The Facebook Marketplace originally launched as a place where users could post items that they had for sale, and users could look at them, share them, and make arrangements to buy the items. This was Facebook’s attempt to compete with the Craigslist market.
Up until recently, the marketplace was purely user driven, which many people liked. Now, however, it is possible to run paid advertisements within the marketplace. Most people have expected this option for quite some time since it will provide Facebook with a significant revenue stream.
Mike Manning, the Facebook spokesperson, said, “You can’t run ads just in Marketplace, extending a campaign that starts in News Feed as an additional placement, in the same way you can extend an ad to appear in Instagram.”
This essentially means that businesses still can’t just place their own products in the marketplace and use paid advertising to ensure they are seen by as many people as possible. Instead, you make a traditional News Feed item, and have it promoted within the marketplace as well as other locations.
This will help to keep the marketplace clean, and primarily focused on user to user transactions, which is clearly what the vast majority of users want. Overall, however, this will provide many marketers with great opportunities to get their products or services in front of an audience that is actively looking to buy (or sell) specific items.
If done properly, this could provide marketers with some significant sales opportunities.
