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State of the Screens

Facebook’s New Tool Lets Publishers Use Its Data to Sell Video Ads

By April 19, 2018No Comments

The program is called Audience Direct. It gives publishers the power to sell their own ad inventory directly to advertisers, keeping their own ad tech infrastructure in place.

Audience Direct vs. Facebook Audience Network. Audience Network leaves most of the publisher infrastructure (relationship, ad stack, etc.) in place while Facebook Audience Network makes publisher inventory available to Facebook customers through Facebook infrastructure.

Quick math. Publisher inventory augmented with Facebook data for targeting should lead to higher CPMs.

Big picture. Facebook’s ad business is a monster that needs additional content in order to grow.

Additional content for Facebook #1: Facebook plans to spend up to $250kper episode of original content.

Additional content for Facebook #2: Facebook will stream at least 20Friday Major League Baseball games during the 2017 regular season.

Michael Beach

Michael Beach is the Chief Executive Officer of Cross Screen Media, a media analytics and software company that enables marketers to plan, activate, and measure CTV and linear TV at the local level. Michael is also the founder and editor of State of the Screens, a weekly newsletter focused on video advertising that is a must-read for thought leaders in the advertising industry. He has appeared in such publications as PBS Frontline, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Axios, CNBC and Bloomberg, and on NPR’s Planet Money podcast.