While the deal is part of a bigger campaign that State Farm is running with US Weekly, according to AdAge, “Us Weekly plans to use Facebook page sponsorships as added value or independent ad inventory for other advertisers after that.”
US Weekly’s Facebook Page currently only has about 3,000 fans, but it’s not hard to imagine other brands, especially those with substantial Facebook audience, selling similar sponsorships soon. The interesting question is who will control this ad inventory – the brands, ad networks, or Facebook themselves?
Facebook has been testing their own ad network for applications, while there are already dozens of third-party networks that specialize in monetizing apps. It would seem that Facebook would be most interested in selling ads to the actual page owners, in the form of the “Become a Fan” ads that are increasingly visible when you login to Facebook. Meanwhile, Facebook already places its standard ads on Pages, as you can see in the US Weekly page.
In any event, we’re just at the starting line when it comes to monetizing Facebook Pages. But expect a host of monetization options to soon emerge, ranging from simple sponsorships like State Farm-US Weekly to cross-promotion of other Pages.
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