Facebook and IBM have teamed up on marketing solutions with IBM’s marketing cloud clients now being able to utilize Facebook’s ad capabilities starting today. This includes Custom Audiences, which can be used in conjunction with IBM’s analytics and design features.

IBM has a new feature called Journey Designer, which brands can use to create personalized customer experiences and then use Journey Analytics to get a better grip (in aggregate) on how customers responded. According to the company, combining this with Facebook’s ad technologies will enable brands to more accurately determine which customers are among Facebook’s active users and “establish correlations in aggregate between their interests and interactions across multiple channels.”

The partnership extends beyond this, however. The companies also announced that Facebook will be the first company to join the new IBM Commerce THINKLab, which is a “research and collaboration environment” in which companies work directly with brands to develop new technologies to personalize customer experiences. In this, IBM researchers, Facebook experts, domain experts, designers and other partners will work directly with partners to find areas of need and generate new solutions based on those.

“Our partnership with IBM will help top brands achieve personalization at scale by using IBM’s marketing cloud to find and engage their target audiences on Facebook, as well as solve their vexing challenges by consulting with IBM Commerce THINKLab, ” said Blake Chandlee, VP of Partnerships for Facebook. “We will also be working closely with IBM Commerce THINKLab to help deliver people-based marketing that’s optimized to achieve each brand’s business goals.”

“Brands understand the increasing need to provide customers with powerful and personalized experiences to nurture loyalty,” said Deepak Advani, General Manager at IBM Commerce. “Through this collaboration, consumer product companies and retailers will be able to quickly and easily gain deeper insight into what their customers expect and provide them with compelling experiences that bridge the physical and virtual divide.”

IBM says it will use deep analytics, on top of Facebook’s anonymized and aggregate audience insights with additional info from its own marketing cloud so marketers have a “clearer picture” of their target audiences. They’ll be able to replicate proven campaigns beyond Facebook to other brand channels including their own stores, sites, and apps, the company says.

It uses the example of a retailer launching a new line of running gear using Facebook’s Custom Audiences and targeting solutions to segment customer groups that are interested in long-distance running. They can gain insights into the audience’s running gear preferences, adn then offer deals based on those and location.

Wired says the partnership will “supercharge” personalized ads. You have to think that IBM’s analytics capabilities and Facebook personalized data capabilities will indeed make for a pretty powerful combo.

Image via IBM