Facebook Plans To Release Its New Ad Network Next Week

The Wall Street Journal has reported that, after months of speculation throughout the industry, Facebook will start rolling out its web-wide, cross-platform ad network challenge to the Google Display Network next week.

Facebook’s new advertising platform builds on its acquisition of Atlas last year, and is seen as part of a broader effort by Facebook to challenge Google and AOL on the ad-serving technology front. According to the Wall Street Journal’s report, the new ad network will help marketers’ track ad impressions on Facebook, as well as third-party websites and apps. The platform is also said to feature a demand-side platform (DSP) to allow marketers to target ads to Facebook users across the web.

This is big news for marketers of all types, from small business ventures to larger scale operations, as Facebook’s new ad network will be focused on people-based marketing. Essentially, this means that marketers will be able to target their audience more effectively by utilizing the massive amount of data that Facebook has on its users, such as their preferences, likes, interests and cross-platform behavior.  Truly, Facebook has more accurate data of this type than any other advertising platform, and the possibilities for its usage are creating a buzz throughout the industry. Marketing experts are already speculating about the possibility of Facebook’s new ad network posing a serious challenge to Google and Yahoo.

Google made just over $13.2 billion from non-Google sites displaying its ads in 2013. An interesting component of the Wall Street Journal report about Facebook’s release is the cookie-less cross-platform aspect of the network, with the idea of turning the Facebook ID itself into the new cookie.

“With Atlas, Facebook hopes to fix those [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,” wrote the Wall Street Journal. “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.”

The power of this cross-platform, online + offline functionality is currently unmatched by any of the big ad networks or exchanges, and the possibilities are exciting for all marketers who will now be able to utilize Facebook’s immensely detailed user data to refine their advertising to target their audience more effectively than ever before.

“Facebook also plans to pitch marketers on the concept of using Atlas to tie consumers’ offline behaviors to their online ones,” the Wall Street Journal report continued. “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.”

Clearly, the possibilities of Facebook’s new ad network are massive, and one thing that’s certain is that all marketers will be watching closely for its release next week.