Facebook launches ‘Partner Categories’ feature to help marketers better target audience segments

Marketers in Australia will soon have access to Partner Categories, a feature that allows marketers to reach audience segments based on people’s interests off Facebook.

This offers the ability to create a more relevant ad experience for people on Facebook. Australia is the first market in APAC to open up partner categories. Partner Categories are already live in the US, UK, France and Germany.

How Partner Categories work

Partner Categories are targeting clusters created by Facebook’s third party data providers. They are a packaged targeting option to reach people on Facebook based on their off-Facebook activity. These categories are defined by partner data matching.

By using Partner Categories, marketers can now reach their audiences based on the brands and products people buy. For example, a pet food company might want to reach pet owners who own their own home. To date, advertisers have been able to show ads to people based on their expressed interests – such as age, gender, favourite activities and city they live – on Facebook.

Now, with Partner Categories, a marketer can also show ads on Facebook to people who, for instance, have previously purchased dog or cat food, and are a homeowner or renter.

Partner categories in Australia will use data from our select third party partners, Acxiom, Experian and Quantium, and employ a privacy and data-protective matching process specifically designed so that Facebook does not send any personal information to the third party data partner. With Partner Categories, we only share with marketers aggregated information, like the size of the audience they’re reaching, and we don’t share specific information about individuals included in a category.

In addition, people will still have the same control over the ads they see on Facebook. They can learn more about the ads they see, give feedback or opt-out using the controls we provide through the ads themselves. Ads that are well targeted benefit the advertisers who run them by driving higher return on investment and are a better experience for people who see more relevant ads. Marketers have long used this type of targeting off Facebook, and we are excited to make it available through Facebook in Australia.

Partner Categories can be used across devices, using all Facebook ad formats. Marketers can choose a category that they are targeting in other marketing channels, or test a new one. With over 13 million Australians using Facebook every month, Partner Categories may be used alone or in conjunction with other Facebook targeting, allowing marketers to accurately reach their audiences with relevant messages.

Says Will Easton, managing director, Facebook Australia and New Zealand: “Today 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 (Quantium, Acxiom & Experian) Facebook  advertisers will now be able to connect with potential audiences in  ways not seen before in  digital advertising.”

Says Dean Capobianco, managing director, Acxiom ANZ‎: “We’re very excited to be part of Facebook’s Partner Categories and further extend our services and expertise to marketers across the country. This partnership offers marketers great choice, it combines Facebook’s scale and engagement with the ability to target people using rich segments and powerful data insights. We look forward to working with Facebook to continually reshape the world of marketing for advertisers.”

Says Leigh Terry, CEO, Australia and New Zealand, OMD: “Advertising is moving from reach goals, to reaction goals and measuring what C-Suite (CEO, CFO and CMO) ultimately care about which is sales. Facebook is based on unique ID, rather than cookies and as such the move to further bolster their data set with local 3rd party data allows us to not only measure who has actually seen advertising activity but then how that exposure impacts favourability and sales. As such it is an increasingly compelling proposition for us and our clients, and we are delighted that OMG, and clients, are part of this beta program.”