• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, May 7, 2015

The tools include new native ad templates that allow app publishers to customize native ad elements like font, ad height, background color, and borders, among others, in order to match their apps’ appearance more closely if they wish. They also include a new ad management tool that automates many aspects of the process, such as optimization around the best-performing ads, and a new customizable horizontal scroll template or native ads, making it easier for publishers to boost engagement and the overall volume of ads appearing in the app.

Facebook also released the results of a study on the effectiveness of ads distributed through its Audience Network. Overall, Facebook found that over half the revenues that developers derive from the Audience Network now comes from native formats, with publishers getting CPMs seven times higher than standard banners on average.

On the e-commerce front, Facebook also cited data from Fiksu showing that consumers who downloaded e-commerce apps from ads appearing on the Audience Network generated 20 times more revenue for the advertiser, on average, than people who downloaded the app from an ad appearing on another display network.

Facebook has been introducing new ad products and services at a steady clip. Earlier this week it announced a new partnership with IBM, integrating Facebook ad targeting capabilities, including Custom Audiences, with IBM Commerce’s offerings for marketing cloud clients, including IBM’s Journey Designer and Journey Analytics. By combining Facebook’s ad technologies with Journey Analytics, brands should be able to better determine which groups of customers are among Facebook’s active user base, and establish correlations between their interests and interactions across multiple channels.