Colleen Fielder | @yogirlcfield

Facebook has recently launched another addition to their advertising — Product Ads. This will be a big help to businesses with several different products. Target, for example, sells a wide variety of products, so how can they go about offering specific products to certain audiences or displaying only the most relevant products? Facebook is here to help.

Facebook uses the demographics and psychographics provided on a standard profile page to help companies reach their intended audience. If you aren’t sure exactly whom you want to reach, you can use Facebook to showcase a few products — possibly your best-sellers, for instance — and if those products sell out, Facebook will automatically turn of the ads. Target, Criteo and Shutterfly have already begun using Product Ads and have seen some major results.

Companies with a vast amount of products can simplify the process by uploading their product catalog to Facebook. As we’ve already seen before, advertising on social media can be extremely helpful because companies can receive positive and negative feedback in real time from their intended audience rather than waiting around for results.

If you were thinking this sounds a bit like the Google Shopping service, you’d be right. Google’s service, launched in 2012, allows marketers to advertise a little or a lot of their product catalog to users. It’s one of Google’s most successful businesses and Facebook is now challenging that. The main difference is that Google’s service is based off a user’s search while Facebook is location and interest-based. Facebook may have the advantage because their service is so mobile. Being able to reach audiences in real time is invaluable.