Three months to the day after it announced a beta round, Facebook has announced general release of its Facebook Exchange (FBX) real-time bidding (RTB) option. FBX enables advertisers and agencies to use cookie-based targeting through Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs) to reach their audiences on Facebook, with what Facebook promises are "more timely and relevant messages." For brands and agencies, it is a way to drive direct response goals on Facebook.

Facebook's Scott Shapiro, product marketing manager for FBX, went into details on the company’s blog, but AdExchanger’s Zach Rodgers described the takeaways as these: 1) FBX "dramatically increases the amount of 'brand safe' inventory available through RTB during 9-5 working hours," which amounts to a substantial step forward in reach for programmatic media, and 2) acquisition costs are supposedly "substantially lower through FBX than through other programmatic channels," perhaps because of "still-limited sources of demand" being exposed to the inventory Facebook has made available.

As MarketingLand details, "Given that Facebook controls 25% of the display ad inventory on the internet [comScore data], the availability of FBX is expected to have a significant impact not just on Facebook, but on the overall advertising ecosystem."

Facebook’s Shapiro said that FBX enables marketers to "use their own real-time consumer insight data to reach an audience on Facebook." Advertisers who use DSPs can push the same strategies that work for them on other display exchanges to Facebook. Facebook is working with the exchanges of numerous partners, including AdRoll, AppNexus, DataXu, MediaMath, Kenshoo, Triggit and X+1. (As the only ad format available on Facebook Exchange is its Facebook Standard Ad, said Shapiro, "you can really think of this as display").

Advertisers already working with a DSP can ask for FBX, or reach out to their Facebook reps.