Facebook introduces missed call ads to bolster revenues in emerging markets like India

Social networking giant Facebook is testing a new type of advertisement in India that will allow mobile phone users to give missed calls to advertisers in order to receive a return call that will deliver a pre-recorded audio message about everything from sponsored cricket scores to information about shopping discounts- minimising data charges for the user, according to a Reuters report.

In their early tests, the ads led to a 2.5 times year-on-year increase in online sales, according to Facebook. In the coming months, it plans to make the missed call ads more widely available. With this, Facebook aims at bolstering its business in emerging countries such as Brazil, India and Indonesia.

Sheryl Sandberg, the company's COO recently expressed that India has potential to be the largest economy in the world through its large base of SMBs. Facebook has more than 100 million users in India, with the majority accessing the service on feature phones. Previously, Facebook had optimised ads on its service to work on slower wireless connections in emerging markets, and it is now improving its tools in individual countries to help marketer's better target different groups of users.

As of now, the average revenue per user that Facebook generates in international markets is significantly lower than in the US and Canada.