Facebook’s Ad Exchange (FBX) has been a service that allows third party companies to purchase ads on the social network for quite a few years. The service, however, has become outdated with the shift toward mobile and really hasn’t been used nearly as much as it once was. FBX is used only for desktop ads, and many of the companies that formerly worked with it had already moved to other solutions such as Facebook’s Audience Network, which provides plenty of opportunities.
For this reason, Facebook has announced that they will be shutting down FBX in the near future. This is really not a surprise to most people in the industry. In addition to the smaller number of users, Facebook also didn’t have full control over the ads that came in using FBX. Facebook likes having greater control over everything they are involved with, so ending this service is going to be a nice step in that direction.
Matt Idema, the VP of monetization product marketing at Facebook said, “Mobile is now a necessary component of effective marketing campaigns, and Facebook is helping millions of businesses understand their customers’ purchase path across devices. Dynamic Ads and Custom Audiences have mobile at their core and are delivering excellent results for businesses, so Facebook Exchange spending has shifted toward those solutions.”
There is no official word on exactly when FBX will be completely shut down, but it will likely be phased out over the coming months. Most ad networks that worked through FBX have other sources of ad inventory so it won’t likely be a major problem for them or their customers.
