We know that Facebook is pretty big. So is Google. But perhaps it’s true that we never expected to see Facebook rolling out a web-wide, cross-platform ad network that is set up to challenge the likes of the Google Display Network next week. All this comes from the Wall Street Journal.
This news was initially written about last month on Marketing Land. In relation to the company’s Atlas acquisition from Microsoft, “it promises to help marketers understand which Facebook users have seen, interacted with or acted upon ads that appear both on Facebook’s services and on third-party websites and apps.”
This network will also be a “demand side platform” that allows for dynamic bidding for impressions on third party sites. Last year in 2013, Google made a whopping $13.2 billion from non-Google sites that displayed its ads. In the WSJ report, they spoke of a cookie-less cross-platform dimension of the network. The thought is to turn the Facebook ID itself into the new cookie:
“With Atlas, Facebook hopes to fix those [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][cookie] problems by linking users’ ad interactions to their Facebook accounts, which can be used to track users across both desktop and mobile devices, albeit on an anonymous basis. For example, a marketer using Atlas might now be able to understand that a customer purchased a product on a desktop computer, but first saw an ad for it on their smartphone device. Facebook already tracks users this way across its own service, but Atlas will now extend the functionality to other sites and apps. Facebook also plans to pitch marketers on the concept of using Atlas to tie consumers’ offline behaviors to their online ones. For instance, a consumer who purchases a pair of shoes in a store might volunteer her email address at the checkout. Facebook could then use that email address to inform the retailer if, when, and where the consumer saw its ads across the Web, if the email address is tied to a Facebook account.”
With this cross-plateform, online + offline capability, the end result would be an enormously powerful and is currently unmatched by any of the big ad networks or exchanges. In Facebook’s view, this will be about “people-based marketing”, or more specifically, audience targeting.
Original Source by Greg Sterling
http://marketingland.com/facebooks-ad-network-challenge-google-coming-next-week-101046[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]