When Facebook actually began being considered a viable advertising source, there was a lot of speculation and criticism being thrown at the company. It may be a direct result of this criticism that Facebook takes such huge strides in the way of helping its marketers in any way that it can. Of course, there are still those people out there that still doubt the merit of Facebook in the advertising world, still believing strongly that Facebook ads simply do not work. So, Facebook continues its quest to prove that their advertising offerings do work, and that marketers can be successful using the number one social network to get the word out. Yesterday, Ad Age reported their expectations that Facebook would today purchase Atlas, an online ad measuring and serving service, from Microsoft. Today, their predictions came true, and Facebook has acquired the service.
Facebook’s director of product marketing Brian Boland says quite a bit in his Facebook Newsroom post, announcing the company’s acquisition of Atlas. However, through all of the benefits and facts stated in the post, one can tell that the real reason for Facebook’s acquisition of Atlas is to stop the criticisms I mentioned above. The company is trying to give marketers the proof that says Facebook ads work, which they apparently still need. Although, this is simply a theory. Here is what Boland actually states as the idea behind acquiring Atlas;
If marketers and agencies can get a holistic view of campaign performance, they will be able to do a much better job of making sure the right messages get in front of the right people at the right time. Atlas has built capabilities that allow for this kind of measurement, and enhancing these systems will give marketers a deeper understanding of effectiveness and lead to better digital advertising experiences for consumers.
There are some people out there that have the idea in their heads that Facebook has acquired Atlas as a way to better compete with Google, or even to imitate some of their moves. There is a theory that Facebook may have plans of spreading Facebook advertising across the web, as Google has done with AdSense. However, it seems the more accepted reasoning is simply to give marketers accurate measurements of ROI, essentially proving the success that Facebook Ads can bring in.
As for the actual purchase itself, there was no price released for this huge sale, but of course that has not stopped anyone from making educated guesses. The general consensus on the subject is that the price was probably between $20 million and $50 million, but definitely not higher than $100 million.
Facebook has done a lot of work with companies that measure the web’s most successful advertising providers, trying to prove its worth to the public. With Atlas on its side, maybe the company will be able to put a stop to a chunk of the doubt it receives.
 We look forward to further building out the Atlas platform to help marketers better understand how well their campaigns perform, and to help them optimize their campaigns.
We look forward to welcoming the Atlas team.
