History of Facebook for Business
Did you know Facebook has been around for over 16 years? Follow along as we chart their historic evolution in becoming the tech giant we know today. Follow along as we:
Illustrate the growth of its advertising revenues alongside the roll out of products and software updates that appeal to businesses
Gain insight into how Facebook has become the leader in social media advertising and how they connect businesses with their 350 Million US users (including Instagram).
2004 –
- The birth of Facebook as a Harvard-only social network
2005 –
- www.Facebook.com domain purchased for $200K
- Non-university students allowed to join
2007 –
- Advertising is launched in the form of banner ads, sponsored links and the “Marketplace”
- The platform is taken mobile
2008 – Ads Revenue: 272 Million
- Businesses are encouraged to make free pages
2009 – Ads Revenue: 764 Million
- Advanced ad targeting options are added including language & geographical data
- Page owners are able to manage their ads through the Ads Manager
2010 - Ads Revenue: 1.87 Billion
- The company is valued at 41 Billion as the 3rd largest web company in the US
- Introduces Page Likes as a replacement for Becoming a Fan
2011 - Ads Revenue: 3.15 Billion
- Timelines are introduced for profiles
- The Messenger Mobile Application is launched
- The Subscribe button is added to pages for direct linking to their websites
2012 – Ads Revenue: 4.28 Billion
- One Billion users reached (globally)
- Mobile ads are launched
- Facebook buys Instagram for $1 Billion
- The Social Graph is released allowed advertisers’ access to behavioral data
- Retargeting ads via cookie-based application become available
2013 – Ads Revenue: 6.99 Billion
- Video ads are launched
- Lookalike audiences are introduced
- Mobile ads account for 40% of ad revenue
- Instagram launched advertising
2014 – Ads Revenue: 11.49 Billion
- The current 3-level advertising campaign structure is introduced (Campaigns > Ad set > Ads)
- Carousel ad types are introduced making more room for photo content
- The ability to advertise via the Ads Manager on Audience Networks becomes available
2015 – Ads Revenue: 17.08 Billion
- Dynamic Product, Lead, and Canvas Ads are launched
- Ad performance data including conversion tracking, custom audiences and retargeting via pixels are added to the Ads Manager
2016 – Ads Revenue: 26.89 Billion
- Ad performance data including offline conversions are added
- Facebook Live & Instagram Stories launched
- The Audience Network grows to include mobile websites
2017 - Ads Revenue: 39.94 Billion
- New ecommerce and retails focused ad formats are added
- Stories with click-bait style headlines are de-emphasized as low-grade content
2018 – Ads Revenue: 55.01 Billion
- Artificial intelligence targeting is introduced
- Advertisers are granted visibility to see where their ads appear (In-stream video, Instant Articles, Audience Network, etc.)
2019 – Ads Revenue: 69.66 Billion
- Split testing between two creatives (ads), delivery, audience or placements is introduced
- Mobile use grows to 96% of total use
- Mobile ad formatting gets a text to image ratio change that prioritized images
- Collection Ad types are introduced
2020 – Ads Revenue 35.7 Billion as of Q2 end
- Advertising transparency becomes more of a priority with several user features implemented
- Off-Facebook Activity is introduced to allow users more control over what data is shared with advertisers
- Facebook updates the algorithm to be more friend focused
- Facebook begins testing email marketing tools
In Closing
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