Facebook Secures Off-line Data to Enhance Ad Offer

Facebook is partnering with a number of database firms, whose data on off-line customer behaviour will be used to sharpen its ad targeting solutions. Also today, Facebook confirmed it is buying measurement firm Atlas from Microsoft.

In a statement this week, the social media giant said it would give clients access to services from Datalogix, Epsilon, Acxiom and BlueKai to further enhance their Facebook ads. This data covers consumers' in-person purchases and product loyalty card membership, which will be matched with Facebook users via phone numbers and email addresses but in an 'anonymised' fashion, as per its targeting announcement last year. Purchasing habits will be defined in broad categories without identifying individuals.

The partnerships will offer Facebook ad customers two ways of working, says the firm:

• 'Businesses that already work with these select third parties can now use the same information they have used elsewhere to create campaigns on Facebook; or
• We will work with these select third parties to create pre-defined or custom first-party targeting categories on Facebook. Businesses of all sizes will now be able to target categories like 'soda drinkers' or 'people who browsed for a specific make/model on my website.'

Users will still have the same control over the ads they see on Facebook, the statement says: 'They can learn more about the ads they see, give feedback, or opt-out using the controls we provide in the ads themselves or in the Help Center'.

The new offer will be rolled in 'over the coming weeks', beginning with marketers in the US.

Separately, Facebook has now confirmed reports which surfaced more than two weeks ago that it is to buy the Atlas Solutions media measurement platform from Microsoft.