Facebook Launching Sales Tracking For Retail Partners

In an attempt to get more marketers to buy up advertising space, Facebook has announced that it will soon be giving retailers feedback on the sales they receive through ads on the social networking site. This new sales tracking tool is currently being tested, so it isn't available to all retailers yet, but Facebook told Reuters that everything should be fully implemented by the end of the month. Just in time for the holiday sales rush, which we're guessing isn't a coincidence.

This obviously works in both directions, as it allows businesses to see if they're making a return on the advertising money they spend at Facebook. If they are, then it encourages them to advertise with Facebook in the future and could even pull advertising money in from other businesses. That, obviously, would be a good thing for Facebook, so you can bet the company is hoping for results that show the ads are working.

Facebook users don't need to worry, however, as the company's advertising product manager David Baser told Reuters that the sales tracking service doesn't give retailers any personal information. It will tell retailers if you clicked on an ad and then proceeded to purchase the item, but other than that, retailers won't know anything that could be used to identify you. Baser also said that sales tracking has long been a requested feature from Facebook's retail partners, so they're finally about to get their wish.

Another benefit of this new sales tracking tool: it will help advertisers determine who to target with their ads. Since they'll have sales tracking data, they'll know which demographics responded well to their ads and which didn't. Check out our timeline below for more information on Facebook!