Facebook Previews New Rules For Publishers On Audience Network

Facebook says it wants to help publishers achieve more regular, predictable monetization via its Audience Network, which allows advertising clients to extend the reach of their messages by delivering ads on sites outside of Facebook itself.

To do that, starting in November, publishers will have to conform with some new rules, which the social media giant previewed in a recent blog post.

The new rules require publishers that wish to continue participating in the Audience Network to cache ads for 60 minutes or less, meaning they must request the ad less than an hour before showing it to the viewer; any ads that appear after the 60-minute mark will no longer be considered viable by Facebook for revenue-generating purposes. Facebook explained that this will help it optimize ad performance.

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Facebook also wants publishers to begin organizing their ad placements in its new “ad spaces” feature, which should enable better reporting and analytics. That benefits publishers with more detailed understanding of how their ads are faring with their audiences; the ad spaces feature became available on the Audience Network dashboard on June 22.

More prosaically, publishers need to upgrade to one of Facebook’s more recent software development kits, namely version 4.23 for iOS and Android, or 4.22 for Unity. Facebook is also asking publishers to limit themselves to one iOS and one Android bundle package, which allow data to be passed across different activities, for each of their apps on the Audience Network.

Facebook acknowledged that, as part of the changes, publishers will have to migrate users to their new version of the app, which can be a time-consuming process – thus the long lead time.

The social network also suggested that they get going now. After November 1, the Audience Network will no longer deliver ads to old versions of apps that don’t conform with the new minimum standards.

It’s not all gritty work. Facebook has offered some concessions to publishers as well — at least for those publishing directly on Facebook itself. On that note, last month it announced its Instant Articles publishing platform will henceforth be compatible with other major platforms, including Google AMP, a rival system for creating and distributing fast-loading multimedia content.

There are also plans to add compatibility with Apple News.

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