Facebook Marketing Firm Spruce Media Lays Off 20 People

Facebook marketing management firm Spruce Media laid off about 20 people yesterday, COO Lucy Jacobs confirmed to Business Insider. The company's headcount is now about 35 people.

The move came because Spruce wants to align its business with shifts in the way its clients are marketing and buying ads on Facebook.

Founded in 2009, Spruce had built a large managed services team to walk clients through the Facebook process.

In recent months, however, Spruce experienced more success licensing its self-serve ad management platform to ad agency trading desks, who handle large buys for multiple clients. That software-as-a-service business needs fewer staff to handle a larger volume — thus the headcount reduction at Spruce.

Jacobs tells us that the layoffs were not the result of a revenue dip. Spruce ought to be in strong financial health, as it obtained a $15 million debt financing round in November. The company says it handles $150 million a year in Facebook ads, and has been profitable on an EBITDA basis since 2010.