It looks like Facebook is really trying to ramp up revenue ahead of its IPO (which is now expected in May).

Apparently the company is cold calling, or cold emailing rather, businesses trying to get them to sign on for some “one to one” phone consultation on Facebook advertising, with a program called “Start to Success”. The Next Web shares such an email that someone from the company reportedly sent to a business. It says:

I am reaching out to you to discuss a new progamme Facebook are implementing for advertisers call Start to Success. This is a free and exclusive programme where we are offering a limited number of businesses a 4 week “one to one” phone consultation with our Marketing Solutions team.

As part of this free offering, our team will work with you to help you better understand the Facebook Platform and how to implement advertising campaigns that drive marketing results.

I would like to set up a call to discuss how Facebook can help you achieve your clients marketing goals through our “Start to Success programme.”

…

Furthermore, Facebook is incentivizing advertisers to stay with Facebook with 45% reduction in CPCs, according to TBG Digital’s Global Facebook Advertising Report Q4. Some other interesting stats from that report include:

– Facebook earns 23% more in ad rates since Q1 2011.

– Ad performance improves by 18% in 2011.

– Finance accounts for over 60% of impressions for offsite campaigns

To that point about increasing revenue, Facebook is expected to launch mobile ads soon. That should provide quite a boost. Ads also recently came to the news feed.