Facebook overhauls publisher business in bid to further rival Google
The social network today (7 January) announced it will no longer be accepting new customers for its LiveRail ad server (which it purchased in 2014), in order to focus attention on its recently launched FAN – a service that lets brands target users with Facebook insights across a network of third-party publishers.
Facebook said that it will begin migrating all its LiveRail customers (ie publishers) to its other publisher products, or alternative ad servers, in order to continue helping them to monetise their inventory.
Instead, LiveRail will build out its PMP offering – which lets publishers offer select advertisers preferred access to their prime inventory often for enhanced prices – with a continued focus on native and video ad formats.
Trumpeting the overehaul, Facebook was keen to point out that such was the success of FAN, that the number of publishers using it has grown ten-fold each year since its launch, with this unit of the business achieving an annual run-rate of a billion dollars a year in the fourth quarter.
A blog post informing users of the changes reads: “At Facebook, when there is a product that gains traction like Audience Network, we look for ways to build it out quickly and make it even better. That also means shifting away from other efforts, if necessary. Today we’re sharing some changes to LiveRail, our monetization [sic] platform for publishers.”
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