Facebook’s New Marketplace Ad Strategy Boosts Monetization Strategy

Facebook is ready to start earning money off of Marketplace, the Craigslist competitor it launched almost two years ago.

According to TechCrunch, Facebook has begun testing Marketplace ads in the U.S. that let users pay to “boost” their listing to more people through the News Feed.

In addition, the social media site announced that it’s launching product ads from businesses that appear within Marketplace.

“We recently started to expand Marketplace to include businesses, so people can browse products and services from people in their local communities as well as from businesses. Over the past few months, we’ve enabled businesses to list a variety of offerings in Marketplace such as used vehicles, home rentals, home services and jobs. And now, businesses can advertise in Marketplace to reach people where they’re actively shopping,” the company wrote in a blog post.

Over the next few weeks, all advertisers in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand will be able to run ads in Marketplace using the traffic, conversions, product catalog, video views and reach objectives.

“Businesses are already seeing results using ads in Marketplace. Thread Wallets, an accessories company, generated more than 300 purchases while increasing its year-over-year return on ad spend by 41 percent after adding Marketplace as a placement for its conversions campaigns,” the company stated.

In addition, the company also announced that it is expanding its support for header bidding, a technology that enables publishers to auction off ad impressions.

Facebook launched support for header bidding on the mobile web last year, and is now enabling it for in-app advertising.

“Currently, ad networks are called one-by-one until an app ad is filled, determined by historical average CPMs rather than which buyer is willing to pay the most. This method often overlooks a network willing to pay more for an impression because it is lower in the chain,” wrote Facebook’s Vijay Balan. “App bidding enables app publishers and developers to establish an impartial and open auction over their ad inventory. All advertising networks are called simultaneously and the highest bidder for the placement wins, thereby providing publishers with opportunities to earn more.”