Facebook announced that it is testing a new mobile ad platform to give developers a new way to monetize their apps. The company is contributing its targeting capabilities to the network in an effort to increase relevancy of ads in apps, and of course give its own advertisers some more bang for their buck.

“Monetization is a difficult problem for mobile app developers, particularly as people move toward downloading more free apps and advertising dollars lag behind time spent on mobile,” says Facebook’s Sriram Krishnan. “We faced some unique challenges when we first integrated ads into the Facebook mobile experience, and we believe we’re now well positioned to help other mobile apps.”

“While we have run similar tests in the past, this current test is more like a mobile ad network in that we are working directly with a small number of advertisers and publishers, rather than an outside ad-serving platform,” Krishnan says.

It’s a small test, and for now, they’re not even accepting additional participants, but they do let you sign up to receive updates on the initiative if you are interested.

Gartner recently put out a report about paid and free mobile apps, saying that by 2017, 94.5% of downloads will be for free apps. While it’s obviously early to tell, Facebook’s efforts could be an important part of developers’ monetization efforts by then.

Image via Facebook