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(Facebook)
Facebook just introduced a new, streamlined version of its ad buying platform.

The new format is clearly meant to look results-driven, and asks advertisers one simple question, what’s your advertising objective?  Marketers can select from a few results categories that will act as starting points in creating their Facebook ad campaigns. Examples include:

• Clicks to website
• Website conversions
• Page likes
• App installs

Marketers will be able to specify where they want their ads placed (i.e. mobile, News Feed, right rail). Facebook also updated their Ad Manager tool to allow marketers to track campaign results. 

Ideally, this streamlined, assisted ad buying platform will help bring buyers into Facebook’s ad ecosystem that may have previously been hesitant, like small businesses. Now, marketers can ask for specific ad campaign criteria without navigating an overwhelming, fragmented ad inventory. We may soon see major media platforms that compete with Facebook restructure their ad buying tools in a similar fashion.

In other news…

Amazon continues to lure developers to its Appstore with a new incentives program that offers discounts on Amazon services. It will also offer consumers “cash back” on apps downloaded. (TechCrunch)

PayPal unveiled PayPal Code, a new mobile payments technology that is centered on QR codes. (All Things Digital)

Samsung lost its bid for the same veto of an import ban that Apple recently won. (Bloomberg)

Samsung is also looking to become a software powerhouse to better compete with the likes of Apple, Google, and Microsoft. (Wall Street Journal)

Google, when discussing Google Wallet at the Money2020 alternative payments conference, claimed it will be moving Search staff over to Google Wallet in an effort to bolster the payments program. (Business Insider)

A Forbes contributor breaks down Twitter’s financials to state his belief that Twitter could become profitable by 2015. (Forbes)

Nest, maker of an Internet-connected home thermostat, has expanded its product line with its new connected smoke detector. 

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