14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook’s rumored ad network that would make the company a serious competitor to Google is finally here.
The product isn’t completely new, since Facebook is basically reintroducing Atlas, the platform it purchased from Microsoft last year, for which the social network has finally found a good use.
The new platform isn’t your regular ad network, but it does act as one since it lets advertisers buy ads, via Facebook. The catch, however, is that the bought ads are for sites Facebook doesn’t own.
Plans for this project haven’t exactly been a secret, since leaks have been taking place for months, with various details making it out into the media. Now, Facebook is making the formal introduction of Atlas.
The company claims that the tool will help marketers track effectiveness of their ads around the web, while allowing them to purchase ads on sites other than Facebook, as well as on apps, while using Facebook targeting data.
These aren’t the same as “Facebook ads,” however, even though they are using the social network’s data. The social network is using this latter detail as its own marketing secret since it promises advertisers that using Atlas will be more effective than other big ad platforms.
Partners are already lined up
Facebook has revealed that it is already working with a range of partners, although it has only named two. The first one is Omnicon, which already has similar deals with Facebook, Google and Twitter, as well as other companies. The second one is Instagram, the mobile platform Facebook acquired a few years back.
The company claims that the ads directed to users everywhere will be anonymous. More specifically, an individual’s identity remains anonymous to advertisers and publishers, despite the fact that the data comes from Facebook, which means that they’ll know basic facts about you and your interests, but not who you are.
Facebook is hoping to challenge Google for the top spot in online advertising. Despite the fact that Facebook truly has a lot to offer in terms of data it hands over to marketers, Google is already an established force in the online ad business and this is the engine that runs the company below the search business, YouTube, Maps and all its other services.
Even so, Facebook is coming strong and could overtake the Internet giant. The social network’s advertising revenue for the second quarter of 2014 was of $2.68 billion, 67 percent over the previous year, while mobile advertising revenue represented 62 percent of the entire sum.