Facebook today announced it will begin charging page owners at least $5 per Offers post, with the option to pay more to promote the post and reach a bigger audience.

Previously, page owners could create offers for free, just like making any other post. Companies, however, could pay to boost the unit into a page post ad, Sponsored Story or Promoted Post. Now that ad spend is mandatory. Businesses will still be able to run Offers for a minimal budget, but ads must be created in order for people to see Offers in their feeds.

Facebook also said businesses are now able to add a bar code or a unique code to these Offers, allowing them to better track the results of their campaigns and run them on e-commerce sites as well.

Facebook told us in February that offers would replace check-in deals — a promotion that was free to create but had to be approved by Facebook before going live. Consumers claimed these deals when they checked into a location through their phone. Although Facebook said no new check-in deals would be approved after the Facebook Marketing Conference where Offers were announced, the dashboard for creating check-in deals is still available for pages associated with a physical location.