Google AdWords
Despite the obvious popularity of facebook, their future rests on two factors, both of which lie partly out of their control.
The first is their ability to make money from a great idea. The web may have changed the delivery method and reach of interesting ideas, but the fundamental law of business still applies. Profit is required.
The second is their position as King. Facebook isn’t new, but has been flavour of the month for years now. Yet history teaches us that crowds are fickle and tastes change. I still remember when AltaVista was yesteryear’s Google, when MySpace was the new way and when portable music meant carrying a huge plastic ghetto blaster or boombox.
My main reservation with facebook advertising isn’t so much that it interrupts, but more that it’s invisible.
We’re so used to seeing advertising through our browser that it no longer registers. Quantity has rendered it useless.
Google AdWords works because people go to Google looking for a solution to their problem, and the ads show them what they’re looking for.
When people log in to their facebook accounts, however, they’re not looking for a solution to a problem. They want to see what their friends are up to or to share pictures and snippets of their lives.
I am, however, a data and control addict, and the targeting capabilities of facebook are incredibly appealing, so I’ve setup a small experiment to see how well Facebook advertising can work.
I’m targeting software developers in the UK and US (try doing that in AdWords) and have committed enough of a budget to get a feel for how it works.
The campaign has been running for 10 hours, and so far has generated over 7,000 impressions and no clicks whatsoever.
It’s early days yet, and I’m going to give it at least a week before even attempting to draw any conclusions. But so far… well let’s wait and see.
Update: 11,000 impressions and one click – a 0.009% CTR. But this isn’t AdWords and might actually work.
Later: 40,000 impressions and 4 clicks. I’m most interested in what these people are going to do though…
That was also my experience when I tried it for a month or two, impressions but no clicks.
My experience is proving to be interesting already. 4 clicks on 39,000 impressions. But I’m far more interested in conversions. Time will tell.
Just an amazing coincidence that I started my own ad on Facebook just yesterday !! And like you, have about the same amount of impressions (9000) and no clicks.
My best one was 92,215 impressions and 77 clicks. No conversion though… I’ve left Facebook advertising..
If facebook makes no money, how can they hope to survive? Advertisers have to support facebook and help them find a way to make it work. If it does we all win. Dont just complain here – tell facebook what your experiences are?
I also tried facebook advertising. The system is slow and hard to understand. And my results were a waste of time. Could have been because of my ads, could have been I didn’t know the system, could be that facebook isn’t the right place to advertise. Has anyone here made it work for them? If so please share your experiences!
To get clicks you’ll have to bid higher. I tried matching my PPC bids on Facebook and got no clicks. I also tried suggested bid levels and burned through $100 in an hour or so with no sales.
Facebook bid prices needs to come way down before this is a viable option.
Peter, I’m now on a dizzying 63 clicks! Obviously this is only a basic experiment, and if the results appear worthwhile I’ll be taking it further. The question is, what are the effects of raising my bids? Higher position? More exposure? Better targeting?
Experiment? Either advertise or don’t!
I fared little better:
http://successfulsoftware.net/2010/11/12/advertising-your-software-on-facebook-fail/
Hi Andy – we’re now on 127 clicks, at a total of $256.64. Our logs are showing us that some of the visitors are spending time on the site and we’ve had a handful of requests for information. So right now it’s not too bad.
Really interesting point about not looking for a solution when they use facebook. Maybe as facebook starts to offer more dating services and event planning or marketing services, the users’ mindset will change? For now, it seems a social offer or a Facebook application seems like the better product to advertise. With any kind of advertising, you need to test lots of variations to really understand if it works. You’re not going to know if you try three. You need to try dozens and keep optimizing.
Lots of Clicks and Lots of Money Spent. No conversions! Had to give it up.
[...] Software Marketing News don’t seem to be impressed. Their 0.009% CTR didn’t exactly impress them. But this was a first experiment, so Facebook might not be to blame here. [...]
I run 4 different ads, I received big bill with too many clicks but 0 emails or request, I pulled all my ads off I think its all waste of money.