Whoever said imitation is the sincerest form of flattery might not have had social in mind, but the lesson applies in spades.

Less than a month after Twitter debuted a Buy Now button, Facebook has followed suite.

Buy Buy Baby

Facebook used a blog post to announce it has begun adding a 'Buy' button to a select group of sponsored advertisements in the News Feed.

“With this feature, people on desktop or mobile can click the “Buy” call-to-action button on ads and Page posts to purchase a product directly from a business, without leaving Facebook,” the company wrote.

Keep it in the family

Facebook went on to explain that credit card information would be kept secure within its eco-system and not shared with advertisers. 

With Facebook expected to net a cool 7.8 per cent of global ad revenue this year (up from 5.8 per cent in 2013) this new feature could help Facebook become that much richer. And add another incentive for brands to advertise on the social network.

At the moment only a handful of US small to medium businesses have been selected for the test, which is now appearing both on desktop and mobile iterations of Facebook.

To find out more visit facebook.com. 

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