We Spent $1,138 on Facebook in 6 Days: Numbers and Lessons Learned

#1

Post by shanecox1 » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 9:49 PM UTC

We just completed our first Facebook advertising campaign, corresponding with our trip to TechCrunch’s Disrupt conference. Startups test theories, so we treated this first attempt as an experiment. Here is what we did and our results.

We Spent $1,138 on Facebook in 6 Days: Numbers and Lessons Learned
signnow.com

Re: We Spent $1,138 on Facebook in 6 Days: Numbers and Lessons Learned

#2

Post by Silhouette » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 10:06 PM UTC

Am I missing something here?

The author seems pleased with the results, but as an outsider who isn't familiar with his company I see an ad campaign that cost over $1,000, achieved clickthroughs well under 0.1% despite targeting, and does not appear to have resulted in any measurable benefit at all. There are some comments at the end of the article about how Facebook is great for brand awareness, but there doesn't seem to be much evidence of that in the numbers.

If I were looking at ways to spend advertising budget for a new company (oh, wait, I am looking for...) then this seems like a pretty compelling argument for not wasting money on Facebook ads.

Re: We Spent $1,138 on Facebook in 6 Days: Numbers and Lessons Learned

#3

Post by g0atbutt » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 10:10 PM UTC

Site is down. Does anyone have a mirror?

Re: We Spent $1,138 on Facebook in 6 Days: Numbers and Lessons Learned

#4

Post by aisalwaysa » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 10:19 PM UTC

Silhouette wrote: post #2

Am I missing something here? The author seems pleased with the results, but as an outsider who isn't familiar with his company I see an ad campaign that cost over $1,000, achieved clickthroughs well under 0.1% despite targeting, and does not appear to have resulted in any measurable benefit at all. There are some comments at the end of the article about how Facebook is great for brand awareness, but there doesn't see…

I can really see it going either way. I interpret this to show Facebook Ads are not a good way to get instant ROI. But there is a lot of value in having a large number of Likes because you can market to them each time you release a new product... in SignNow's case, they have 700 interested ears to begin each new adoption cycle now.

Hard to quantify the value of that. My opinion is that it's worth a lot for the early ears, but not if you are thinking short term only.

Re: We Spent $1,138 on Facebook in 6 Days: Numbers and Lessons Learned

#5

Post by alanlewis » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 10:21 PM UTC

And now the post on HN about the ads will generate far more impressions for SignNow than the ads did.

Re: We Spent $1,138 on Facebook in 6 Days: Numbers and Lessons Learned

#6

Post by mchusma » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 10:22 PM UTC

g0atbutt wrote: post #3

Site is down. Does anyone have a mirror?

too many images, just brought it up on the CDN to deliver the content better.

Re: We Spent $1,138 on Facebook in 6 Days: Numbers and Lessons Learned

#7

Post by mchusma » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 10:23 PM UTC

alanlewis wrote: post #5

And now the post on HN about the ads will generate far more impressions for SignNow than the ads did.

Thats the follow up article, expect it in the days to come.

Re: We Spent $1,138 on Facebook in 6 Days: Numbers and Lessons Learned

#8

Post by Silhouette » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 10:23 PM UTC

aisalwaysa wrote: post #4

Silhouette wrote: post #2

Am I missing something here? The author seems pleased with the results, but as an outsider who isn't familiar with his company I see an ad campaign that cost over $1,000, achieved clickthroughs well under 0.1% despite targeting, and does not appear to have resulted in any measurable benefit at all. There are some comments at the end of the article about how Facebook is great for brand awareness, but there doesn't see…

I can really see it going either way. I interpret this to show Facebook Ads are not a good way to get instant ROI. But there is a lot of value in having a large number of Likes because you can market to them each time you release a new product... in SignNow's case, they have 700 interested ears to begin each new adoption cycle now. Hard to quantify the value of that. My opinion is that it's worth a lot for the early…

Fair enough: if getting someone to Like you on Facebook turns out to be one step in a funnel that does convert a significant number of people in the long run, then yes, that has a measurable value.

I think the sceptic in me says that if you didn't get a worthwhile hit from a targeted ad spend, and if the Likers are only a subset of that target market, many of whom didn't even leave Facebook to visit your site, then it's unlikely to give a worthwhile conversion rate down the line either. Maybe the sceptic in me is wrong on this one, but only time will tell...

Re: We Spent $1,138 on Facebook in 6 Days: Numbers and Lessons Learned

#9

Post by Serene » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 10:31 PM UTC

Silhouette wrote: post #2

Am I missing something here? The author seems pleased with the results, but as an outsider who isn't familiar with his company I see an ad campaign that cost over $1,000, achieved clickthroughs well under 0.1% despite targeting, and does not appear to have resulted in any measurable benefit at all. There are some comments at the end of the article about how Facebook is great for brand awareness, but there doesn't see…

The average click-through rate for Facebook ads was 0.063% in 2009 and 0.051% in 2010. Click-through rates used to be about 3% in the 90s, but have been declining since. Current industry standard is 0.1%. I heard that facebook is good for awareness, just to let low- or no-paying people know you exist, but click-through rates are pitiful, indeed.

Re: We Spent $1,138 on Facebook in 6 Days: Numbers and Lessons Learned

#10

Post by novum » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 10:35 PM UTC

aisalwaysa wrote: post #4

Silhouette wrote: post #2

Am I missing something here? The author seems pleased with the results, but as an outsider who isn't familiar with his company I see an ad campaign that cost over $1,000, achieved clickthroughs well under 0.1% despite targeting, and does not appear to have resulted in any measurable benefit at all. There are some comments at the end of the article about how Facebook is great for brand awareness, but there doesn't see…

I can really see it going either way. I interpret this to show Facebook Ads are not a good way to get instant ROI. But there is a lot of value in having a large number of Likes because you can market to them each time you release a new product... in SignNow's case, they have 700 interested ears to begin each new adoption cycle now. Hard to quantify the value of that. My opinion is that it's worth a lot for the early…

Facebook calculates an "edge rank" for each piece of content based on metrics such as likes, comments, post time, content type, and so on. Edge rank is used, among other things, to determine the likelihood of a given piece of content appearing in your feed.

Only a fraction of a page's fans will see each update from that page. By some estimates, that number is only 5-10% of a page's fans. So they've earned 700 new fans, but that doesn't mean 700 impressions each time they post.