• by Colin Kirkland , October 31, 2023

Meta’s emerging Verified for Business program is expanding to Canadian businesses -- which, as of this week will be able to purchase a blue checkmark on Facebook and Instagram. For $36.99 CAD (Canadian dollars) per month, the verification label says, it will equip brands with exclusive reach-focused tools. 

“Get discovered in new ways by being featured as a Meta Verified business,” the company stated during the initial launch. “Features may include appearing at or near the top of comments and search results when people type your business name, or appearing as a recommended business to follow in Feed.”

The program originally launched in New Zealand at the start of October as an expansion of Meta’s subscription verification program for creators. 

According to Meta, buying a blue tick will provide eligible businesses with proactive impersonation monitoring for added brand protection, access to support and help regarding account issues, and most notably, new subscription features focused on helping “small businesses achieve what they want most on the platform: to establish their brand and be discovered by new customers.”

A Meta Verified subscription complements the existing tools available to businesses on Meta-owned apps.

“As we learn from initial testing, we’ll continue to evolve our business offerings to add more value for businesses of all sizes, such as more tools for people to easily discover and engage with verified businesses on our apps,” Meta says. 

To promote legitimacy, and value, in the program, Meta has built in a multi-step verification process and “various checks” “before, during, and after a business subscribes,” including “proactive monitoring for business impersonation.”