Facebook on Tuesday announced its long awaited advertising system, dubbed Facebook Ads, which allows businesses to start their own Facebook profiles.
According to the company's statement, Facebook Ads will allow "businesses to connect with users and target advertising to the exact audiences they want".
Facebook provide metrics to its marketers that include activity, fan demographics and ad performance so businesses can adjust targeting and content.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlined how the company has 60 partners lined up including Blockbuster, CBS, Chase, The Coca-Cola Company, Sony Pictures Television and Verizon Wireless. Microsoft, which recently bought a stake in Facebook, is also a partner.
Facebook Ads will attempt to make advertising more viral with users learning about brands and products via friend referrals. Facebook Ads has three parts: businesses can build pages to connect with their audience; viral social ads and an interface to track activity.
In addition, Facebook also announced today that 44 Web sites are using Facebook Beacon, a tool that allows users to share information from other Web sites for distribution to their friends on Facebook. Beacon is part of the Facebook Ads system.
With Beacon, Web sites offer Facebook users the most relevant parts of their sites for distribution on the social site. When a logged-in Facebook user visits a participating site he/she is asked whether they wants to share activities with friends. The Beacon program includes eBay, Fandango, Live Nation, CBS Interactive and many other IAC sites.
