FaceBook Ads Model Reviewed
We’ve been dabbling with Facebook Ad’s of late. They've been on our radar for a while; we did look at them last year when they first launched, so I thought I'd revisit and see how it all hangs together.
I’ve been running some Test Ad’s – I like to test things out thoroughly (i.e. learn from any mistakes) before I advise/recommend Reseo clients on a certain course of action. It can save a lot of red faced embarrassment.
FaceBook Ad’s are amazingly powerful in some ways and really (really) annoying in others. There’s so much potential in there, but Facebook has a long way to go before I’ll take it seriously (or recommend it as an advertising platform).
Here’s the thing, (and I may be wrong here – it happens on occasion), but perhaps for the first time in history, online social media advertising allows Advertisers to target their advertising on demography and interest.
You can target your FaceBook Ads directly at “Facebookers” who fit your target market. It’s scary, but Facebook probably knows more about you and your interests than your own mother! And they use that information to help Advertisers like me, target you.
Here’s an example showing how you can target your Ad’s to your “perfect” customer profile:
The combinations are unlimited!
So far so good.
Where Facebook Ad’s fall down is the reporting on conversions and ROI. Until they sort this out, steer clear.
Quick caveat, if you’ve configured your analytics properly - you can measure FaceBook Ad ROI, but you’d need to a lot of manual work to measure how much you're spending on FaceBook clicks (or impressions) vs. how much revenue you're generating from those clicks.
It’s logical to compare FaceBook Ad’s to Google AdWords. If you’ve ever spent any time setting up and using conversion tracking in Google AdWords you’ll know how powerful that can be.
Here are the results from my three day FaceBook Advertising experiment.
There’s a nice pretty graph, lots of impressions, abysmal click through rates (but that might have something more to do with the quality of my Ad!), and a total spend of USD$25.38.
The problem/question I have is how many sales did I make from the clicks (or spend)? Google AdWords tells me this sort of information almost instantly, but FaceBook Ad’s do not. Quite simply, FaceBook Ad’s don’t offer conversion tracking, so I have no idea; I’m flying around in the dark.
To sum up, I guess it's fair to say that the platform is still quite immature, and at this stage we can’t recommend it as a serious Advertising option until they at least get a conversion tracking feature.
I’ve been running some Test Ad’s – I like to test things out thoroughly (i.e. learn from any mistakes) before I advise/recommend Reseo clients on a certain course of action. It can save a lot of red faced embarrassment.
FaceBook Ad’s are amazingly powerful in some ways and really (really) annoying in others. There’s so much potential in there, but Facebook has a long way to go before I’ll take it seriously (or recommend it as an advertising platform).
Here’s the thing, (and I may be wrong here – it happens on occasion), but perhaps for the first time in history, online social media advertising allows Advertisers to target their advertising on demography and interest.
You can target your FaceBook Ads directly at “Facebookers” who fit your target market. It’s scary, but Facebook probably knows more about you and your interests than your own mother! And they use that information to help Advertisers like me, target you.
Here’s an example showing how you can target your Ad’s to your “perfect” customer profile:
The combinations are unlimited!
So far so good.
Where Facebook Ad’s fall down is the reporting on conversions and ROI. Until they sort this out, steer clear.
Quick caveat, if you’ve configured your analytics properly - you can measure FaceBook Ad ROI, but you’d need to a lot of manual work to measure how much you're spending on FaceBook clicks (or impressions) vs. how much revenue you're generating from those clicks.
It’s logical to compare FaceBook Ad’s to Google AdWords. If you’ve ever spent any time setting up and using conversion tracking in Google AdWords you’ll know how powerful that can be.
Here are the results from my three day FaceBook Advertising experiment.
There’s a nice pretty graph, lots of impressions, abysmal click through rates (but that might have something more to do with the quality of my Ad!), and a total spend of USD$25.38.
The problem/question I have is how many sales did I make from the clicks (or spend)? Google AdWords tells me this sort of information almost instantly, but FaceBook Ad’s do not. Quite simply, FaceBook Ad’s don’t offer conversion tracking, so I have no idea; I’m flying around in the dark.
To sum up, I guess it's fair to say that the platform is still quite immature, and at this stage we can’t recommend it as a serious Advertising option until they at least get a conversion tracking feature.
Labels: facebook ads, facebook advertising, review
posted by Chris Thomas - Reseo at
4:34 PM
3 Comments:
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David - Site Metrics said...
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- 21 February 2009 3:26 AM
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lloyd said...
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- 26 June 2009 4:43 PM
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Robert said...
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- 16 July 2009 4:51 PM
Post a Comment Create a Link HomeHi Chris,
I have also been experimenting with Facebook Ads as of late.
I agree the platform still has a way to go before it reaches its full potential.
Love:
1. The level of targeting, from geographic to sex, sexial orientation and relationship status to favorite bands/movies etc.
2. Cost per click. I was able to get clicks from 10 to 30 cents. Unheard of in Adwords (and even myspace ads).
3. Free $100 ad spend for new accounts.
Hate:
1. Ad Approval time. Anywhere from 2-3 hours to a day.
2. Inability to edit approved ads. This is a real pain, you have to 'create a similar ad' to edit even the smallest detail. Then you get the approval time issue again.
3. Inconsistent ad approval/disapproval process. Frustrating.
3. If you want to split test ads or track conversions there is a bit of manual work in setting it up.
I listened to an interview with the head of advertising at Facebook recently. Sounds like they are quite aware of their short comings but are still in their infancy.
Looking forward to the improvements and taking advantage of this platform before it becomes crowded and cpc gets too inflated.
Can't you check the conversion rates of all the traffic that comes from facebook.com? Or is that not a feature within G Analytics?
Anyway good article, it frustrates me they havent been able to create greater levels of sophistication. I think it would take less than six months to create the type of sophistication they need with a facebook app developer, why cant they do it themselves?
Hmmn I have also been testing the medium and clicks that they say are coming through are likely to inflated by up to 80%. Be careful, 20-30c Us can really add up to a high click cost.
How is everyone else varifying their click from Facebook. We do it with a link tracking code.
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