Facebook have one of the most targeted ad platforms the world has ever seen but there is always one area that it has been lacking in and that is hyper local targeting. You could target people by city, country or region but that is not much good to a small businesses in a city with a couple of million residents with a limited budget. Yesterday though Facebook rolled out ZIP code advertising for the USA which is set to change the game completely and provide one of the most hyper local targeted ad platforms you could ever imagine. For the last couple of months Facebook have been prompting users to fill in their ZIP code when logging in to the site and with the release of this new targeting we can see why. For the moment this is only available in the USA but you can imagine this will be rolled out further over the coming months with postal codes replacing ZIP codes.

Endless Possibilities

This is going to appeal to large brands who want to target people based on where they live right down to small local businesses who need to drive punters in through the door. When you throw in all the other targeting that Facebook offers (gender, age, interest etc) in to the mix you can see that this is going to be a very attractive tool for advertisers all over the world.

Facebook’s Cash Cow

This announcement hasn’t had a load of attention but make no mistake about it this is one of the biggest revenue streams that Facebook has ever opened up. Local advertising is the future and brands and businesses are going to be scrambling to get on this platform to start creating innovative local deals. When you throw mobile in to the mix the potential is endless as over 250 million people access Facebook while on the go on their mobile device. In the year leading up to their IPO you can expect this to become just as important a revenue stream as brand advertising and most interestingly this is a huge threat to Google’s core ad product which shows why they were in such a rush to get Google + out the door.
Hat tip to All Facebook