Facebook Exchange Gains “Page Post” Ads, Puts Retargeting In News Feed

Facebook Exchange — Facebook’s ad network that allows advertisers to “retarget” ads to Facebook users — is expanding into Facebook’s prime real estate, the Facebook news feed.

The Facebook Exchange service, or FBX for short, opened formally last fall. That allowed advertisers to target people who’d previously been on their websites with ads, when they are on Facebook.

If you want to understand more about how all this works, and how powerful it can be, our Facebook Exchange & How My Drugstore.com Basket Got Turned Into Facebook Ads story shows FBX in action.

FBX ads, until now, had been located on the right-hand side of Facebook’s layout. Now, they’re also going to appear within Facebook’s main news feed.

“We want to make sure we’re giving advertisers and agencies the ability to deliver more relevant ads in news feed, where people are spending most of their time on Facebook,” a Facebook spokesperson told me.

Here’s an example of how they’ll appear:

Facebook is calling the rollout of this an “alpha test,” one that’s working with a small number of demand-side platforms, DSPs that include TellApart, MediaMath, and Nanigans. It says that in the coming weeks, the program will expand to additional DSPs and advertisers.

Facebook’s post about the program also notes that more ads won’t appear in news feed because of this. Rather, it’s just that ad units already showing there will now include Facebook Exchange-powered units.