Flipboard launches intelligent feature to let advertisers target ads by topics

Flipboard announced that it is opening up its interest graph to advertising partners. This feature will enable marketers to better target their ads based on any of the 34,000 interests and topics on the system.

The Flipboard system will allow the advertisers to get a broader picture of what consumers are interested in and to target ads based on the company's Topic Engine.

For example, an advertiser that chooses to advertise with coffee topics may also have their ads shown with craft beer topics.

The reason behind that is the Flipboard's new feature shows that many of its users who read stories about coffee also care about stories on craft beer.

Flipboard's Head of Advertising Products Dave Huynh told Techcrunch that the goal of this ad system is to essentially recreate the advertising experience that is seen in a magazine - with high-quality ads being placed against content that might not be directly relevant but is related to the content.

He added that the more or less fits in line with Flipboard's overall mission of emulating the magazine experience on a mobile device.

Mike McCue, the Chief Executive of Flipboard said in a press release, as reported on VentureBeat, that Flipboard was well known for beauty and design, which was reflected in the presentation of content as well as advertising.

"We combine this beauty with 'brains': our deep understanding of the intricate connections between people, content and interests through our Interest Graph. The Interest Graph powers content discovery on Flipboard and now, we're opening it up to our brand partners who want to get their messages in front of their audience in the right context as well as in the right mindset," he added.

According to Fortune, McCue said that the new feature takes advantage of the analytical engine that Flipboard got from Zite, the news app that the company bought from CNN last year.

"We've built an interest graph where we understand the intricate relationship between users, content and interests on a pretty granular level," said McCue.

After acquired the Zite, Flipboard integrated Zite's component for a year. Flipboard started with the launch of version 3.0, which tapped into the topics engine. Then Flipboard rolled out new tools to help users fine-tune the content that they're seeing.

The company has been successfully accelerating user growth. There are now 80 million monthly active users. The number raised from July when it had 72 million of monthly active users. Earlier this year, Flipboard has raised $50 million in a new financing round.