• by August 2, 2019

Hearst Magazines is working on a self-serve ad platform that will let advertisers combine their audience data with Hearst’s to target online audiences for Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Elle and Car and Driver.

Hearst Audience Select is aimed at smaller advertisers and will start operating as they prepare their fourth-quarter campaigns, AdExchanger reported. The platform will have a dashboard to show content and product preferences for Hearst’s audience, and will offer placement next to magazine-quality content.

Hearst Data Studio, the publisher’s ad-tech unit, is creating the self-serve platform after past successes with bigger advertisers that gleaned insights from their data.

Automating the process will help Hearst broaden its customer base among smaller advertisers and niche brands that can find similar self-serve tools from digital media giants like Facebook and Google.

Facebook last month said it had 3 million advertisers among its three main platforms: the main social network called its “blue app,” Instagram and Messenger.

Social-media companies, including Snap and Pinterest, also have created self-serve ad platforms to expand their business beyond a limited number of major brands.