Facebook Testing The Local Online Marketing Waters?

I opened up my email this morning and found a very interesting email from Facebook.  At first I thought it was a phishing email but it looked legit to me after taking a look at it.

So this is pretty interesting.  Facebook is willing to give me a $500 Facebook Ads credit on one of my accounts if I change the phone number on my Facebook Page to a call tracking number that they provide.

This test apparently has nothing to do with the Facebook Ads platform because they aren’t asking you to send any Facebook Ads traffic to your Facebook Page in order to qualify.  They just want to know how many phone calls are being derived off of Facebook Business Pages.  So what’s Facebook up to here?  Some Ideas I Have:

• They just want market research and it’s worth it to give away a $500 coupon which essentially costs Facebook nothing in order to get a glimpse inside whether Facebook is making a businesses phone ring or not.
• They want to test if what businesses are doing on their pages has any effect on making the phones ring.  For instance does a business who updates daily get more calls then one who updates monthly?  Does the amount of fans have an effect on the quantity of calls that a business receives?
• They are considering a pay-per-call program where if you want phone calls from Facebook you have to pay for them…
• They are considering charging a fee for Facebook Business Pages (or upgrades to pages) and want this data to justify it.

Facebook’s IPO is around the corner and they want a piece of the local online advertising pie.  Is this the ticket to the data they need?

Why do you think Facebook is offering this?

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