Growing Tentacles – Facebook Tests Mobile Ad Network

Facebook OctopusFacebook is the biggest human information resource on the planet. Facebook is huge in the mobile space. Facebook’s IPO was a colossal debacle in the eye of the shareholder. Facebook NEEDS to make more money. Add all those variables together and what you’ll get?

Apparently, a mobile ad network…

But hold your horses Black Stallion advertiser {or desperate investor}, this potentially uber-lucrative mobile ad network is just in early testing stages at the moment… however, “games” in the tech sandbox sometimes evolve from the cute harmless Barbie into the relentless killer G.I. Joe in a blink of an eye.

Last week, the social networking ruler Lord Zuckerberg said that Facebook is working on some new mobile ad products which will be deeply integrated into the platform. Well, it looks like this mobile ad network testing is the seeds Facebook trying to plant outside of the social network {walled} garden.

Even though Facebook hasn’t disclosed who are the test partners yet, according the the company’s spokesperson, few selected third-party mobile apps and possibly mobile sites have already begun displaying Facebook-powered ads: “We think that showing mobile ads outside of Facebook is another great way for people to see relevant ads and discover new apps.”

Facebook’s mobile ad network can monumentally impact the mobile and web ecosystems as we’re familiar with today. This move can turn out to hold gigantic implications on users, advertisers, publishers and of course on the social networking company itself.

For users, it can significantly improve the blend with far more relevant advertisements. Let’s face it, the ads which many complains depreciates the user-experience aren’t going anywhere. But with the omnipotent database of the social network that can serve highly personal ads, the experience can certainly become much more bearable.

For advertisers, it can increase phenomenally the ads ROI. Again, due to Facebook’s pinpoint user knowledge, advertisers will be able to target their EXACT audience outside of Facebook which will be more willing to engage with the advertiser’s product/service.

For publishers, it can both improve their product and inflate revenue. By serving more relevant ads based on the visitor’s precise attributes, the overall merit of the product will rise while the growth of visitor’s ad absorption will obviously raise the publisher’s bottom line.

For Facebook, it can supplement another source of revenue which will take advantage of the social network’s information of circa billion users on third-party apps/sites. For comparison, Google earns about $3 billion a quarter just from third-party sites advertising (through AdSense).

This testing of a mobile ad network isn’t the first time Facebook tried to monetize its platform within external websites. In June, Zynga started displaying Facebook ads on its homepage (instead of AdSense ads) and back then, I suggested that Facebook might be preparing for an ad network of itself.

As we’ve now discovered, Facebook indeed had aimed into this direction. Get ready for a fierce battle in the online advertising arena, there’s a new {promising} player in town.