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Google and Facebook ad traffic is 90% useless

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Re: Google and Facebook ad traffic is 90% useless

#2
90% useless is still better than most of the alternatives.

Seriously though, it's hard to track success.

If I'm showing an ad wanting people to rush out and buy sneakers... it's rare that it will hit the right person at the right spot in their sneaker purchase decision journey.

But what I want is to bombard them with information so that when they are ready to buy sneakers, they think positively of the sneakers I am selling.

I don't care if they don't follow a perfect path on my site... if they click around and click off... they most likely aren't going to click and buy on the spot. I'm OK with this.

How do I know if my advertising is working? Well... tracking users is one way, but just asking users is something a lot of stores don't bother with. A simple "how did you hear about us?" or hit them up with a customer satisfaction survey after the purchase with a few questions -- incentivized with a coupon. You'll get some great metrics that will help you understand if you marketing budget is being well-spent.

Re: Google and Facebook ad traffic is 90% useless

#3
post #2

90% useless is still better than most of the alternatives. Seriously though, it's hard to track success. If I'm showing an ad wanting people to rush out and buy sneakers... it's rare that it will hit the right person at the right spot in their sneaker purchase decision journey. But what I want is to bombard them with information so that when they are ready to buy sneakers, they think positively of the sneakers I am s…

True. Early on when I used the Google Keyword tool it told me it could drive 400 clicks with a max bid of $0.50 per click. In reality I can get 10 clicks for $1.25 per click -- and that is when the conversion rate is an order of magnitude worst.

For me that means I am paying 100X more than what I had expected.

Re: Google and Facebook ad traffic is 90% useless

#4
post #2

90% useless is still better than most of the alternatives. Seriously though, it's hard to track success. If I'm showing an ad wanting people to rush out and buy sneakers... it's rare that it will hit the right person at the right spot in their sneaker purchase decision journey. But what I want is to bombard them with information so that when they are ready to buy sneakers, they think positively of the sneakers I am s…

The case I am making is I believe Google & Facebook mix "active" and "non-active" users to create an artificial stream of users such that paying by impression is always worst than CPC.

Re: Google and Facebook ad traffic is 90% useless

#5
post #2

90% useless is still better than most of the alternatives. Seriously though, it's hard to track success. If I'm showing an ad wanting people to rush out and buy sneakers... it's rare that it will hit the right person at the right spot in their sneaker purchase decision journey. But what I want is to bombard them with information so that when they are ready to buy sneakers, they think positively of the sneakers I am s…

Agreed. You definitely have to do retargeting campaigns too so you can stay in front of them and help drive them to convert when they are in the consideration phase.

However, if you are bidding on keywords showing purchase intent (usually on Google Adwords), the user's should be more engaged. If the Google PPC traffic isn't engaging you may need to optimize your landing page and do some A/B testing.

Facebook is quite different because the user isn't expressing intent at the time they see your ad (usually interest/demographic based targeting) and are having to jump off FB to check your site out. So your landing page has to be really compelling and quicker to digest for that audience. You have to try and capture an email and drop a FB retargeting pixel for sure.

The strategies should be different based on those channels because of the context and frame of mind the user is in.

Re: Google and Facebook ad traffic is 90% useless

#6
post #2

90% useless is still better than most of the alternatives. Seriously though, it's hard to track success. If I'm showing an ad wanting people to rush out and buy sneakers... it's rare that it will hit the right person at the right spot in their sneaker purchase decision journey. But what I want is to bombard them with information so that when they are ready to buy sneakers, they think positively of the sneakers I am s…

Well it still tells something that 90% of majority of Googles revenue is based on fabricated BS.

Re: Google and Facebook ad traffic is 90% useless

#7
post #6
post #2

90% useless is still better than most of the alternatives. Seriously though, it's hard to track success. If I'm showing an ad wanting people to rush out and buy sneakers... it's rare that it will hit the right person at the right spot in their sneaker purchase decision journey. But what I want is to bombard them with information so that when they are ready to buy sneakers, they think positively of the sneakers I am s…

Well it still tells something that 90% of majority of Googles revenue is based on fabricated BS.

Correct. This is the main point of the claim, and that their CPM is a fabricated stream of visitors with a specific mix of "active" vs. "non-active" users - which they control.

Re: Google and Facebook ad traffic is 90% useless

#9
post #8

Was it a Search or a Display Campaign for Google? I could understand that adsense webmasters used clickfarms. However finding out that google is using clickfarms for Search campaigns would be uncovering the greatest scam of the Internet.

I was optimizing for best behavior - so, in the case of Google - Google Search Network only, no network partners. I also moved Mobile devices to -100% so I don't bid in that space. So, desktop & tablet only.

Re: Google and Facebook ad traffic is 90% useless

#10
post #8

Was it a Search or a Display Campaign for Google? I could understand that adsense webmasters used clickfarms. However finding out that google is using clickfarms for Search campaigns would be uncovering the greatest scam of the Internet.

Automating clicks on competitors ads might be beneficial for companies who are competing on the same keywords.

This could be of course just ordinary user behavior. When searching something, I'm opening tens of different pages. Probably I scroll quite quickly through most of them. Just made some quick tests and I think on mobile phone I also act as described, so just flick to the end of the page glancing stuff on my way.

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