Report: Facebook Planning Push Into Mobile Ads

Facebook is planning to launch its first mobile advertising program within the next few months, according to a Bloomberg report today. Bloomberg cites two sources “with knowledge of the matter.”

According to the report, Facebook’s initial mobile ad program will center on Sponsored Stories:

An idea being considered is putting Facebook’s Sponsored Stories ads, which feature friends’ interactions with brands, within the mobile News Feed, said the people, who declined to be identified because the plans aren’t public. The News Feed lets users view status updates, photos and other content.

The potential rewards for Facebook are obvious: potentially huge sums of money as advertisers aim to take advantage of Facebook’s growth in the mobile space. The company’s statistics page says that more than 350 million active users access Facebook via mobile devices. ComScore has estimated that Facebook’s mobile audience grew by 50% between August 2010 and August 2011. Just yesterday, I wrote about Facebook having the most popular Android app across multiple age groups, aside from the Android Market app itself.

Bloomberg says Facebook’s mobile ad program could launch by the end of March, 2012. Facebook declined to comment to Bloomberg.

About The Author

Matt McGee

Matt McGee joined Third Door Media as a writer/reporter/editor in September 2008. He served as Editor-In-Chief from January 2013 until his departure in July 2017. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee.