Foursquare Selling Its Location Data Through Ad Targeting Firm Turn
Check-in Data Being Used to Contextualize Ads on Facebook — As part of its efforts to generate new sources of revenue, Foursquare is working with ad-tech company Turn to allow advertisers to use its treasure-trove …
Context & Ripple Effects
Foursquare had already been pursuing an advertising platform and had framed monetization around specific targeting rather than generic banners. Its earlier move into coupons also tied check-ins to merchant demand rather than treating them solely as a consumer feature.
The Turn arrangement extends that strategy beyond Foursquare’s own surfaces: check-in data can help advertisers contextualize Facebook ads, giving Foursquare a revenue path through an ad-tech intermediary.
First-order effects
- Foursquare gains a new channel to monetize its check-in data, while Turn can offer advertisers location-informed targeting for Facebook campaigns.
- Advertisers using Turn can incorporate Foursquare check-in signals when contextualizing Facebook ads, making location behavior an input to campaign targeting.
Second-order effects
- Facebook’s ad inventory becomes more valuable to buyers able to layer Foursquare-derived location signals through Turn, reinforcing demand for richer audience data around its ad products.
- Foursquare’s own ad proposition shifts toward data distribution as well as in-app offers and promotions, putting greater value on the targeting data generated by its user activity.
Third-order effects
- If such intermediary partnerships proliferate, location check-ins become an advertising-data asset that can travel beyond the app where they were created, rather than a feature reserved for that app’s direct advertisers.
- The arrangement points toward an ad market in which behavioral context is assembled from specialized data providers and activated through large media platforms.
The trend: Mobile services are turning user activity into portable targeting signals sold through ad-tech channels, not just ads sold inside their own products.