Citi is jumping into the ad business and entering a fast-growing and competitive market

Abhinav Anand, head of value cards, lending, and commerce at Citi, wants to connect advertisers with Citi's customers.

Citi Citi is jumping into the advertising business.

The bank is letting brands target ads to its more than 70 million customers based on their spending habits.

It's the latest example of financial companies using their customer data to sell ads.

Citi is the latest company outside Madison Avenue to launch an advertising business .

The bank exclusively told CMO Insider that it's creating a new unit called Citi Commerce Media, which will let brands advertise to its more than 70 million customers based on their spending.

Citi will target ads to people on its own app and website, as well as on other properties, based on their spending histories.

So a customer scrolling on Facebook could see a 10% off ad from a travel company, for instance.

Part of Citi's pitch is that it can link its ads to measurable business impacts.

It said it ran a pilot ad with retail, payments, technology, and health and beauty brands.

Two campaigns produced an average 15% lift in spending compared to people who weren't shown ads.

Citi said its platform would be informed by intel from 6.5 billion annual transactions across more than 700 spending categories.

"We are focusing primarily based on your spending pattern, and that's what the advertisers care the most about," said Abhinav Anand, head of value cards, lending, and commerce at Citi.

A growing number of non-advertising companies have leveraged their customers' data to build ad businesses.