At the time of launch in March last year, Facebook had two million advertisers, which has now increased to three million, while the social network now boasts over 60m pages.

Given that growth, Blueprint has been revamped to cater to global needs of small businesses, large marketing agencies and students alike.

“In the quickly evolving world of digital marketing, it can be hard to stay on top of all the tools and opportunities offered by the Facebook family of products and services. We created Blueprint to help advertisers get the most out of our powerful marketing platforms,” the company said.

“With over one million course enrollments, Blueprint has helped marketing professionals and people from businesses of all sizes succeed through Blueprint eLearning modules and from the hands-on training at Blueprint live.
And we’re continuing to expand.”

That expansion will include Blueprint Certification – a programme created to recognise “advanced-level proficiency in Facebook’s family of products and services”. This will include lessons on advertising with Instagram on Facebook Messenger.

Elsewhere, the Miami Ad School has been signed as a pilot Blueprint partner and will integrate the programme’s coursework into the curriculum. The tie-up will provide guidance to Facebook on how it will work with other educational institutions going forward.

Read more on Facebook’s business developments:

• WhatsApp updates terms to reflect new business communication focus
• Instagram meets needs of 200,000 advertisers with business profiles and new tools
• Facebook: Women have power to create £10.1bn for UK economy by 2020

The US has been the top country to have adopted Blueprint so far, but India, Brazil, Mexico and South Korea round off the top five. Given that international interest, French and Indonesian language support has been added, creating a total of nine languages.

Over figures have revealed there are over 170,000 new enrolments worldwide each month and 20,000 in the US alone. On a unique user basis, there are almost 450,000 people engaging with Blueprint.

The most popular courses are Facebook Terminology and Welcome to Marketing on Facebook, followed by Brand Best Practices, Successful Campaigns and A/B Testing.

Facebook continued in a blog: “No matter what your role is in the advertising industry, Blueprint Certification can give you the edge you need. Blueprint Certification helps digital advertising professionals differentiate themselves in a competitive job market, provides the advertising industry with a better understanding of Facebook advertising to help maximize ROI and gives businesses a way to select and retain people with expertise in the Facebook family of products and services.

“Blueprint Certification is not only the most rigorous and reliable measure of Facebook advertising competency, it’s the only one officially recognized by Facebook.”

There are two certifications on offer at present, the Facebook Certified Planning Professional and Facebook Certified Buying Professional. After choosing the preferred course, users will need to prepare for two exams. Once passed, users will receive a digital badge that can be displayed on across social networks, websites and email signatures.

By Zen Terrelonge

In an exclusive interview with Real Business, Facebook’s Benji Shomair, director of Pages, revealed how use of the platform by businesses has grown.