Is your website ad measurement the right fit for the audience you want to attract?
Facebook urges you to do more than simply nod and agree.
Really think about it.
What are the specific ad elements that lay the foundation to accurately target a certain demographic across devices and browsers or into the offline world?
Today’s ad measurements mostly rely on cookie tracking: data files stored on mobile devices and computers to track user movements within websites. But the technology doesn’t work well for modern marketing campaigns.
Facebook thinks it has the answer. The social giant has announced the relaunch of its ‘Atlas’ advertising platform that it acquired from Microsoft in February 2013. So far Facebook has been limited to offering ad placements that are actually on its platform. With the launch of Atlas, any website can insert an advertisement that can be targeted by Facebook’s clients.
As revealed in a blog post, Atlas will allow advertisers to target users on websites outside Facebook, meaning on properties the company does not own, such as apps, blogs and custom domains, but they will be able to use Facebook’s data to do so. Facebook also reveals that Atlas ad platform has a new interface and has been completely rewritten.
The company has been working hard to improve Atlas since last year and has included offline sales tracking and cross-device targeting to its list of features. The social giant says cookies “are flawed” because they do not work for mobile devices and are not accurate enough when it comes to demographic targeting or measuring the purchase funnel on various devices and browsers.
So instead, Facebook’s Atlas has come up with a new strategy to track users, termed “People-based marketing”, featuring “an entirely new code base,” with built-in measuring and targeting that will be more accurate and make sure the right ads are served to the right audience at the right time.
There aren’t much details about how exactly this will work, but a report from WSJ said a marketer will be able to see where a user made a purchase, perhaps on a PC, but to know the ad was originally seen on a mobile device. Facebook’s accounts will be involved with the feature’s advertising retargeting.
“By doing this, marketers can easily solve the cross-device problem through targeting, serving and measuring across devices. And, Atlas can now connect online campaigns to actual offline sales, ultimately proving the real impact that digital campaigns have in driving incremental reach and new sales,” said Erik Johnson, Head of Atlas.
Apart from providing these features, Atlas will place Facebook toe-to-toe with Google, which is more active in internet advertising, partnering with millions of websites to deliver targetable ad spots. Facebook is expected to take a similar strategy with Atlas.
Omnicom is one of the companies who have signed up to Atlas in an agency-wide measurement and ad-serving agreement.
“This idea of “people-based marketing” that Facebook is premiering with the launch of Atlas is really getting us closer to the one to one marketing solutions we’ve been talking about for so long,” said Jonathan Nelson, Omnicom Digital CEO. “It allows us to put the right message in front of the right person at the right time on the right device. Facebook’s giving us a little more insight into who the customer is on the other side of the media transaction.”
The agreement will help Facebook and Omnicom develop automated ad capabilities for Intel, Pepsi and other similar clients.
Instagram is another party that has joined the bandwagon. The photo-sharing network will be able to verify and measure impressions on Atlas (as a publisher), whereas advertisers will see reporting from any campaigns that are active on the site.
How will Atlas affect advertisers, you ask?
Advertisers will know where to target their users, and this would avoid wastage of dollars on the wrong platform. And by connecting online campaigns to offline sales, Atlas will help in driving new sales and incremental ROI.
What are your thoughts on the relaunch of Atlas? Feel free to leave comments.
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