Facebook lets admen have a rummage through your shopping bags

Our customers need to see you wiggle ... bitch

Facebook is testing a new tool that will allow e-tailers to track purchases from users of the free-content ad network.

The purpose of the feature is mainly to demonstrate that displaying ads on the site is a profitable move for advertisers, who are understandably nervous about Facebook's staying power.

Reuters reported on Friday that the so-called conversion measurement tool had been a top customer request put to Facebook from admen for some time now.

The news wire spoke with the network's ads business boss David Baser, who said: "Measuring ad effectiveness and outcomes is absolutely crucial to all types of businesses and marketers."

He also stressed that the data sent to marketers would be transmitted and received in anonymised form. The conversion measurement tool is currently being tested and is expected to be fully available by the end of November. ®