Facebook announced that its Facebook Exchange ad exchange is now out of beta. The company announced the offering back in June.

The Facebook Exchange enables advertisers and agencies to use cookie-based targeting through Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs) to reach their audiences on Facebook with what Facebook says are more timely and relevant messages.

Product Marketing Manager Scott Shapiro says, “Facebook Exchange allows marketers to use their own real-time consumer insight data to reach an audience on Facebook. Facebook represents a large portion of display ad inventory on the web—more than 25% according to a recent ComScore study—so this is a significant opportunity for advertisers using DSPs to extend the same strategies that are working for them on other display exchanges to Facebook. The only ad format available on Facebook Exchange is our Facebook Standard Ad, so you can really think of this as display.”

“Start with your objective and the type of targeting that is best to achieve that objective—a deep understanding of those two things will lead you the type of ad product and buying channel that is best for your goals,” says Shapiro. “For example, say I’m an e-commerce company looking to drive purchases on my site. In this case, people browsing on my website or searching for products that I sell on a search engine are expressing meaningful intent. Facebook Exchange would be a great fit because it enables me to use those signals to remarket to this valuable audience on Facebook, and at the right time.”

“For many advertisers in industries like retail, travel, auto and financial services, Facebook Exchange is a great way to drive conversions from Facebook based off consumer insight data,” he adds. “Advertisers can extend these same performance-driving techniques they do on other exchanges to Facebook.”

He does note that there are situations where the Facebook Ad Exchange may not be such a great fit, such as when the objective is to drive awareness through a photo posted to a brand’s page. The reasoning is that fans can drive viral distribution value through the news feed in such a case. Sponsored Stories and Page Post Ads, he says, can help fuel that.

Basically, according to Shapiro, the Facebook Exchange is best when the objective is a conversion outside Facebook, and the data exists outside Facebook.