Facebook, Google Announce Advertising Partnership

Story first appeared in redOrbit.

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

Despite a somewhat contentious history between the two, Google and Facebook announced on Friday that their respective advertising arms had agreed to a deal that would make them marketing partners.

According to TechCrunch author Josh Constine, customers using the Google-owned DoubleClick online ad-placement service will soon be able to purchase re-targeted ads on Facebook Exchange (FBX), the social network’s marketing platform.

DoubleClick helps ad agencies and individual advertisers purchase space on multiple websites, primarily through automated exchanges that speed-up the bidding process, explained Alistair Barr of USA Today. Now, the new deal will allow customers of the Google-operated service to buy ad inventory on FBX within the next few months.

“Partnership has been key to Google’s success as a rising tide lifts all boats,” Payam Shodjai, DoubleClick’s Senior Product Manager, said in a blog post. “So we’re excited to announce a new way to help our clients succeed by working with Facebook to participate in FBX, their real-time bidding exchange.”

“DoubleClick allows clients to buy ads on dozens of different ad exchanges, but excluding Facebook may have forced some clients to look elsewhere for their media buying needs,” Constine added. “Once the integration is live, DoubleClick will become more of a one-stop-shop for buying ads across the web.”

Last year, Facebook launched FBX, which allows advertisers to place cookies in the browsers of users and then re-target them once they log back into the popular social media website, according to Mashable’s Todd Wasserman. The company gave no explanation as to why Google was initially prohibited from participating, nor did they explain the reasons for the sudden about-face, the AFP news agency noted.

“Though Facebook and Google compete on many levels, their partnership isn’t unprecedented,” said Wasserman. “In June 2012, Google bought Wildfire, a social media marketing agency that develops ad campaigns for Facebook, among others. Facebook this year also purchased Atlas, an ad server that sells ads on Google’s display network.”

“It’s unclear who reached out to who about the deal. While Google may have hoped that FBX would flop, the platform gained steam and became necessary to support in DoubleClick, so it may [have] caved. Or perhaps Facebook pushed for the partnership in hopes of driving more FBX sales,” Constine added. “Either way it proves that Google doesn’t have a stranglehold on demand fulfillment anymore.”