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Advertising made easy on Facebook with launch of new ad toolkit.
Facebook is rolling out a slew of new tools to support the 5m businesses that are now advertising on its social network.
According to eMarketer, between them, Facebook and Alphabet’s Google are expected to have 46pc of online ad spending in the world by 2018. While much of that is from big brands and ad agencies, the room for growth exists among small businesses.
Facebook reports that the number of businesses advertising on its platform has increased from 3m last year to 4m in September, and 5m by March 2017.
Overall, more than 65m businesses around the world have Pages on Facebook, and 8m have Profiles on Instagram.
And Facebook wants to get more of them to step up to the plate.
New tools to help businesses get ahead in advertising
The new Facebook Ads Managers App. Image: Facebook
Facebook has launched new tools that include an Ads Manager App, which, as the name suggests, helps businesses to better manage their apps and gain insights in just a few taps.
It includes at-a-glance analytics and improved navigation, and also recommends actions that businesses can take to improve performance.
Facebook has also debuted Mobile Studio, a novel way to create ads using only a mobile device. It said the tool will enable businesses to devise and create mobile ad campaigns in minutes.
Another new addition is the Blueprint eLearning courses to promote best practices in advertising. The courses are available in 10 languages and Facebook revealed that so far, more than 2.5m have been taken by people across 150 countries. It added that 50pc of courses are undertaken by owners of small and medium-sized businesses.
Facebook also introduced a new desktop version of its Pages Manager app, which creates a single inbox to manage communications across Facebook, Messenger and Instagram.
This will enable businesses to be more dextrous in how they manage campaigns, including finding new people similar to their best customers in other areas, or devising customised campaigns that suit particular countries or regions.
