Facebook was expected unveil a new ad product today at Advertising Week in New York, and unveil it did. Just days after shuttering its controversial Beacon ad program, COO Sheryl Sandberg keynoted at Advertising Week and publicly introduced the social net's newest ad product. The effort includes a multi-year collaboration with Nielsen, “aimed," as Paid Content’s Tameka Kee notes, "at shedding light on how campaigns running across the network impact metrics like purchase intent and brand affinity.”

The product, dubbed Nielsen BrandLift, will roll out on a test-basis to a limited number of U.S. advertisers this week.  Ultimately, Facebook plans to make BrandLift available to all advertisers.  While BrandLift allows for demographic targeting it is not specifically a behavioral product, a fact that Sandberg went to lengths to clarify.  It does not collect or monitor personal data or behaviors.

Instead, as Kee points out, “Facebook is using this as a way to turn its network of over 300 million users into a genuine market research platform—one that hopefully delivers more organic insights than focus groups.” In an early trial of BrandLift, P&G was able to trace a specific lift in purchase intent to a social media campaign. The trial was based on metrics from P&G's Secret deodorant Facebook fan page and a subsequent opt-in survey users took.

It’s an interesting idea, one that Facebook could take to the bank if its gains traction with brands. What Facebook has in droves is users, conversing around everything and anything under the sun. When this chatter (and traffic) pertains to brands and can be collected in a meaningful way, it could certainly provide insights.

BrandLift's success resides on users completing surveys-- so I'm imagining these surveys will be short and sweet, with a value exchange from brand to the consumer in return for their time. I'd like to see a crystal clear opt-in and value exchange in return for those consumer insights, lest Facebook repeat its painful experience with Beacon. Source: paid Content, more