For ecommerce merchants, one of the most disappointing things is losing a customer who visited a site and left without buying anything. However, they may be able to get a second chance at reaching these individuals, thanks to a new advertising offering from Facebook.

Facebook will now allow for real-time ad bidding, which means the social network will make use of cookies to monitor customers' browsing histories. For example, a shopper who leaves a retail website to then browse Facebook could be targeted once again on the social network if the merchant is participating in the advertising initiative.

"This means that advertisers can deliver more relevant advertising in a timely manner at a scale not possible before," a Facebook spokeswoman told Internet Retailer.

There are two major caveats, though. First, the program is only open to American brands. Second, because the initiative only involves the marketplace ads on the right-hand side of the screen, merchants won't be able to target mobile consumers.

Facebook has slowly but surely given merchants new ways of interacting with consumers. Most recently, the social network launched Promoted Posts, which enables retailers to set a promotional message at the top of their profiles.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Monday, June 25th, 2012 at 10:02 am .