Facebook Lets Advertisers Tap Purchase Data Partners To Target Customers, Categories Like Car-Buyers

The link to the full story is here



Through new partnerships with top online and offline purchase data providers Datalogix, Epsilon, Acxiom, and BlueKai, Facebook is now allowing advertisers to target hashed lists of existing and potential customers, and categories like role-playing gamers or soda drinkers. This expansion of Facebook’s Custom Audiences program could rake in revenue and attract businesses by matching ads to real spenders.

AdAge first reported the deal with Datalogix, Epsilon and Acxiom last week, though now these partnerships are confirmed along with one with BlueKai. It’s part of Facebook’s ongoing quest to show businesses that ads on the social network are not just scattershot brand marketing jazz, but can actually reach the exact customers that buy their products.

That’s been a bit of a struggle, as a combination of complicated products, targeting restrictions, and advertiser inexperience has led some businesses to fail to produce results. These businesses sometimes go out of their way to blast Facebook’s ad platform as ineffective, scaring away other big advertisers.