• by Tanya Gazdik , March 12, 2009

Facebook sent out a message to advertisers Wednesday afternoon notifying them that there are two new features to target users with: language and target location radius.

"Many of you have told us you would like to target users by the primary language they speak," the message said. "Now you can. For instance, if you would like to target Spanish-speaking users in the United States, simply type in 'Spanish' into the targeting box labeled: Languages. If no other targeting filters are chosen, you'll see there are over 1 million people who match your 'Spanish speakers in the U.S.' target audience."

The note said that many advertisers had requested broader city targeting options. "Radius targeting allows you to target users within a certain mile radius of your target location," the note said. "This feature is currently available for city targeting within the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada within 10, 25, and 50 miles of the cities you select. For instance, you can now reach people in Miami and include the cities within a 50 mile radius which happen to be too numerous to cite here."

Facebook's Nick O'Neill wrote on the company blog about the changes, calling them a "huge upgrade for Facebook's targeting."

"Previously, in order to target based on language, you were forced to specify countries that you wanted to target," he wrote. "Frequently there are countries that have multiple languages and adding the language feature will help substantially. In regards to the new distance targeting, this means that advertisers can now specify metropolitan areas rather than just cities. ... One feature that I'm hoping Facebook launches soon is the ability to target by zipcode."

The timing of the announcement is not surprising, considering that Google announced Wednesday that advertisers can now target users based on interests, O'Neill wrote. "This move clearly reduced the value gap provided by Facebook advertising and other social networks like MySpace who offer targeting by interest," he wrote. "Facebook still has advertising advantages in that you can target based on an individual's job position, age, location, and gender."

Facebook also announced Wednesday that it had reached 190 million active users and expects to surpass 200 million by the end of March.

"If Facebook can continue at this pace, the company should easily surpass 300 million users before the end of the year, which is approximately 20% of the total Internet population," O'Neill wrote.