Facebook is preparing to take a bite out of Google’s online advertising business by revamping its Atlas technology to go head-to-head for a bigger share of the lucrative $140 billion industry.
Atlas is the ad service Facebook bought from Microsoft last year. It’s the technology Facebook uses to provide its users with advertisements specifically geared to their interests.
The latest move will enable Facebook advertising partners to take advantage of Atlas’ people-targeted advertising on platforms that go beyond just Facebook’s own website and apps to the rest of the Internet.
While companies have been long able to follow customers through their online activity through the use of cookies, targeting ads specifically to them as they go, the Atlas redesign takes the process a step further. It enables the integration of mobile devices, going above and beyond what is currently available to advertisers elsewhere.
The revamped technology works when Facebook users log onto the site with their mobile devices. This action registers a device identifier with Facebook’s servers. This identifier is then used to track an individual so if another app on the device asks for an ad, Facebook can then use information about the customer to send the most targeted ads their way.
The idea is to blend these mobile identifiers with the other information, such as browser types and cookies, to target ads in a more specific, granular way.
Facebook has promised Atlas won’t enable advertisers to discover identifies and has enabled its users to change privacy settings if they so choose. The advantage of the technology is it will enable advertisers to serve up exactly the kinds of ads a particular customer is interested in on the sites, apps and devices they are using.
Atlas also delivers the added benefit of being able to use Facebook data to target potential customers on Instagram, the photo-sharing app Facebook scooped up in 2012. In addition, they’ll be able to see who saw their ads and if purchases were made as a result of the exposure.
Omnicom Group Inc. is the first big users to sign on to test the Atlas product, representing advertisers, such as Intel Corp and PepsiCo Inc.
“You can get the right person at the right time on the right device,” said Omnicom Digital’s chief executive officer, Jonathan Nelson. “It’s going to shift dollars, from more broadcast-oriented stuff to more finely tuned messaging.”
That ability is reach people at the right time and on the right device is what Facebook is counting on to help it take on Google more directly. Whether it’s embraced by users themselves remains to be seen.
