Facebook Allows Advertisers To Target Latinos

Facebook is now allowing its advertisers to select their targeting based on ethnicity — specifically Latinos. This makes sense, considering that 1 in 6 Americans are now Latino, which represents a $1 trillion market, so brands that are increasingly headed to Facebook must be pushing the company to reach out.

According to ClickZ, the feature was most likely added in the latter part of 2011. Advertisers are not exactly sure what metrics Facebook is using to assign this classification, but it’s not based solely on language, given data from the company’s ad metric.

Facebook’s ad tool notes that there are 4.1 million users use the social network in Spanish in the United States. And, in a 2009 study from Facebook itself, the company utilized U.S. Census Bureau Genealogy Project data, including the frequency of popular surnames with a breakdown by race and ethnicity, to analyze users by race. So, the company may be targeting Latinos by any combination of these methods.

ClickZ wrote more:

Facebook has added a Hispanic targeting option to its self-service ad-buying platform. Marketers whocreate an ad and then select the broad category targeting option – as opposed to precise interest levels – will see an “Ethnic” tab. Currently the only subset option is “Hispanic,” which can be added to the targeting mix with a click on its check box.

Advertisers that work on Facebook’s platform currently target Latino users via zip codes with a high concentration of Latinos, as well as by targeting a users’ pages and interests, such as Univision or Telemundo.