Meta Business Verification Giving More Questions Than Answers

The marketing influencers have been buzzing on TikTok and Instagram since last week talking about Meta’s updates to their business verification program. A new paid subscription mirroring the creator verification that was released last year. 

Meta’s Verification for Business option has already been available to brands in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada for testing but now the program will begin rolling out globally for business accounts that meet certain eligibility requirements.

What’s included in this subscription? 

Meta is offering four tiers of options for businesses, ranging in price from $15 per month up to $500 per month. Wow. Yeah. That’s a lot. 

Last year we tested the creator verified status to see if it gave an advantage over unverified creator accounts. We found that it did not make any real difference. It’s not a fair comparison to the new business verification since the creator option does not include some of these business-only paid features.

Included in all packages is the coveted blue checkmark. For some brands the $15 per month is worth it just to showcase the blue tick of honor next to their account name. The tiers also include impersonation monitoring, profile enhancement, and verified support access but the real value everyone is talking about is the search optimization and featured account status.

This particular feature is causing controversy being called a “pay to win” tactic from Meta to force businesses to sign up in order to be seen in search. Each tier includes this perk, even the $15/month offer, however there is speculation that the more expensive tiers will provide higher ranked search results. 

The jump from Business Premium ($150/month) to Business Max ($500/month) is fueling this theory among professionals. While the “search optimization” doesn’t explicitly state an increase in ranking, the “featured account” benefit clearly mentions that the more expensive packages sport increased visibility over the others. 

So Is it Worth It?

For businesses that already spend far more than $500 each month on Meta SEO and advertising then this cost makes sense. Having access to featured account status, links in reels, and preferred support can only benefit your ongoing programs on Facebook and Instagram.

For businesses that thrive on organic reach and discovery, your free lunch might be going away. The $15/month “standard” option could become just the cost of doing business on Meta. Only time will tell. We will be watching this closely as more comparison data becomes available.