Outsell Clients Can Now Leverage Offline Data to Precisely Tune Ads on Facebook with “Custom Audiences”

Outsell One of the First Digital Marketing Companies in Automotive Space to Integrate Facebook’s new “Custom Audiences” Feature Into its Platform

Outsell announced today that it is one of the first digital marketing companies in the automotive space to integrate Facebook’s new “Custom Audiences” targeting feature into its platform. This allows Outsell’s clients with offline data to upload, match and create precisely tuned ad audiences on Facebook, via web and mobile, to forge stronger connections with people they already know.

Previously, Facebook only allowed advertisers to target users based on broad, interest-based criteria contained in their profiles. Its new Custom Audiences feature now allows companies to instead target ads to Facebook users by matching email, phone numbers or user IDs that users have previously provided to the advertiser. For example, an automotive dealer may have a list of customer email addresses – via Custom Audiences, Outsell matches the email addresses to Facebook users and creates a custom targeted audience who would then see the dealer’s advertisements on their Facebook pages. The files are hashed before being sent to Facebook so that no personal information about individuals is shared with any third party.

In effect, Custom Audiences integration provides Outsell’s clients – dealers and/or automotive brands – with an opportunity to engage with existing customers and leads via a new, powerful channel that complements email and mobile marketing and helps advertisers build a more holistic view of a customer’s wants and needs. Dealers and brands can even take advantage of predictive models built within the Outsell platform to target ads according to buying stage or segment.

“Combining the power of our behavioral and transactional data warehouse with the intimacy and immediacy of Facebook will be tremendously powerful for our automotive industry clients,” said Mike Wethington, CEO of Outsell. “This is a logical extension of our easy-to-use Digital Engagement Platform, as it leverages the predictive models built by Outsell for the Facebook channel. Never before have automotive marketers been able to target social media ads with this type of precision. We’re really excited about the potential for this technology, and proud to be among the first to offer it in the automotive space.”

Outsell’s Custom Audiences integration is already in pilot with dealers from two major automotive manufacturers. The program will be opened to additional agencies and manufacturers later this year.