Facebook To Businesses: It’s Now Pay-To-Play For Facebook Offers

Thanks to a “free” price tag and ease of use, Facebook Offers has been popular in the small/local business community. In the next few weeks the Offers service will begin to charge a fee.

Reuters reported that merchants will now have to pay $5 on related ads to promote a Facebook offer to a targeted audience of fans and friends. Not only would this help Facebook monetize a popular feature, but also force businesses to experiment with Facebook Ads.

Gokul Rajarm, director of product management for Facebook’s advertising and Pages businesses, told Reuters:

“We think this aligns incentives nicely … the best results on Facebook Offers will come from organic distribution plus paid distribution.”

Since launching its IPO, Facebook has been under pressure to build more revenue streams. In response Facebook has launched a variety of new ad types including Promoted Profile Posts, Sponsored Results and App Ads to name a few.

It will be interesting to see if Facebook Offers continue their popularity within the SMB realm once they carry a price. This will be rolling out to all “in the coming weeks.”