This week, Facebook added what we believe is a new feature to the application settings dashboard that lets developers add “Advertising Accounts” to their applications. What is an Advertising account, compared to a normal Admin account for an application? Essentially, those users granted Advertising Accounts for an application are considered authorized to use the “connection targeting” feature to place Facebook Ads targeted to users of that app.

The “Advertising Accounts” field is on the “Advanced” tab of the application settings dashboard

While developers could have always theoretically allowed any advertiser to use a developer account to place connection-targeted Facebook Ads, now it’s easier to manage. As a result, developers may be more encouraged to think about ways of generating value from Facebook Ads shown to users of their apps, like partnering with other agencies that are helping advertisers bid on Facebook Ads inventory.

Of course, Facebook wants to find ways to increase the number of bidders for as much of its inventory as it can. This update is one way it can do so that is aligned with the interests of developers. One thing Facebook doesn’t allow is connection targeting against applications (or pages, groups, or events) that an advertiser is not authorized for – that would lead to a lot of nasty ads.

We have asked Facebook to comment on what we assume are their intentions for this new feature, and will update when we get an official response. We’re still seeing some bugs in it as well.

Update: A Facebook spokesperson says, “This feature allows developers to give permission to specific advertiser accounts to advertise to their connections.  This is intended to let developers give access to other people within their own companies or their ad agency to advertiser their own products.  Since the developers and engineers are usually the administrators of an application, this allows for easier management of advertising campaigns across companies.”