Facebook advertisers cross 5 million mark, small businesses to be key focus

Facebook has breached yet another milestone this month by registering up to 5 million Facebook advertisers on their platform, up from 4 million last September as confirmed by Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg.

Nearly 75% of the 5 million Facebook advertisers are from outside the United States, and India leads the list of countries that are growing the fastest, followed by Thailand, Brazil, Mexico and Argentina.

Based on Y/Y Growth, the top five countries are the United States of America, Brazil, Thailand, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

The company now boasts 65 million business Pages and more than 8 million business profiles on Instagram.

Mobile devices play a significant part in the creation of ads, as much as 50% which is reflected by Facebook’s focus around creating and delivering mobile ads, with the number going up by 40%.

90% of Facebook’s colossal user base accesses the social networking platform through mobile devices, and mobile advertising makes up 84% of ads revenue, as confirmed by Facebook in February.

Speaking to Reuters, Sheryl Sandberg expressed the social networking platform’s decision to assign priority when it comes to encouraging more small businesses to adopt advertising on their mobile platform, boosting the number of Facebook advertisers.

Keeping the aforementioned goal in mind, Facebook is said to be updating their suite of ad services which could help the company grow their advertiser numbers even further.

The Mobile Studio enables small businesses with limited resources to make creative ads on Mobile, with apps and tools that are easy to use, and can deliver finished ads quickly without consuming too much time, resources or energy.

Facebook also offers Blueprint eLearning courses to arm people with the knowledge to make the most of Facebook as an advertising tool. One million unique users, with half of them belonging to small businesses currently avail the Blueprint courses, which are available in ten different languages.

The company says that more than 2.5 million eLearning courses have been taken by people across more than 150 countries, and 50% of our total course enrollments are taken by small or medium business owners and employees.

Although much more popular among big brands with a large amount of revenue, Facebook aims to attract smaller businesses by offering sophisticated audience targeting, mobile design studio and online courses in up to 10 languages.

"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," Sandberg said.

Facebook also launched The Facebook Small Business Council complete with its own dedicated website in the United States which is best described in the company's own words, "Behind every business is a person, and behind every person is a story. Stories of resilience, strength, passion, and dedication. To help all businesses grow, we want to understand their goals and challenges. And the more we can learn, the more we can help. In 2014, we launched Facebook's first Small Business Council in the United States. The U.S. Council consists of over 40 businesses across a variety of industries, size and geography. Every business may have started small, but all of them dream big. Thank you to the businesses on our U.S. Small Business Council and to the 65 million other businesses around the world for choosing to grow with us."