Facebook Inc, the world's largest social networking site, is increasing its mobile advertising presence among local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to increase digital ad revenue.
The move by the US company aims to catch up with the burgeoning mobile ad market, promoting local SMEs to go online to stay competitive, as well as supporting the development of the digital economy in Thailand.
The Digital Advertising Association of Thailand reported video ads on Facebook search were on the rise, gaining revenue share of the country's overall online ad spending from 2013-14. Traditional online display ads continue to decline.
"Small businesses are the backbone of the Thai economy," said Arrow Guo, head of SME businesses for Greater China and Southeast Asia at Facebook.
Mr Guo said at least 60% of Thai SMEs did not have any online presence, according to the National Statistical Office of Thailand in 2013.
He said Thailand was an important country for Facebook because of the proliferation of the country's mobile devices. More businesses are turning to mobile ads to boost sales revenue as traditional print ads are expensive and hard to measure.
Mr Guo said Facebook saw a substantial increase in ad traffic on the site.
Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings research reported the average online reach for narrowly targeted online campaigns is 27%. In comparison, targeted campaigns on Facebook have a 91% accuracy rate.
Globally, there are 1.39 billion active Facebook users and 2 million businesses that advertise on Facebook, mostly SMEs. Ads grew the fastest in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific.
There are 30 million small businesses with active pages on Facebook, up from 25 million in November 2013, said Mr Guo. Almost 70% of Facebook users are connected to at least one small business in their home country. There are some 25 billion connections between SMEs and Facebook users worldwide.