The New York Times reports on Square's new integration with Facebook. Announced on Wednesday, the integration will enable small businesses that use Square to process payments to buy and target Facebook advertising using Square’s software. Square will collect subscription fees from the new product. The benefit to small businesses is that Facebook ads bought through Square’s platform are directly connected to sales activity and data, according to the Times. This will  enable business owners to understand whether their Facebook ads are working to attract new and repeat customers. “There’s a lot of excitement around buying Facebook ads, but the critical …

In a detailed blog post, Facebook explains how its auctions work, offering tips and a video. The post emphasizes all that goes into determining who sees which ads on Facebook. For example, "across Facebook, Instagram and the publishers in the Audience Network, advertisers are running ads with different objectives, like brand awareness and sales, and are optimizing for different outcomes, like video views and clicks. So, to ensure all ads are evaluated in a consistent way, we assign a total value to every ad that competes in the auction. The total value is calculated from three factors: 1. The advertiser’s …

AdExchanger's Ryan Joe landed an exclusive interview with the FTC's Julie Brill who announced she's stepping down from her post on April 1 to join the Hogan Lovells law firm as a partner. Brill said consumers have a responsibility to understand their data and to protect it. They data collection and use of data on mobile apps and connected devices will, however, be "much too complicated for them to navigate on their own."  Brill maintained that companies need to proactively help consumers. "There’s a real problem when it comes to third-party data collectors like ad networks. Advertisers and ad networks …

There's a new way to target niche audiences: The Jewish Ad Network targets users based on synagogue membership data, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.  “The targeting we can do gets very granular. It’s very similar to Facebook marketing,” said Barry Schwartz, president of Web software development firm RustyBrick, Inc., which launched the Jewish Ad Network in late 2015. "Targeting data for The Jewish Ad Network comes from another product RustyBrick launched in 2011, called ShulCloud, which is software specifically designed to help synagogues manage their websites, memberships, email newsletters, events and donations. The cloud-based software is …

News flash: WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell acknowledged that overt sexism and racism in the ad industry is widespread at the American Association of Advertising Agencies conference on Wednesday. No surprise as JWT, a WPP agency, is embroiled in a lawsuit that was brought by a female employee that accused JWT CEO Gustavo Martinez of making offensive remarks about African-Americans and Jews, as well as making jokes about rape. Martinez resigned last week. Erin Johnson, the employee who brought the suit which also documented incidences where she was the target of Martinez' inappropriate sexual remarks, was put on paid leave …

Taking the contrarian view, Adam Broitman, managing partner, MEC, San Francisco, says ad blocking technology will force publishers to clean up their sites, speed ad delivery and enhance the ad experience for readers. Writing on Ad Age, Broitman argues: "Partnering with premium content providers that require ad blockers to be turned off in order to enjoy the full experience can be seen as a blessing for advertisers, as it weeds out the "passersby" and ensures the presence of a highly engaged audience -- an audience that has shown their true appreciation for the content they are looking at as opposed …

AdExchanger's Kelly Liyakasa reports that Adobe is hoping to fill a void with the launch of its Adobe Marketing Cloud Device Co-op, a cross-device system built around Adobe Analytics and the Audience Manager data management platform. The gap within the cross-device ecosystem: Facebook and Google offer scaled, cross-device matching capabilities but only within their walled gardens. "Adobe Marketing Cloud, which sees more than 41 trillion digital impressions each year, hopes its co-op will offer the best of both worlds." The co-op will analyze, via anonymized methods, how different devices are related and ports that link to the co-op’s members.

Writing on Street Fight, JB Brokaw, president for Sociomantic Labs, North America, says that Foursquare is moving in the right direction by getting into the analytics business and attempting to solve attribution issues. But, its solution doesn't go far enough because "as a standalone it still suffers from the same issue that plagues the online industry: single-point attribution." Foursquare, which now positions itself a “location intelligence” company, calls its product Attribution Powered by Foursquare and the goal is to help brands measure how media impacts foot traffic in brick-and-mortar locations. Brokaw writes: "The most accurate attribution models are those that …

CBS Interactive has signed a deal with Bidtellect, a native ad exchange, to increase native programmatic advertising on the majority of its websites, according to Adweek.  The deal will provide native ad inventory across 18 of CBSi's properties on desktop and mobile. David Morris, chief revenue officer of CBS Interactive, told Adweek he's "bullish" on programmatic and has "seen substantial growth within our native programmatic channel quarter over quarter."

Adweek suggests 3 ways to become a better listener on Twitter -- and perhaps, a better real-time marketer: Use Advance Search to zero in on conversations, create a customer service mindset and  monitor your list and others.