Facebook on Thursday launched zip-code ad targeting to its already detailed arsenal of advertising tools. The move will help both local and national politicos to more finely-tune their ads for campaigns at critical moments.
Political campaigns of all stripes have already been using Facebook and its targeted ads to successfully advertise campaigns and candidates.
Facebook started rolling out its zip code component on Wednesday, and it’s still being gradually made available all over the United States. The process will be complete by the end of the week, said Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes. For now it’s going to be limited to the U.S.
Advertisers can either choose the zip code as an option along with city and state options, or they can upload zip codes by bulk in an Excel spread sheet. Up to 2,500 zip codes can be uploaded.
Noyes said that if users want to target more areas, they should consider using the broader geo-targeting options instead.
In addition to city and state (and now zip code) Facebook advertisers can already target people based on their age, stated interests, connections on Facebook, marriage status, education and workplace.
Political campaigns already collect vast amounts of this kind of information through commercial databases, and their own e-mail lists. Google’s AdWords campaign also offers zip-code targeted advertising.
But the advantage of using Facebook is that advertisers get to the place where people are hanging out. The platform was hugely influential in the 2008 Presidential campaign. Sometimes, whole families started campaigning for Barack Obama after their kids started learning about him from their friends on Facebook.
Josh Levy, Free Press’ online campaign manager, said that Facebook’s move made sense since campaigns have long had the capability to target people based on their zip codes through e-mail.
