Foursquare Launches Self-Serve Promoted Listings For Small Businesses

Today, Foursquare announced the launch of self-serve promoted listings for small businesses. The company started testing promoted listings with a handful of local New York City businesses in early June. The new ads don’t rely on user check-ins. Local businesses can promote their listings and offer specials to nearby users.

Foursquare says they have been fine tuning their targeting technology during the past year of piloting their ad programs. The self-serve ads rely on the same algorithm that powers Foursquare’s Explore recommendation engine.

Below is an example ad from the Foursquare announcement:

Businesses are charged per action — either when users visit the advertising business in person, or click-through to the full listing on Foursquare.

Foursquare says they are making the ad platform available to a few thousand businesses today and will roll-out the service to the 1.4 million local businesses on Foursquare in the coming months.

This is the second advertising service Foursquare has introduced in just the past week as it strives to rev-up earnings. Check-In ads for brands to promote their goods after users check-in rolled-out last Tuesday.