• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, September 8, 2016

Businesses looking to grow their international mobile audiences now have a friend in Facebook.

The social giant is offering businesses a new Lookalike Audiences tool, which is designed to help them reach customers in new countries who are similar to their current customer base. They can do this by uploading a list of existing customers or high-potential leads. 

The rationale for offering such services is quite simple, a Facebook spokeswoman told me on Thursday. “Attracting customers is the number one reason a business will succeed or fail,” she said.

In addition, Facebook is inviting advertisers with site conversion or mobile app install objectives to use its extended location targeting capabilities by selecting a worldwide region or trade zone.

Facebook will then deliver ads to selected regions, and then do its best to optimize delivery to the countries with the greatest return.
 
Additionally, Facebook is rolling out some new solutions to help businesses optimize their global campaign strategy, including webinars on international marketing, and a handbook on finding the right customers in new countries.

The new offerings come as Facebook is increasingly positioning itself as a hub for global communication and trade.

Indeed, more than a billion Facebook users are now connected to at least one business in another country, according to internal estimates.

Stateside, 61% of Facebook users are connected to at least one business in a foreign country.