• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, August 22, 2013

Facebook and Shutterstock on Thursday announced a partnership giving marketers access to more than 25 million free images to use across all the social network’s ad formats.

Businesses will be able to access Shutterstock images through Facebook’s Ad Create tool, where they can test up to six (as well as their own photos) across the social network's news feed, mobile and desktop units. While the service comes at at no extra cost to advertisers, Shutterstock contributors will earn royalties each time one of their images is licensed via the platform.

Facebook said the new service is especially important "for small businesses who may not have resources for sourcing quality images.” It underscores the company’s recent efforts to cater more to small- and medium-sized businesses to attract more of their ad spend. Facebook also generally encourages advertisers to use images or video in ads to help boost engagement.