AllFacebook - Latest Comments in Is Facebook Advertising Effective?

Re: Is Facebook Advertising Effective?

Facebook frustrated — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 22:19:33 -0000

I am advertising my webdesign business on facebook and have had a very poor result. Low click through rates is only part of it. Not a single visitor to my companies facebook page has taken the next step and visited my website. Granted we have our portfolio, service lists and pricing and contact info all on the facebook page but still we have had 0 inquiries with over 200 dollars spent.

From Oct 2 -Oct 9 we have had 578,016 impressions resulting in 376 clicks resulting in 0 inquiries. The ad content itself is the same as I use on any other ad network and generally shows me excellent results.

Does this mean Facebook is of no value to advertisers? I don't think so. I think advertisers need to approach the facebook market differently. And I think that not all products can be successfully marketed on facebook.

Re: Is Facebook Advertising Effective?

Mark — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 02:21:23 -0000

Mate,

you say stellar too much ;)

Re: Is Facebook Advertising Effective?

James Wilcox — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:20:10 -0000

I've been experimenting with Facebook's ad system but I'm not that pleased so far. 286k impressions resulting in 206 clicks and only one sale. That's just horrible. This cost me about $100 and resulted in an $11 sale...not a great return by any stretch...so my question is where do the clicks come from and even with negative qualifiers I still get curious clicks...that sucks.

Re: Is Facebook Advertising Effective?

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Re: Is Facebook Advertising Effective?

Icon collections — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:48:04 -0000

I was considering advertising on Facebook too, but I do not think i can concentrate on a targeted audience... I may be wrong!

Re: Is Facebook Advertising Effective?

Ryan — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:27:49 -0000

I actually think facebook can be great for advertising depending on your niche. It makes perfect sense that there is a low ctr, people go one facebook to see their friends not to click ads, whereas google people are looking for products, etc. Additionally, facebook has such a wide audience that you can keep your bids relatively low and still get clicks. If i used adwords I would be spending 10 dollars a day for maybe 2 or 3 quality clicks for the keyword credit card, with facebook for $10 I get 20-25 visitors a day. its a different market but can definitley work if you are advertisig a niche for college students!

Re: Is Facebook Advertising Effective?

Guy Yom Tov — Mon, 12 May 2008 02:25:28 -0000

I think they are not 100% ready as an advertising platform

Re: Is Facebook Advertising Effective?

Astrobird — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 16:52:47 -0000

I was considering advertising on Facebook, but things seem kind of grim after reading this article. Are there any good sites for advertising your websites?

Re: Is Facebook Advertising Effective?

kazi — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:33:42 -0000

we advertise on facebook - not good 16000 impression and only 5 clicks - how sad is that?

Re: Is Facebook Advertising Effective?

Glen — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 09:42:58 -0000

Facebook advertising, or most of web advertisement will never be trully effective for the 'users' who have even a tiny bit of knowledge about PC's. For example right now, I don't even see any add's when browsing digg.com or facebook.com - I simply block them automatically with Firefox adblock.

Re: Is Facebook Advertising Effective?

Rob — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 15:09:58 -0000

It's not true that a maximum bid of .10 on CPC will result in no impressions. That was my maximum bid and I had 1000 impressions within 24 hours. I do agree though that the click through rate is not great but at least I'm not paying for the impressions (which is an option).

Re: Is Facebook Advertising Effective?

Chris Kennedy — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:38:57 -0000

Click-through rate hardly matters with CPC advertising on a site where users spend an average of 30 minutes a day and 50% login in daily. That is a ridiculous number of impressions per user and understandably will generate low click-through rates when there is no user intent driving the ad placement, but when you can get a million uber targeted impressions in a day, 800 clicks is pretty solid. Add in the new social referral system available through beacons and CTRs will no doubt improve.

Facebook is a social web application, not a search engine, so you need to accept low CTRs in exchange for insane targeting to users who have expressed no intent, and a correspondingly huge number of impressions. If you're so worried about CTR just do search advertising and get exactly the users who have self-selected an interest.

Re: Is Facebook Advertising Effective?

Roj — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 09:22:52 -0000

It's about where users want to be - within Facebook. I'm curious as to what the numbers would be if you were advertising a FB Page or App with FB advertising options rather than something off-site. I think this is where the rub lies.

Re: Is Facebook Advertising Effective?

kai mai — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 22:37:25 -0000

Chris Kennedy , you are missing the point.
People are getting impressions with low CPCs. but they are getting very low click through rate.

8 clicks / 10,080 impressions = 0.08% click through rate.
that's pathetic. and how many of these 8 clicks actually get converted?

Re: Is Facebook Advertising Effective?

Vinny Lingham — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 13:42:05 -0000

As I wrote in my post way back in August (in Facebook time, that's like a year) - I predicted that demographic & 3rd party site advertising would be the only way to really justify the valuation.

http://www.vinnylingham.com...

Re: Is Facebook Advertising Effective?

Sebastian — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 09:15:59 -0000

There are people out there that wonder why a VC doesn't get higher click-through-rates?! Omg, you should get out again with friends that are NOT entrepreneurs. There are millions of them out there. And they don't give a shit about a Union Square Ventures-ad on Facebook!

Re: Is Facebook Advertising Effective?

ivanpope — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 04:32:28 -0000

Chris Kennedy - it's not as simple at that. Obviously, if you don't bid to get impressions you won't get clicks. But Fred (and me) get the impressions, just no clicks to speak of. I've had a campaign running for a couple of weeks. It is wildly variable in how many impressions it gets, but I've only had eight clicks out of a a huge number of impressions. Utter rubbish. I guess it then boils down to the advert content - what do you advertise that works and what sort of rate do you get?

Re: Is Facebook Advertising Effective?

Mark — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 02:43:44 -0000

I've gotten 100 "fans" on my fan page, so I'd say it's effective for brand enhancement, at the least.
http://www.facebook.com/pro...

Re: Is Facebook Advertising Effective?

Jesse — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 02:40:31 -0000

Your article is right on. Social Networks focus the user on the content. Usually the advertising gets in the way, and users are more interested in the content and don't click on ads, so the CTR and eCPMs are poor. Facebook is trying to make the ads as attractive as the content.

As to Facebook's valuation, I made a few rough calculations: http://fishtrain.com/2007/1...

Re: Is Facebook Advertising Effective?

TanNg — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 02:31:28 -0000

Why "Facebook will have to start producing numbers that validates its astronomical valuation"?

They don't need money. We don't have their share. Users need good experience. Best strategy for FaceBook is forgetting about money, continue to provide better user experience, killing all other social network (including funny Google social)and dominate the world. Then the money will come.

FB seems very smart not so hastily to monetize.

Re: Is Facebook Advertising Effective?

Rae — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 13:02:30 -0000

>>>affiliate market (i.e. web spammer)

Wow, now there is an uneducated and assumptive statement. For the record, not all affiliates are spammers any more than all teenagers with their underwear showing on street corners are drug dealers.

Re: Is Facebook Advertising Effective?

Chris Kennedy — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 13:17:16 -0000

Yes, I have had fine advertising success with Facebook, as I have already stated. If your max CPC is $0.10 because you are an affiliate market (i.e. web spammer), you will not generate any impressions (or clicks) because your bid is ridiculously low. It's not rocket science people: set a realistic bid and you will get your clicks.

Re: Is Facebook Advertising Effective?

Matt Huggins — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 12:46:55 -0000

I would be interested in seeing the ad itself, as the ads I've run have converted much better than this. Perhaps it's the layout/wording of his ad, or perhaps even the niche vs. the average Facebook user. More info would be handy for making an educated decision here.

Re: Is Facebook Advertising Effective?

Joel Melendez — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 10:44:13 -0000

Facebook should add web search into their search capabilities and display related Facebook’s advertisers adds in there. Facebook’s users are so “engaged” to Facebook that I believe they would be more than happy to search the web inside Facebook instead of have to go other site. An for Facebook’s advertisers is a new opportunity to capture people’s attention.

Search adds is a great business model, just ask Google :o)