When Did the Audience Network Launch?

Facebook announced the Audience Network on 30 April 2014 at f8, its developer conference. Its post listed the Audience Network under “Monetize”, as a new way for developers to earn from mobile apps. For an advertiser it is the placement that takes a campaign into apps outside Facebook. No Meta page read for this entry gives the day the first ads ran.

What did Facebook announce at f8 in 2014?

The post says Facebook welcomed “more than 1,700 developers” to f8 in San Francisco and announced “more than a dozen new developer products, including our biggest update to Facebook Login and the Audience Network”. Under the heading “Monetize” it wrote: “Audience Network: Developers now have a new way to effectively monetize mobile apps.”

The post says nothing more about how the Audience Network worked, who could join or when ads began, so this page does not either. If someone gives you a precise 2014 start date for the first ads, ask which Meta page says so.

How did Facebook describe it in its 2014 annual report?

The annual report for 2014, filed on 29 January 2015, says marketers “can buy ads on Instagram and on other websites and applications such as Audience Network, Atlas, and LiveRail”. It also says developers can monetize their mobile applications “by showing ads from Facebook advertisers within their application”, and that Facebook receives “a portion of the revenue from developers who show ads from Facebook advertisers in their applications within our Audience Network”.

A text search of the annual report for 2013, filed on 31 January 2014, finds no mention of the Audience Network. That fits an announcement in 2014, but it is not a launch date.

When you choose a placement, remember that your ad then runs inside an app owned by someone else.

What is Meta Audience Network today?

Meta’s help centre calls it Meta Audience Network and says it “enables advertisers to extend the scale of their ad campaigns beyond Facebook and into other mobile apps”. Meta says these ads use the same targeting, auction, delivery and campaign measurement systems as other Meta ads.

As checked on 2 Oct 2026, Meta lists these supported objectives: awareness (video only), traffic, engagement (video only), app promotion, leads and sales. Supported formats include image, video, carousel, playable and collection, and placement types include rewarded video, interstitial, native and banner ads.

Open the placements section of an ad set to see whether Audience Network is switched on for it.

How do you control where your ads appear?

Meta says you can select Audience Network as a standalone platform with the Audience Network in-stream video placement, using the engagement objective. It can also be selected with the Facebook in-stream video placement, without Facebook Feed. If you are not doing either, you can show ads on it through Meta Advantage+ placements, or alongside Facebook Feed placements.

Meta also describes block lists as a way to prevent your ads from running on specific websites or apps within Meta Audience Network and Facebook in-stream reels. If you want to exclude apps, set up a block list and apply it to your ad accounts.

FAQ

Is 30 April 2014 the day the first Audience Network ads ran?

No page read for this entry says so. 30 April 2014 is the date of Facebook’s f8 post, which announced the Audience Network. That post gives no date for the first ads, and neither does the 2014 annual report, so this page does not state one.

Is the Audience Network still called that?

Meta’s help centre now calls it Meta Audience Network. It describes it as a way to extend your campaigns beyond Facebook into other mobile apps that partner with Meta Audience Network. The older name, Audience Network, appears in the 2014 sources cited here.

Can I run ads on the Audience Network alone?

In some setups, yes. Meta says it can be selected as a standalone platform with the Audience Network in-stream video placement, using the engagement objective, or with the Facebook in-stream video placement without Facebook Feed. Otherwise it is reached through Advantage+ placements or alongside Facebook Feed placements.