Social media behemoth Facebook announced on its Studio Page on Feb. 27 that it has partnered with four data companies – Acxiom, BlueKai, Datalogix, and Epsilon – to enhance its custom audience tool launched last September.
In its announcement, Facebook said the custom audiences tool allows marketers to reach their current customers with relevant ads on Facebook. “We know that many businesses also work with third-party partners to enhance their online and offline marketing in order to show more relevant ads,” the announcement reads. “Today, we're expanding custom audiences to allow businesses to use Datalogix, Epsilon, Acxiom, and BlueKai to further enhance the ads they run on Facebook.”
According to the announcement, businesses can achieve this in two ways:
Businesses that already work with these select third-parties can now use the same information they have used elsewhere to create campaigns on Facebook.
“We will work with these select third parties to create pre-defined or custom first-party targeting categories on Facebook,” the announcement reads. “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."
For example, the announcement reads, “an auto dealer may want to customize an offer to people who are looking to buy a new car. To do this today, many businesses work with third parties to better understand how to identify and reach that audience. With today's updates businesses can now do this same thing by showing ads to people on Facebook who may be in the market for a new car.”
As with the existing custom audience tool, these select partners use a privacy and data-protective matching process, the announcement reads. “This process is specifically designed so that we don’t share private information about individuals with marketers. People will still have the same control over the ads they see on Facebook. We know that more relevant ads are better for people and businesses. By showing the right ads to the right people, businesses have been able to increase the effectiveness of their Facebook campaigns.”
According to Facebook, marketing efforts won't compromise user privacy.
"This process is specifically designed so that we don’t share private information about individuals with marketers,” the announcement reads. “People will still have the same control over the ads they see on Facebook.”
Ines Gutzmer, Director of Corporate Communications for Acxiom, told Loyalty 360 that the privacy and security of the data used for this beta meets industry best practices.
“Neither partners, nor Facebook, nor advertisers get more information as a result of this type of targeting,” Gutzmer said. “Third parties cannot append Facebook's data to the information they have about consumers and vice versa. As with other Facebook ads, users will have the continued ability to give feedback on ads (x-outs, block advertisers) and there will be a link for users to control how the partner uses their data.”
The four new data partners work with numerous brands especially related to direct mail and targeted email campaigns.
“We believe the extension of custom audiences to include select third parties will further improve marketers' ability to reach the right customers on Facebook and will lead to more relevant ads,” the Facebook announcement reads. “We will be rolling out these enhancements over the coming weeks, starting with marketers in the U.S.”