Facebook working on a real-time bidding service, Facebook Exchange
Facebook is working an a real-time bidding feature for advertising on its website. According to reports the technology, already used by Google and other Internet companies, is aimed at more effectively targetting ads at consumers.
The service, to be known as Facebook Exchange, will provide advertisers access to various types of social network users, categorised on the basis of their browsing history. Facebook’s real-time bidding is expected to roll out within few weeks.
With Facebook Exchange, advertisers will be able to show up time- sensitive ads to users. Advertisers can show more relevant ads, as they will be based on code that tracks users’ web activities or cookies. Which means, if a user who has accessed various travel sites, he might see travel-related ads on Facebook.
It’s learnt that the social networking site will allow users to close the ads in their browser, and then a link will direct users to a website for opting out of the cookie tracking. According to a Facebook spokesperson, users can find out more info on opt-out procedures at the company’s ads page.
“We do not share any user data with advertisers and people still have the same control over the ads they see on Facebook that they do today,” a spokeswoman said in a statement.
Facebook advertisers currently target consumers based on the interests they mentioned in their profiles and the pages they ‘Like’ on the social network. Facebook says it will continue to offer these advertisements and such interests will not be based on the real-time bidding service.
The new service comes just days after ComScore in its report claimed the social networks prompt consumers to do shopping (online and offline). The report said users were influenced by the social marketing messages.
In a contradictory report, Reuters said very few were influenced by the Facebook ads. It said only 1 out of 5 people on Facebook actually purchased products because of the ads or comments they saw on the network.
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