• TechCrunch, Wednesday, February 1, 2012 11:45 AM

Putting the IPO talk aside, TechCrunch looks into Facebook’s new behavioral ad targeting system. “Facebook has been quietly rolling out the beta of ‘Open Graph action spec targeting’ which allows advertisers to target users by what they listen to, where they travel, what they buy, and other in-app activity,” it reports. These behaviors can reportedly do a better job of denoting conversion potential than, say, a user’s biography or interests. “That means Open Graph action spec ad targeting could turn finding a needle in a haystack into shooting fish in a barrel,” TechCrunch suggests.

“The targeting options could improve the ROI of Facebook ads, and thereby attract a new class of advertisers, get existing ones to spend more, and pull in dollars from search, display, and offline channels.” With the new system, Open Graph action spec targeting should help Facebook advertisers reach users who’ve stated they’ve already made a related purchase, or plan to. As such, adds TechCrunch: “This could help it break out of the demand generation stage of the purchase funnel and into the more lucrative demand fulfillment stage where Google search ads currently reign.”

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