[caption id="attachment_47146" align="alignleft" width="300"] A campaign from Thailand which used he functionality to serve video or image ads as appropriate[/caption]

Facebook has launched a bandwidth targeting capability, enabling advertisers to deliver segmented campaigns based on whether the user's network connection is 2G, 3G or 4G.

The launch ties into Facebook's ongoing efforts to reach users in emerging markets, where still-developing infrastructure can lead to highly variable network speeds, and the capability has already been tested with advertisers in India and Thailand.

The idea is that in these markets, ads can be delivered that are appropriate to the user's connection speed, as well as their device type and OS. Creative can be optimised accordingly, so that a video ad is only seen by users on 3G connections or better, saving on wasted impressions from users who cannot reliably load the video.

This isn't the only potential application of the segmenting, however – Vodafone in India is using it to target users who might want to upgrade their current contract.