Facebook Partners Shutterstock to Provide Advertisers Access to Millions of Free Photos for their Ads
You want to promote yourself on Facebook, but don’t have really good photos to use? Well, Facebook just partnered Shutterstock, leader in stock image downloads, and now offers advertisers free access to over 25 millions photos. These photos will not be downloaded by customers and are limited to the digital sized. Advertisers will be able to incorporate these images into their ads through a dedicated API. All the photos are searchable, so advertisers will be able to find the perfect image for their ads.
Shutterstock will be integrated directly into the Facebook ad creation tool, and each advertiser will have the chance to test his ads.
“Facebook advertisers will begin seeing the option to use Shutterstock images gradually over the next few weeks. Our new collaboration with Facebook represents another way that Shutterstock is using digital images to bring people together, make marketing communication easier and more effective, and develop new revenue opportunities for artists around the world,” said David Fraga, VP of Corporate Development.
What’s important to notice is that usage of these images, limited to Facebook ads, will be free of charge for advertisers. However, photographers who have posted these images online will earn some money.
“Royalties for each download are based on a contributor’s earnings tier and will be the same as or more than those for subscription downloads, with usage rights that are more limited than those in our standard royalty-free license,” explains the official announcement posted on Shutterstock page.
I guess everyone knows the power of a suggestive image. Having access to such an impressive image gallery from an important provider of stock photos is definitely good news for advertisers. It could be a good move for Shuttherstock’s users too, as if a company uses an image for an ad on Facebook, maybe that company will like so much the result and image that will buy other formats of the photo for other types of ads that will be used in other on- and offline places. Who knows? And if each user earns something each time a company uses his image, then it is a good think for Shutterstock’s users too.
With this partnership Facebook targets small- and medium-sized business owners who often don’t have big advertising budget and for whom free access to images could be an appealing offer from the social media network and might make them more willing to advertise in this network.
