Facebook has relaunched Atlas, an advertising platform to help companies better target users on websites outside the social network. The company acquired Atlas from Microsoft last year. While Google’s DoubleClick is the dominant advertising tool with a 32 percent share of the market this year, Facebook is aiming to increase its 8 percent to take over the lead. Facebook sees a major opportunity in the 92 percent increase projected for the worldwide mobile ad market.

Currently, Google holds the lead in advertising tools. “But that lead was built at a time when most people surfed the Web, clicked on ads and bought stuff online using desktop computers. Now more people are switching between desktop computers, smartphones and tablets, creating openings for others, like Facebook,” reports The Wall Street Journal.

The mobile ad market is expected to grow 92 percent to $36 billion. Meanwhile, eMarketer predicts that Facebook will take 20 percent of this market.

Facebook claims that its ability to access user information allows it to more appropriately target ads outside Facebook. It can also better control how often the user views the advertisement, even with the number of devices they might be using.

Meanwhile, Google uses third-party cookies to follow users, which cannot then be tracked across all devices.

“In mobile, most ad-serving systems fail because most mobile devices don’t accept cookies,” said Camelot Communications’ Sam Bloom. “Atlas is able to target real people regardless of whether they are on mobile or desktop. That’s very powerful and interesting.” 

“What Facebook is doing with Atlas is really killer. It has potential for a lot of different advertisers,” said Havas Media Group’s Rob Griffin.