After years of focusing on growth and precious little to show for its recent monetization efforts, Foursquare announced a program on Monday to let all businesses advertise on its platform.
The initiative expands on a beta program Foursquare had launched this summer with 800 businesses across the globe. On Monday, Foursquare launched a self-service page where businesses can state their business needs and their budgets. Foursquare will do the rest.
[seealso slug="foursquare-real-time-recommendations"]
"You can say, 'Here's the business I want to drive traffic to, here's how much I want to spend and here's my monthly budget. Go for it,'" says Noah Weiss, Foursquare's director of product management.
Such businesses have a choice between two basic kinds of ads: search and on the Foursquare home screen.
Foursquare will provide metrics for the ad, including the number of views, actions, action rate and cost per action.
One vendor who used the ads in beta says they work pretty well. Paul Kermizian, who runs Barcade, a small chain of game bars, ran ads that targeted people who were near one his locations and regularly frequented bars. Kermizian spent $150 a month per location for the ads.
"The response has been very positive," he says. "We've seen increased traffic in Foursquare users, our ratings online and in actual sales."
For Foursquare, the question will be whether other vendors will follow suit. After focusing on growth for the first few years of its existence, Foursquare began trying to monetize the platform last year via ads. The company reportedly made just $2 million in revenues last year despite a valuation around $760 million.