Facebook continued down the path of diversifying its offerings for advertisers with Tuesday’s announcement that sponsored stories in the news feed are now available for purchase separately via the social network’s ads application-programming interface and power editor.

Marketers can choose from the following placement options for their sponsored stories:
  • All placements, which includes the right-hand side, and the desktop and mobile news feed.
  • All desktop placements, which includes the right-hand side and the desktop news feed.
  • News feed, which includes the desktop and mobile news feed.
  • Desktop news feed only.
  • Mobile news feed only.
In making the announcement, Facebook said:
Facebook is always looking for ways to improve products and has responded to requests from marketers to control the placement of their sponsored stories. As companies are promoting services more frequently on mobile, this option gives them the opportunity to focus on specific placements that will impact them most directly.