Facebook will soon start monetizing its Marketplace by letting users pay to promote their own listings nearby.
Almost two years after launching Marketplace, Facebook is giving users the ability to pay to promote their listings. It is the first time the platform allows users to boost their own posts since it retired the personal post boosting feature almost five years ago.
Marketplace ads will offer a simplistic approach to targeting, with buyers only required to set a budget and how long the ads will run. The ads will automatically be optimized for clicks and will only be shown to users aged 18 and above, in nearby areas.
Despite the lack of audience targeting, like gender, for example, Facebook says that ads will still be optimized: as soon as people start clicking on your Marketplace ads, Facebook will automatically target users similar to them.
Your Marketplace ads will also be automatically stopped if your mark your item as sold, independently of any remaining days or budget left in your campaign.
Facebook Product Manager Harshit Agarwal told TechCrunch that “Many Marketplace sellers have told us that they want the ability to show a listing to more people in their local area, especially if they’re trying to sell it quickly.”
Note that Facebook will not allow boosting of listings of political products. Marketplace ads are currently being tested in the U.S. and Facebook will eventually roll them out to more countries if the test is successful.
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