Facebook officially launched “Audience Network” in October, 2014, to allow advertisers to buy ads space on third-party apps powered by its targeting data, as a new way to extend their campaigns beyond Facebook and into other mobile apps.

The company in a blog post on Tuesday announced the expansion of Audience Network to include support for mobile Web, not just within apps, a move that's aimed to open up the platform to potential new publishers.

Facebook refers to its targeting capability as “people-based marketing, bringing the value of native ad formats to a new set of publishers. Whereby, publishers will have the opportunity to serve typical banner ads to mobile Web users through the Audience Network.

The mobile Web ads can also be targeted to groups of users the same way as in-app ads on the Audience Network, or on Facebook itself.

ComScore, in a recent research, found that 93% of visits to 25 news publishers came through mobile Web browsers, compared with 7% of visits from apps.

As a matter of fact, on average news sites receive approximately 40 percent of their traffic from mobile apps, while over 90 percent comes via mobile Web.

Facebook said it expects the “native ad” formats to perform better for publishers and advertisers alike.

What's the fuss about Facebook’s extension of Audience Network to mobile Web?

Facebook officially launched “Audience Network” in October, 2014, to allow advertisers to buy ads space on third-party apps powered by its targeting data, as a new way to extend their campaigns beyond Facebook and into other mobile apps.

The company in a blog post on Tuesday announced the expansion of Audience Network to include support for mobile Web, not just within apps, a move that's aimed to open up the platform to potential new publishers.

Facebook refers to its targeting capability as “people-based marketing, bringing the value of native ad formats to a new set of publishers. Whereby, publishers will have the opportunity to serve typical banner ads to mobile Web users through the Audience Network.

The mobile Web ads can also be targeted to groups of users the same way as in-app ads on the Audience Network, or on Facebook itself.

ComScore, in a recent research, found that 93% of visits to 25 news publishers came through mobile Web browsers, compared with 7% of visits from apps.

As a matter of fact, on average news sites receive approximately 40 percent of their traffic from mobile apps, while over 90 percent comes via mobile Web.

Facebook said it expects the “native ad” formats to perform better for publishers and advertisers alike.