Inside Facebook

SocialCash first made a name for itself on the Facebook Platform as one of the more aggressive third party ad networks helping developers monetize their applications. Now, however, the company is refocusing its efforts on developing new social advertising products and developer tools.

Recently, the company launched new versions of its latest products: “BFF,” a tool to determine a user’s best friends, and “Headliners,” a social ad banner that uses the BFF algorithm to target the most compelling creatives. Developers can use BFF to optimize their invitation-based viral loops, while the Headliners product allows developers to set up deeper integration to provide more relevant social banners.

For example, this ad from We’re Related shows how Netflix could take advantage of its recent Facebook Connect integration by integrating movie ratings with the Headliners advertising product. You can also see a live demo of an ad using Facebook Connect here.

“We empower the developers to serve ads by providing a file that contains our creative templates and targeting rulesets,” SocialCash CEO Rob Jewell says.  “This means that the ads can leverage the social graph while keeping the developer and us in full compliance with both the Terms and dynamic user privacy.”

Jewell also said the company closed a “Series A” round of financing in December, but the company has not disclosed the investor or amount.

Facebook Platform ad networks like SocialMedia, RockYou, AdParlor, Sometrics, SocialReach, Adknowledge, VideoEgg, and SocialCash, as well as managed offer networks like Offerpal Media, Super Rewards, and Peanut Labs Media, have been fighting hard to improve eCPMs through better targeting technology and improved advertising units that take advantage of the rich data available inside Facebook’s social graph. Facebook itself has launched an alpha test of its own in-house advertising network with a small number of app developers.

However, it will take continuous innovations in the advertising products being developed for application developers to experience higher CPMs in this tough advertising market, and Headliners and BFF are another step in that direction.