Facebook has finally formally announced that they will be offering a new “ad-servicing platform,” which is named Atlas. The program will allow Facebook to compete directly with Google’s DoubleClick network. While Google has a major head start in this area, many believe that the Atlas platform will be able to pull a significant amount of the market away due to some very strong advantages.
The most significant of which will be the fact that Atlas won’t be relying on cookies, which have the primary technology used by ad networks almost since their inception. Instead, Atlas will be using information already available from the Facebook social network. In addition, they will gather other information about user’s browsing habits to help further ensure they are able to display very targeted ads.
In the blog post from Facebook, they said, “Atlas delivers people-based marketing, helping marketers reach real people across devices, platforms and publishers. By doing this, marketers can easily solve the cross-device platform through targeting, serving and measuring across devices. And, Atlas can now connect online campaigns to actual offline sales, ultimately proving the real impact that digital campaigns have in driving incremental reach and new sales.”
This move was made possible by Facebook’s 2013 acquisition of the Atlas platform, which they bought from Microsoft. Microsoft had purchased it as part of a large package when they acquired aQuantive in 2007.
Atlas has already announced a few of their major partners that they will be using, including Millennial Media, AdMarvel, Medialets, Celtra, Social.com, Jivox, Marin Software, Kenshoo and Instagram. These properties will display ads from the Atlas platform, as will many others that will undoubtedly sign up before, during and after the platform officially launches.
You can read more on the official Facebook/Atlas blog post HERE.
