By Sally Rawsthorne
Fused online and offline data soon to be available to advertisers on Facebook
Three of the world’ biggest data providers – Acxiom, Experian and Quantium – have signed a deal with social media giant Facebook in Australia in a move that will allow advertisers deeper insight into their consumers through fusing Facebook data with non-Facebook data.
Following rollout in the US, UK, France and Germany, marketers in Australia will soon have access to Partner Categories, a feature allowing them to reach audience segments based on people’s interests outside of Facebook as determined by third-party data providers.
Partner Categories is targeting clusters based on this third-party data, which are a packaged targeting option to reach people on the social network based on their offline activity. Facebook previously served ads based on what it calls “expressed interests”, including age, location, gender and favourite activities. Now, Partner Categories will provide a deeper insight into the user in what the company calls a “data-protective matching process” which ensures that Facebook does not provide any personal information.
Outgoing Facebook Australia and New Zealand MD Will Easton said: “We are announcing arguably one of our most exciting and innovative new product solutions in the Australian market. As a result of new partnership agreements with Australia’s three largest data providers, Facebook advertisers will now be able to connect with potential audiences in ways not seen before in digital advertising.
The data deal comes after Facebook rolled its Atlas product to the Australian market earlier this year, which allows cross-device and cross-platform ad measurement and enhanced targeting capabilities through the Facebook ID.