Facebook has come under close scrutiny during the past few months for its monetisation strategies, particularly in terms of the advertisements on its mobile platform. However, recent evidence suggests that the social media giant is investing in a new platform to improve their current marketing offering – in the form of a new real-time ad exchange, tentatively titled Facebook Exchange.

TechCrunch’s Josh Constine described Facebook Exchange as “a real-time bidding ad system where visitors to third-party websites are marked with a cookie, and can then be shown real-time bid ads related to their web browsing when they return to Facebook”. The system is currently being tested internally, but no date has been released for an official launch or rollout.

Paid ads tend to have a reputation for being somewhat irritating to consumers, who are presented with marketing material which has little to no relevance to their interests or purchasing tendancies. Facebook’s new efforts are part of a larger attempt to help their advertisers capitalise on user search trends and deliver appropriate advertisements in a time-sensitive manner. Although Facebook Exchange is not a revolutionary creation, it is certainly a step in a positive direction that will allow Facebook for digital marketing purposes in a more efficient and directional manner.