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Facebook wants advertisers buying mobile ads, not desktop ads

The FBX desktop ad exchange is being shut down.

by Kurt Wagner
A woman holding a laptop with a picture of the Facebook thumbs up icon in it.
A woman holding a laptop with a picture of the Facebook thumbs up icon in it.
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Facebook is closing its FBX ad exchange, a service that advertisers used to buy retargeting ads on Facebook’s desktop platform, the company confirmed Wednesday.

The reason is simple: Facebook still offers retargeting ads (the ones that show you products and services based on your internet search history), but it sells them primarily for its users on mobile devices. It wants advertisers buying the mobile ads instead of the desktop ones.

That makes sense. Mobile advertising is almost 80 percent of Facebook’s total business already, and mobile is where the majority of its users come from. Facebook has also been updating its retargeting ads on mobile, and just launched them on Instagram. The idea of desktop-only ads feels a bit outdated.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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