Facebook, topping 5M monthly advertisers, eyes SMBs for continued growth

Dive Brief:

Facebook now has 5 million monthly advertisers on its platform, the company announced in a blog post Monday, and appears to be eyeing small businesses as a key driver for continued growth, especially on mobile.
"Small businesses provide such important products and services, but they also are a huge engine of job growth in a world where job growth is increasingly uncertain and something people really worry about," Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg told Reuters in an interview.
Facebook aims to bring more small businesses onto its mobile ad platform with the addition of new audience targeting tools, a mobile design studio, online courses, a "one click" tool to reinstate high-performing ads and a desktop tool to manage customer messages. Ninety percent of users access Facebook via mobile devices and 84% of Facebook's revenue now comes from mobile ads, per Reuters.

Dive Insight:

Facebook, following a rough period last year where its marketing capabilities and metrics came under heavy fire, continues to build out its tools for businesses. For smaller marketers, certain Facebook ad formats and functions have been out of reach, either due to budgetary constraints or steep learning curves.

The social media giant has recently been looking to break down those barriers, introducing new APIs for more complex mobile-first offerings like Canvas ads and now with the latest suite of products, ranging from a mobile design studio to online courses. Adding more educational features might not only increase SMBs access to Facebook ads, but also improve the quality and functionality of ads overall.

Out of Facebook’s 5 million advertisers, the biggest sectors currently include e-commerce, entertainment and media and retail, and 75% are from outside the U.S., Reuters said. However, Facebook executives have previously stated that digital display real estate on core offerings like News Feed is quickly drying up.

Stemming from that, video and video on mobile, in particular, are where the company appears to be eyeing its next horizon. On its most recent Q4 earnings call, Sandberg emphasized that brands see a lift when optimizing their video efforts for small screens, and the latest tools seek to more easily facilitate that.

For a closer look Facebook's new tools for marketers, check out Andrew Hutchinson's analysis over at Social Media Today.