Facebook drives app installs via ads

Facebook has made available mobile install ads to all developers. In a post on the site’s developer blog, Vijaye Raji explained that apps and games have long used adverts as an important part of their growth strategy, and that now this concept is being expanded to mobile. “With these new ads, mobile apps and games of all sizes across any category can reach the right audience, at scale,” he said, adding that early partners who worked with Facebook during its beta run have seen “significantly higher conversion rates compared to their current mobile channels, as well as a significant increase in player engagement”.

The move further showcases Facebook’s drive towards mobile, an area in which company CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted to major mistakes. Blogger and founder of Scribblar Stefan Richter told .net that "ignoring mobile for far too long was the company's biggest mistake” and said its previously lacking mobile strategy had in part caused the company’s stock to lose value since the IPO. Bringing app discovery into parity with the desktop, especially given the sheer number of apps and games downloaded on mobile, could be one way of rectifying this.

According to Raji, Facebook’s also made it simple to “launch your ad and monitor your Insights through a simple flow on the App Dashboard”. There are also mobile-specific features included, such as people clicking the ads being sent to a relevant app store. “In coming months, we’ll continue to make updates that improve the user experience and the performance of mobile app install ads,” he added, and by way of example mentioned customising an ad unit based on your audience, ensuring adds are only shown to people who don’t already have an app installed, and enabling installs to begin without leaving Facebook.