In a move that could help businesses and even political campaigns reach their desired demographic more effectively, Facebook will soon enable advertisers to target users by ZIP code, The Hill's Hillicon Valley blog reported.

Since the city or state level was as local as Facebook ads could previously get, The Hill noted, this new feature could prove especially useful for congressional campaigns, particularly in large cities like New York, by filtering out voters from outside a candidate's district.

The targeting strategy should also be a boon for small- and medium-sized businesses, as well as franchises and national chains, for which targeting by city may be "too broad to be effective," Direct Marketing News wrote.

Advertisers using the new method can target up to 2,500 ZIP codes with an individual ad, according to media reports.

Facebook is still honing the feature, spokesman Andrew Noyes told The Hill, but it should be available to advertisers this week.

Meanwhile, Jason Spero, Google's head of mobile ads for the Americas, told TechCrunch.com his company aims to offer geotargeting by ZIP code soon, as well, as part of its strategy to be the go-to site for mobile advertising and all things "m-commerce."