Facebook to Let Advertisers Bid on Ads Using Your Browser Data

Facebook is expected to introduce real-time bidding as a feature to their advertising. This is something that Google has done for years, which legs advertisers use browsing history to target users.

Facebook Exchange, the bidding feature, is projected to be launched in a few weeks. Facebook is currently working with eight different firms, such as Turn, TellApart, MediaMath, DataXu, AdRoll, Triggit, and The Trade Desk, to create this feature. Facebook has just begun to include cookies to track users by their browsers. Third parties will match information from other sites with those cookies. If a user searches for “truck,” and then goes onto Facebook, advertisers in the auto industry will be able to show that user ads on Facebook for trucks.

Although Facebook’s traditional advertising is very successful, the new changes will allow for advertisers to achieve more impact and insight, more quickly, at a smaller cost. Facebook already leads the U.S. display ad market, with a 14% share in 2011, and is expected to rise to 16.8% in 2012.