Facebook Advertising Platform

Facebook has recently relaunched its Ad server.

Let's start by covering some history. Facebook's ad server is called Atlas. Atlas was acquired from Microsoft about 16 months ago. Atlas is aimed at competing with Google in the digital advertising space. However, all of the commentators that are focussed on the Ad Server itself are missing the point. The introduction of Atlas represents a major paradigm shift in Facebook's vision of the future of digital advertising. Atlas can be a leap forward, but is has a number of obstacles that it needs to overcome.

These obstacles are possible to address and FB remains one of our favourite areas for our advertisers to publish. We recommend getting the personal touch of individuals publishing through the Phigit platform, rather than the shot gun approach. Click here for some of the Facebook advertising options on Phigit.

So what is different?

The big difference is the way Ad Tracking has changed thereby allowing a more coordinated campaign. Targeting can be improved and FB claims to be able to use cookies in combination with a FB login, Apple's Identifier for Advertising and Androids Advertising ID to be able to serve ads not only in FB but across other media properties.

The objective is to target specific audiences (like you can do on the Phigit digital platform) and reduce the shot gun approach of the past.

So what the problem?

This concept and approach has promise but it still has many problems for your average advertiser.

It is not used widely and not easily accessible by your average advertiser. It only has 20 larger advertisers using the platform today (but hopes to attract many more).
Cross device data will not leave Facebook's wall which limits the power of the advertising platform. Data is power and the data remains with FB.