Zynga to Show Facebook Ads: Expanding Advertising Network

Zynga.com, an independent online gaming website, is starting to display Facebook advertisements on its site.

Being that many Zynga users use Facebook to log into the gaming site, the ads shown will be geared towards the information they have placed into their Facebook account.

This is a way for Facebook to aid marketers in reaching users more effectively.

Facebook says that logging in to Zynga.com would show users similar ads to the ones shown on Facebook, since advertisers will be using the same method to appeal to users. Users who visit Zynga's site are shown "sponsored stories" while on the site. These are ads that target things such as businesses or brands people "like" on Facebook.

"People may now see ads and sponsored stories from Facebook on Zynga.com," Annie Ta, a spokeswoman for Facebook, said in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg Business Week. "We don't share any information about people or advertisers with Zynga and advertisers do not have any new targeting criteria."

This expansion of an advertising network beyond its own site is a first for Facebook. However, sites such as Amazon's Zappos.com have been doing it for years.

The companies do not plan on sharing any financial details quite yet.

However, Facebook's shares rose 3.8% to $33.05 on Friday upon its announcement that it would be showing its ads on Zynga.com.

Also on the up side for the company is that no complaints have yet been made by Facebook users about their personal information being used outside of Facebook.

Perhaps this is the case because many Facebook users have already given out their personal information to Zynga when they have played games like FarmVille.

Real Time Analytics