network.
Here are the Facebook Audience Network marketing objectives you can use for your ad campaigns:
- Brand awareness (video only)
- Traffic
- Reach (video only)
- App installs
- Engagement (video only)
- Conversions
- Video views (video only)
- Catalog sales
Add a Facebook Pixel to Your Website
If you promote a mobile app, you need to install the Facebook SDK. The Facebook SDK and pixel are ad tracking tools that monitor the performance of your Audience Network ads.
When you measure your Facebook ads, you’ll see the behavior patterns of your target audience. We don’t need to explain the advantages of this information.
Not to mention that you can launch Facebook Dynamic Ads and create Custom Audiences and Lookalike Audiences.
Test All Facebook Audience Network Placements
Advertisers on the Audience Network can use three placements:
- Audience Network Native, Banner and Interstitial
- Audience Network Rewarded Videos
- Audience In-Stream Videos
You should test them all.
To be able to run ads on Audience Network placements, you need to pick at least one of the Facebook Feed placements.
Download Facebook Audience Network Publisher Lists
Facebook Audience Network websites and apps belong to the gaming, mass media, sports, entertainment, lifestyle, and education industries.
Keep in mind that you can download three Facebook Audience Network site lists: Audience Network Mobile Apps, Audience Network Instant Articles, and Audience Network In-Stream Video.
To review them, you need to:
- Open the dropdown menu in Business Manager.
- Choose Brand Safety.
- Click Publisher List.
- Click Download Publisher List.
You’ll get three CSV files at once. In the Brand Safety tool, you can also create a block list to choose places you don’t want your ads to show up and use the inventory filter to manage content that shows up alongside your ads.
Check Audience Network Ad Specifications
Here are Facebook Audience Network ad specs for native, display, and interstitial images:
- File format — JPG or PNG (if you want to use GIF, you should upload it as video)
- Resolution — 398 × 208px up to the resolution that meets ratio requirements
- Headline — up to 25 characters
- Text — up to 125 characters
- Link description — up to 30 characters
Also, take a look at these Facebook Audience Network video specifications:
Format | Ratio | Length | Skip Availability | Supported Objectives | Sound |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
In-stream video | 16:9 (recommended) or 1:1 | From 5 to 120 seconds with automatic placements | Users can’t skip ads that are less than 30 seconds. Users can skip 30-second ads after 10 seconds. | Brand awareness, reach, post engagement, and video views for automatic placements. Video views are available only for in-stream ad placements or with Facebook in-stream video. | Required |
Native and interstitial | 9:16 – 16:9 | Up to 2 minutes | Users can skip videos after 3 or 6 seconds | Brand awareness, post engagement, traffic, video views, reach, app installs, catalog sales, conversions | Recommended |
Rewarded video | 9:16 – 16:9 | From 3 seconds to 1 minute | Users can’t skip | Brand awareness, conversions, reach, app installs, video views | Recommended |
If you need some video ad examples, we have more than 40 best Facebook video ads that may inspire you to create engaging video ads for the Audience Network.
Facebook Audience Network Recommendations for Advertisers
Launch Retargeting Audience Network Campaigns
Retargeting campaigns in the Audience Network are an effective way to achieve good results when you haven’t managed to reach consumers.
SpearmintLOVE used Facebook Audience Network ads to retarget people who showed an interest in their products for children and achieved a spectacular 38x return on ad spend.
The Audience Network is only a small part of the Facebook family of apps and services.
Two pieces of good news here:
The first is that you can use other placements along with the Audience Network. The second is that Audience Network placements are cheaper than placements in other Facebook services.
Test Playable Ads
According to Statista, 46% of leading app developers (most of whom develop mobile games) are big fans of playable ads and look forward to big changes in this ad format in the future.
Playable ads can do what other ad formats can’t — interact with users by means of a game.
Take a Course on the Audience Network
Facebook provides advertisers with more than 70 online courses in the Facebook Blueprint learning program.
You can take these courses free of charge and discover more insights on how to promote your business with the Facebook Audience Network.
Prioritize Video Advertising
Facebook controls nearly 9% of all mobile video traffic.
A few-second video is the best way to gain attention and achieve any marketing objective with Audience Network ads. Test a strategy that includes launching video ads at scale.
Keep in mind that you can use Softcube Artificial Intelligence to create high-quality video ads for your Audience Network at the cost of image ads