Foursquare Just Did A User-Tracking Deal With One Of Facebook's Biggest Ad Partners

Dennis Crowley Foursquare
Dennis Crowley, founder and CEO of Foursquare Flickr via Silicon Prairie News

Foursquare will allow Turn, one of Facebook's ad exchange partners, to target its users with ads based on their check-ins, according to Ad Age.

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The move was expected, as Foursquare had been using an ad sales pitch deck since April that touted check-in targeting and pixel tracking. (Pixel tracking is one way that users are followed on the web by advertisers.)

What's interesting about the choice of Turn is that the company is best-known as one of the adtech world's largest "demand-side platforms" (DSPs). A DSP is basically an ad-buying system, in which clients buy inventory in a real-time bidding auction. The inventory is usually triggered by tracking cookies, so buyers can target people by their apparent interests as indicated by their web surfing history.

Turn is a major player inside FBX, Facebook's cookie-driven, RTB ad exchange.

At Foursquare, a users' interest will, obviously, be inferred from their check-in. The innovation here — if the implication in the ad sales pitch deck is correct — is that the ad will be triggered by the check-in as opposed to a cookie. Turn can apply its database of cookies to match that check-in with a relevant audience.

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It looks like Foursquare will not be offering individual users as targets, but rather anonymous blocks of users with similar interests, such as "mass market mom," "business traveler," and "luxury affinity."

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Welcome to the show! Let's get started ...

Foursquare ad sales pitch deck
Foursquare via Scribd

This is what ad clients want from Foursquare, but apparently weren't getting until recently. Note the "IAB" reference — that's the ad industry's standards setter, which suggests that Foursquare was looking at a way of using standard web ads on its platform.

Foursquare ad sales pitch deck
Foursquare via Scribd
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Hiding in plain sight: Foursquare was hooking up with a DSP back in April, it turns out.

Foursquare ad sales pitch deck
Foursquare via Scribd

Foursquare has 30 million users in its audience.

Foursquare ad sales pitch deck
Foursquare via Scribd
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The word "retargeting" was another clue. That word describes what DSPs like Turn do inside ad exchanges like Facebook's FBX.

Foursquare ad sales pitch deck
Foursquare via Scribd
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Foursquare wants a $50,000 entry fee for new advertisers. Cheap!

Foursquare ad sales pitch deck
Foursquare via Scribd

Foursquare is offering more than one way to target users. It's not just the actual check-in, but during a post-check-in period, too.

Foursquare ad sales pitch deck
Foursquare via Scribd
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Perhaps Stoli is a Foursquare client. Companies don't usually use each others' brands in pitches without permission.

Foursquare ad sales pitch deck
Foursquare via Scribd

Note the IAB standard being mentioned again. Foursquare wants a call to action in the campaign so it can see how many users actually responded to the ads, perhaps with a click or a download.

Foursquare ad sales pitch deck
Foursquare via Scribd
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