Facebook Marketplace has been fertile ground for buying and selling notoriously niche as well as some useful items.
Launched in late 2016, Facebook’s peer-to-peer selling platform was created after the company saw the success of thousands of unofficial buy-and-sell groups — which attract over 550 million people around the world every month!
In short, the FB marketplace empowers online sellers to create listings without the hassle of finding and joining the right Facebook group. Now, buyers can easily find items for sale in their vicinity and make purchases through Facebook Messenger.
You might be thinking, what does Facebook get? While the transactions are surprisingly still free, Facebook introduced several ad formats to start generating profit in 2018. Now in 2022, brands and retailers are starting to take advantage of this social marketplace to reach the platform’s massive audience. And with users in 70 countries and 800 million active monthly users, we think it’s about time.
Why are brands and retailers flocking to Facebook Marketplace? Because it empowers them to cut through the noise to engage interested consumers, collect feedback on new offers, and build trust and reach within Facebook’s audience.
Why are brands and retailers flocking to Facebook Marketplace? Because it empowers them to cut through the noise to engage interested consumers, collect feedback on new offers, and build trust and reach within Facebook’s audience.
Engage Consumers With Strong Purchase Intent
Reaching consumers at the exact point at which they intend to buy something can lead to a massive increase in conversion rates. And, usually, it’s pretty difficult to achieve on a large scale. But on Facebook, most consumers are ready to buy!
When Apartment Guide added Marketplace ads to their existing News Feed ads, they saw conversions double and cost per conversion drop a massive 45%.
How’s that for spending a little money to make a lot of money in return?!
A Low-Risk Product Testing Ground
Another valuable feature of the FB marketplace is that there is no initial cost to create a listing. That means you can test out new products risk-free and without lengthy A/B testing. Just create a listing (which we’ll explain next), start tweaking the settings, and see what brings in the best results. You can experiment with different pricing, exclusive deals, and even special discounts. And, if you want to get a feel for what sells best on the platform before you even start making listings, you can always check out the “Top Picks” sections for each category to gain insights.
Build Trust, Increase Reach Within the Facebook Universe
Because purchases are usually made through Facebook Messenger, buyers and sellers can establish trust and lasting bonds that lead to further sales.
Another benefit of working within an advertising oligopoly like Facebook is that you can access all of their apps. Facebook can serve your ads on its platform, Instagram, and the Facebook Audience Network — a network of mobile apps that partner with Facebook to sell ad space to them.
And who could forget Facebook’s vast amounts of user data?
Facebook knows everything about its users: what they buy, what music they listen to, where they vacation, what size they wear, what they had for lunch yesterday, and plenty more. And, they are eager to use this data to make advertisers more effective! You can also integrate your Facebook ads with a hyper-personalized application that will target multiple user groups, to bring more sales and enrich data on Facebook. This all means improved reach, more personalized ads, and ultimately higher conversion rates for you.