The Nielsen Company and Facebook today announced a multi-year strategic alliance to help marketers better use the Internet to develop and market new products.  The first product of the collaboration, Nielsen BrandLift, is designed to give marketers a tool for measuring the effectiveness of Facebook advertising, and will launch in the U.S. with selected test partners later this week, with a full rollout occurring in the coming months.

“Facebook is an increasingly vital link between consumers and brands.  We will now be able to add deep knowledge of this important social network to our unmatched media measurement and consumer insight across all three screens.  Together, we will be able to provide the missing elements to clients seeking better understanding of how Web content and online advertising affect consumer behavior,” said John Burbank, CEO of Nielsen’s online division. [Watch the Advertising Week keynote from Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg featuring comments from John Burbank.]

The alliance comes at an important crossroads.  As with most advertising, online spend was down, but only 2 percent on a year-over-year basis.  At the same time, however, advertising on the top social network and blogging sites increased by 119 percent.

Read the full press release.