Every day, people use Facebook and Instagram to discover all kinds of things — from the fun and eclectic to the more meaningful and life-changing. Everyone’s News Feed is unique, which means you’re more likely to see content you want to watch, groups you want to join, creators you want to follow, and products and services you want to buy. This discovery is all powered by personalization, and it’s the not-so-secret sauce that helps people discover products and services that match their needs. It’s also the engine small businesses use to reach their most likely customers, at an affordable price. We believe that’s good for small businesses and for the people that love their products. And we want more people to know why.
Today we are sharing an update on our continued investment in products and resources that can help small businesses navigate the road to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
We’re introducing Good Ideas Deserve To Be Found, an initiative that highlights how personalized ads are an important way people discover small businesses on Facebook and Instagram, and how these ads help small businesses grow from an idea into a livelihood.
It’s a critical time to have this conversation because small businesses are facing the greatest challenge of their lifetimes, with 47% saying they might not survive the next six months, or are unsure of how long they will stay afloat if current circumstances persist. (Facebook 2020 US State of Small Business Report) And for many, digital marketing has been a lifeline, with two-thirds of small businesses across 17 countries reporting that they started or increased their use of digital tools for marketing, and 61% reporting they expect to increase the use of these tools post-pandemic. (Deloitte Digital Tools In Crisis)
Good Ideas Deserve To Be Found celebrates people finding businesses they love on Facebook and Instagram like Goat House Farm in Tallahassee, Florida. Owner Melissa Hughes uses personalized ads to connect with people who want to take their yoga skills to the next level — with goats! And House of Takura in Houston, Texas, founded by Annette Njau, who had an idea to create a lifestyle brand that tells a story of African traditions with Western influences, while also supporting empowerment work in Africa.
Every business starts with an idea, and being able to share that idea through personalized ads is a game changer for small businesses. It has helped make advertising affordable for small business owners like Melissa and Annette and helped people discover products and services they might not have otherwise — like that goat yoga class they didn’t know they needed. Limiting the use of personalized ads would take away a vital growth engine for businesses.
To do all we can to help small businesses during this difficult period, we are also introducing product updates with small business growth in mind:
- We’re simplifying Ads Manager to make it easier for SMBs to get started and use personalized marketing plans to increase the value of their advertising investment. With a simplified dashboard available at login, SMBs can understand campaign performance and make optimizations faster.
- We also know SMBs are being asked to do more with less; so we’re continuing to waive fees for businesses selling with Checkout on Shops through June 2021. As we’ve shared previously, we will not collect any fees for paid online events until at least August 2021.
- Restaurants have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic, so we’re introducing new options to note what type of dining experience is available, and making this easy for people to see in Businesses Nearby. We’ve also added a new menu tab on Pages so businesses can upload their menu directly to their Page.
- We’re updating the Business Resource hub on Facebook and Professional Dashboard on Instagram with more information on how personalized ads work. And we’re making it easy for businesses to share their good ideas with a new Instagram sticker and #DeserveToBeFound hashtag on Facebook.
These investments build on the free tools and resources we introduced last year, like Facebook Shops and Facebook Business Suite, small business grant programs and virtual training to help small businesses navigate the pandemic. We will continue to make sure small businesses have a voice to reach customers, and make sure their good ideas are found.
You can discover more good ideas and learn about personalized advertising at fb.com/supportsmallbusiness.
