Ads are a necessary evil when dealing with free services like Facebook, and going forward, you might be seeing a lot more of them in some of your favorite apps.
Facebook on Tuesday announced the formal launch of Audience Network, an ad platform it first revealed at f8 in April that lets Facebook advertisers extend their ad reach beyond the confines of the social network.
Advertisers who sign up for Audience Network can have their ads appear within mobile apps that allow users to sign in using their Facebook credentials. They can select how those ads will appears: as banners, interstitials, or native ads (see above).
While the thought of seeing more ads across the Web probably doesn't thrill most Internet users, Facebook insisted that the power of its network means that Audience Network will serve up only the most relevant ads, making them useful rather than intrusive.
"The Audience Network shows people the right ads by extending Facebook's targeting to third-party apps," Facebook software engineer Tanya Chen wrote in a blog post. "This means the ads match the interests of people, just as they do on Facebook. It also means people are more likely to engage with the ads."
Facebook has been testing Audience Network with a few advertisers over the past few months, including Shazam and Glu, which makes the oddly addictive Kim Kardashian Hollywood game.
"We end up being able to show our users fewer ads because with the Audience Network, we can show the right ads to the right people," Chris Akhavan, President of Publishing at Glu Mobile, said in a statement provided by Facebook.
Earlier this summer, Facebook gave users with more control over what products and services they see on the network, and last month, it let them get more specific.