Facebook to begin displaying ads to non-Facebook users on other websites
Facebook has signalled its intent to dominate all internet advertising by helping marketers to display ads to non-Facebook users on other websites.
Up until now the social network has only shown ads to Facebook members when they visited third-party websites and applications which were part of its Audience Network. However, by eyeing those non-Facebook users the social network is essentially making a play to sell ads beyond its own walled garden.
Facebook is seeking to branch out from being a social network to an online advertising company and to that end aims to grow its market share in video and display ads as it looks to go into head-to-head competition with Alphabet-owned Google.
Andrew Bosworth, vice president of Facebook’s ads and business platform, said: “Publishers and app developers have some users who aren’t Facebook users. We think we can do a better job powering those ads.
“Our buttons and plugins send over basic information about users’ browsing sessions. For non-Facebook members, previously we didn’t use it. Now we’ll use it to better understand how to target those people.”
Facebook is thought to take a roughly 30 per cent cut of all ads it sells through its Audience Network.