Facebook Tests New Ways for Users to Discover Businesses

Facebook recently announced new features aimed at helping businesses connect with their customers online and grow.

In the United States, the company is testing a new experience in the News Feed feature, where users can tap on topics they’re interested in under posts and ads. For example, they can tap on Beauty, Fitness, or Clothing, and look at content from businesses related to the category they selected. This gives businesses a chance to capture interest from users who are browsing related content.

"People already discover businesses while scrolling through News Feed, and this will make it easier to discover and consider new businesses they might not have found on their own," explains Facebook. "As we learn from this initial test, we’ll look to expand this experience to more people and businesses."

The company is also providing new tools for businesses to manage their businesses page, as announced back in January. Businesses are now able to engage as their business profile through commenting, posting, and liking. There is a new dedicated business News Feed, which is separate from the page manager’s personal feed. The company says this allows businesses to more easily engage with their communities and find relevant content from other businesses.

"To help businesses save time, the Professional Dashboard aggregates all of your tools in one place with more actionable Page Insights," Facebook says. "Business owners can also manage their business Page with clearer task based permissions to admins, making it easier to control who has access to your Page."

Image via Facebook

The company notes that, as businesses continue to use the new experience, it will learn about how they use it and what they find most valuable, and then use that information to invest and repeat on other business tools.

Additionally, Facebook announced the launch of what it says are its most requested features for Facebook Business Suite, with new ways to publish and schedule Stories on mobile and desktop. This also includes ways to save posts as drafts and edit scheduled posts. These new features are designed to save businesses time and more easily schedule and create content for customers.

Image via Facebook

Facebook also introduced new optimization goals for ad campaigns, such as Conversion Leads for Lead Ads, which lets advertisers optimize for leads most likely to convert. Facebook says this means connecting businesses with the best leads, more quickly. Advertisers can also integrate their CRM data with Facebook.

The company says that, in testing, Lead Ads that used the Conversion Leads quality optimization saw, on average, a greater than 20 percent increase in lead to sale conversion rate compared with existing optimization.

There is also a new Calls optimization that utilizes data from Call ads, which lets advertisers include a "Call Now" button in their ads. This optimization has led to a greater than 30 percent cost reduction in cost per quality call, based on testing.

Finally, businesses can now convert Lead Ads forms into Messenger templates to more easily start messaging with potential customers using the Messenger app.

All of these features should give businesses a greater edge when trying to convert potential customers into paying customers.