Facebook Partners With Nielsen On Ad Tracking

Facebook today is expected to unveil the partnership with Nielsen, in which the social network will begin polling users about the ads that appear on the site. Nielsen will take the stats provided by Facebook, package the information and deliver it to advertisers, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The joint venture is expected to be unveiled today by Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, and will reportedly be called the Nielsen Brand Lift.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Facebook believes that it must bring in an outside source to provide information to advertisers. The goal for Facebook is to prove to its advertisers that display ads work on the social network. Facebook believes that the best way to prove that value to customers is to bring in a third party to synthesize the data, thereby removing any potential conflict.

The move to bring Nielsen to help demonstrate the value of advertising on social networks shows that Facebook is serious about solving the problem that faces companies like itself and Twitter. Namely, both companies are providing a service that attracts users in a multitude of demographics. The problem for both companies, however, is that neither one seems to have a solid plan to monetize its product.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, recently made the declaration that Facebook was cash-flow-positive for the first time, pointing to the fact that the site must be doing something right. Still, bringing Nielsen Brand Lift into the equation may help solidify Facebook's position as a legitimate platform for advertisers, potentially changing the social networking game in a major way.