Facebook Audience Network: What is it and why should you use it?

  • Date: 17 april 2019
  • reading time: 4 Minutes Minutes
  • Blogger: Francisca Zimmermann


Did you think that Facebook ads are only visible on Facebook, Instagram or Facebook Messenger? Wrong! Since 2014 you can use Facebook's ad service to advertise on other apps and websites through the Facebook Audience Network. This network allows advertisers to extend their reach while website - and app owners have a chance to monetize their online space.

facbook ads

In this blog, we will dive into the Facebook Audience Network. We will find out what this network actually is, why you should consider using it and how to set it up in your Ad Manager.

What is the Facebook Audience Network?

The Facebook Audience Network simply consists of websites and apps that allow Facebook advertisers to use their platform as ad space. This broadens Facebook’s reach significantly and opens up a lot of extra space for targeted ads outside Messenger, Facebook, and Instagram.

As a business, this means that you can use Facebook’s powerful targeting system, but advertise outside Facebook on apps and websites like for instance Shazam or The Huffington Post.

The availability of each placement depends on your objective and creative. You can, for instance, choose to run a video ad in video players on desktop or mobile or you can choose to run a banner ad that will show up at the bottom of a screen, below an app or website. Have a look at Facebook’s developer web page for more about the placement of the ads and the type of ads you can choose for.

Why use it?

Benefits for Facebook

Let’s first look at the reason for Facebook to start offering this type of advertisement. Over the past decade, the interest for Facebook ads has been growing quickly. Incorporating social media advertising in a marketing strategy has become incredibly common, and as a result of that, Facebook is running out of space.

In order to keep offering advertisement options to everyone who wants to use Facebook's ad system, Facebook had no other choice than to expand outside its own platform.

flat layout

Besides helping Facebook grow, the Audience Network has great benefits for advertisers too.

To start with: As an advertiser, the platform helps you extend your reach. In most cases, ads on external websites or apps stand out more than the ones on Facebook. While we are used to seeing many ads pass through our Facebook feed, add an app or website is more likely to catch our attention. Besides that, ads through the Audience Network are a lot cheaper than ads on Facebook, Instagram or Messenger. This is a great way to lower your average CPC and increase your reach to people who may not be using social media.

According to Facebook, advertisers see a 12% increase in website conversion when using a combination of traditional Facebook ads and ads on Facebook's Audience Network.

Benefits for website - or app owners

Lastly, using the Facebook Audience Network can be a great way for website - or application owners to monetize their online space. Allowing ads on your page is an easy way to earn some extra money. More and more top apps and websites are allowing ads on their page now, and according to a study by Facebook, 40% or top 500 apps are currently integrated with the Audience Network.

Are you not convinced yet? Facebook created a list of success stories, featuring many of the companies and apps that allow Audience Network ads on their platform. A few interesting examples are Shazam , OutThinking , and VegaLab .

How to use Facebook Audience Network?

Setting up an ad on the Audience Network is relatively simple. If you have made a choice on which type or ad you would like to run, you simply follow the steps below to set up your campaign.

  1. Go to your Ad Manager and click on 'Create Ad'.
  2. Select an objective or your choice and go to your ad set. Make sure your objective is eligible for Audience Network ads .
  3. Add your audience and targeting details. create audience
  4. Choose between 'all devices', 'desktop' or 'mobile'. placements
  5. Then click 'Edit Placements'.
  6. Make a choice between different placement options: Native, banner, interstitial ads , In-stream videos and rewarded videos fb ads setup

  7. Edit your budget, schedule and add creative , and click on confirm.

Your ad should now be ready to go. Would you like some more tips and tricks on how to optimize your advertisement? Facebook lists a few great creative suggestions here .

Want to post a comment? Join the conversation in our community

  • Blogger: Francisca Zimmermann
  • E-mail: [email protected]
  • Social media manager & content creator at Social Media Gids
  • Francisca Zimmermann is a social media expert with a background in research and a love for learning new things. She travels the world looking for beautiful places and interesting cultures, while she dives into the world of her clients to be able to write about them and their interests as a real 'insider'.
  • Other blog articles of Francisca Zimmermann