Facebook (META 0.43%) hopes to create a more effective, one-stop, social media marketing solution with today's acquisition of Atlas Advertiser Suite from Microsoft (MSFT 1.82%).
Based in Seattle, Atlas is a campaign management and measurement solution for marketers and agencies. In essence, the company helps advertisers ensure the right message gets in front of the right customers at the right time. Facebook recognizes Atlas has built-in capabilities for this kind of measurement and, with this acquisition, Facebook hopes to further enhance the system. Ultimately, Facebook wants to build a product that will give advertisers a complete view of their digital advertising effectiveness on the consumer on desktop and mobile.
That's important, because marketers and agencies find themselves in complex marketing strategies today, trying to understand how their efforts across different channels complement and strengthen each other. Thus, they may adopt siloed marketing strategies for each channel, leading to poor and inconsistent experiences for consumers.
The deal seemed to be a no-brainer, as marketers already use Atlas, and Atlas has been an approved measurement partner of Facebook since June. Current Atlas clients shouldn't see any changes to their service.
Ultimately, Facebook wants to combine Atlas's powerful platform with Nielsen (NLSN) and Datalogix to help advertisers close the loop and compare their Facebook ad spending to other channels.
