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We stopped advertising on Facebook

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Re: We stopped advertising on Facebook

#31

Post by joelrunyon »

mattmanser wrote: post #9
joelrunyon wrote: post #2

I've spend quite a bit of money on facebook ads for various of my own businesses & clients & I've basically stopped everything for a few reasons. I can't rationalize playing FB's game anymore. With the recent decrease in page reach, you're basically paying double time for FB. Once to "get" the fans and then again to "reach" them. Sure, we saw an increase in site activity, but it was debatable whether or not that actu…

How can it be debatable? Either your sales increased, or they did not increase. If your page views went up but your conversion rate dropped by the same amount, that would be worthless traffic. This is an honest question as why should we believe anything you say if you're not even doing the basic maths? Did you measure anything?

I should clarify:

It was debatable whether or not it increased revenue enough to justify the costs (both time & monetary) involved. What it came down to was that it wasn't profitable enough to justify the opportunity costs of executing FB instead of other avenues.

Re: We stopped advertising on Facebook

#32

Post by wpietri »

bluedino wrote: post #10
regal wrote: post #6

Facebook may be targeting more traditional big brand advertisers than it is small business advertisers (who need ads to convert to sales in a much tighter window). e.g., the Coca-Cola commercial you see on TV probably doesn't make a single person get up out of his chair, go grab his car keys, and drive to the store and buy a Coke. Yet, over time, get exposed to enough of those ads, and when it's time to buy, your han…

>> the Coca-Cola commercial you see on TV probably doesn't make a single person get up out of his chair, go grab his car keys, and drive to the store and buy a Coke. >> Yet, over time, get exposed to enough of those ads, and when it's time to buy, your hand instinctively goes for the one your brain is bombarded with ads for all day. I don't really think that has anything to do with it. At work we having both Coke and…

> I don't really think [brand advertising] has anything to do with it. [...] Soft drink choices come down to availability most of the time.

Coca Coca spends about $3 billion a year on advertising. [1] I couldn't find a breakdown for how much is brand-building versus other goals, but I think we can agree it's a lot.

That suggests two hypotheses: A) People in charge of a $3 billion budget for an incredibly profitable and long-lived company know what they're doing, or B) An anonymous non-expert on the Internet has correctly realized that advertisers are just fooling themselves, and he (and everybody else) is above being manipulated by brand advertising.

No offense, but I'm going with A.

[1] http://www.ajc.com/news/business/coca-cola-spent-more-than-2...

Re: We stopped advertising on Facebook

#33

Post by vidarh »

bluedino wrote: post #10
regal wrote: post #6

Facebook may be targeting more traditional big brand advertisers than it is small business advertisers (who need ads to convert to sales in a much tighter window). e.g., the Coca-Cola commercial you see on TV probably doesn't make a single person get up out of his chair, go grab his car keys, and drive to the store and buy a Coke. Yet, over time, get exposed to enough of those ads, and when it's time to buy, your han…

>> the Coca-Cola commercial you see on TV probably doesn't make a single person get up out of his chair, go grab his car keys, and drive to the store and buy a Coke. >> Yet, over time, get exposed to enough of those ads, and when it's time to buy, your hand instinctively goes for the one your brain is bombarded with ads for all day. I don't really think that has anything to do with it. At work we having both Coke and…

If you think that the way you experience the taste of what you eat and drink is not influenced by advertising, think again.

Re: We stopped advertising on Facebook

#34

Post by linux_devil »

There is a vast difference between number of likes and actual people talking about product(which matters) . In most cases followers on twitters and likes on facebook are some random user profile which can't correlate with your industry specific product and large number of such profiles look fake. I won't recommend concentrating on likes and followers but it's the engagement which actually matters .

Re: We stopped advertising on Facebook

#36

Post by babs474 »

regal wrote: post #6

Facebook may be targeting more traditional big brand advertisers than it is small business advertisers (who need ads to convert to sales in a much tighter window). e.g., the Coca-Cola commercial you see on TV probably doesn't make a single person get up out of his chair, go grab his car keys, and drive to the store and buy a Coke. Yet, over time, get exposed to enough of those ads, and when it's time to buy, your han…

Facebook style ads CAN convert in a tight window, the problem is people are looking in the wrong place for them. Nobody checks out their timeline, sees a coke ad and immediately clicks to buy. Those ads don't "convert".

What does happen is the cumulative effect of those ads put your brand (coke) top of mind. Later when somebody is searching for "snacks" on google and paid search ad comes up, that person is more likely to chose Coke than RC Cola.

You need to look at effect your "brand" advertising is having on your paid search conversion rates. The industry is trying to solve this with "attribution" schemes ie figure out which ads every converted person has seen. (shameless-plug) But my company, Optimine has a much cooler and simpler approach using incremental modeling.

Here is a white paper that I think does a decent job of explaining. http://optimine.com/assets/pdfs/Measuring_Cross_Channel_Valu...

Re: We stopped advertising on Facebook

#38

Post by toomuchtodo »

babs474 wrote: post #36
regal wrote: post #6

Facebook may be targeting more traditional big brand advertisers than it is small business advertisers (who need ads to convert to sales in a much tighter window). e.g., the Coca-Cola commercial you see on TV probably doesn't make a single person get up out of his chair, go grab his car keys, and drive to the store and buy a Coke. Yet, over time, get exposed to enough of those ads, and when it's time to buy, your han…

Facebook style ads CAN convert in a tight window, the problem is people are looking in the wrong place for them. Nobody checks out their timeline, sees a coke ad and immediately clicks to buy. Those ads don't "convert". What does happen is the cumulative effect of those ads put your brand (coke) top of mind. Later when somebody is searching for "snacks" on google and paid search ad comes up, that person is more likel…

How does this model work when people block ads entirely online?

Disclaimer: I'm 31, block all ads online, and don't own a TV. I haven't seen a TV commercial in years.

Re: We stopped advertising on Facebook

#39

Post by toomuchtodo »

JacobAldridge wrote: post #19
jrockway wrote: post #18

Back in the old days, businesses advertised in order to sell their product. Anyone still doing that?

Back in the old days, businesses sold a product. Anyone still doing that?

Yes, but its all made in China. (Nothing wrong with that.)

Re: We stopped advertising on Facebook

#40

Post by WaterSponge »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #38
babs474 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook style ads CAN convert in a tight window, the problem is people are looking in the wrong place for them. Nobody checks out their timeline, sees a coke ad and immediately clicks to buy. Those ads don't "convert". What does happen is the cumulative effect of those ads put your brand (coke) top of mind. Later when somebody is searching for "snacks" on google and paid search ad comes up, that person is more likel…

How does this model work when people block ads entirely online? Disclaimer: I'm 31, block all ads online, and don't own a TV. I haven't seen a TV commercial in years.

You are accounted for and not the off the grid.

You are influenced by your friends and culture. Brands try to penetrate both. You have just offloaded some of your choice/reference to friends and internet when your ready to look. They they get you.

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