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Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

jamespanderson.tumblr.com

11–20 of 172 posts

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#11
I'm getting pretty good results from Facebook CPC. I pay $0.12 per click and get around 50% "conversions" from that. I run a service which doesn't require any registration though and a conversion is just someone doing anything in it.

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#12
post #2

> Google also lets me target only Desktop users. If Facebook would allow this same control, I could run this test again with more confidence. FB do let you set a Desktop Only audience for ads. You need to use Power Editor (Google Chrome only) and select Desktop under Placements. I'd like to see a re-run with Desktop targeting only. Edit: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/ads-api/targe...

Or even better, a mobile app install ad on mobile and a FB app ad on desktop.

I'd love to see one of these experiments that isn't trying to get website signups / sales which is something FB is notoriously bad for.

I spent a few years at an SPMD, and I would really advise against anyone who doesn't know exactly what they're doing to use the FB self-serve anyway...

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#13
This isn't a problem. A problem occurs only if people assume a click is worth one amount when really it is worth another amount.

Simply run your campaign for $X and measure your resulting sales, $Y, and now you know if you are wasting money or not.

If Facebook 'fix the problem' then the CPC rate will simply increase.

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#14
I think it highly depends upon how you're targeting and what kind of product your selling. I've got a friend who is using fb CPC for physical products (that includes a concierge service) and my jaw hit the floor when he told me the ROI. Admittedly, they have a pretty high revenue per customer, but my point stands that it depends on what you're selling.

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#15
CPC is just the wrong model for Facebook. It turns into "spray and pray". In this case, nobody is looking for a personal budget app, it just shows up uninvited. Whereas with Google, we know someone is likely looking for it when the ad appears.

I don't know what Facebook's long term business model is. IMO, this isn't it.

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#16
post #3

I think the evidence of something being wrong is very compelling. But one of the problems I see is that if Facebook even attempts to fix the problem, their revenue drops by 30% and investors/advertisers sue for fraud. They're in a tough spot. But they should at least start to turn the ship in the right direction before their total ad business collapses as "ineffective".

Too late?

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#17
post #11

I'm getting pretty good results from Facebook CPC. I pay $0.12 per click and get around 50% "conversions" from that. I run a service which doesn't require any registration though and a conversion is just someone doing anything in it.

are you only targeting users from outside of US/Canada?

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#18
post #17
post #11

I'm getting pretty good results from Facebook CPC. I pay $0.12 per click and get around 50% "conversions" from that. I run a service which doesn't require any registration though and a conversion is just someone doing anything in it.

are you only targeting users from outside of US/Canada?

No. I'm targeting US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. Age 13-30.

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#20
This is a single campaign, and a single test, with one set of variables. Concluding something overreaching like "Facebook CPC ads don't work" after a test like that is like saying, "I tried mixing two chemicals, and there was no reaction, chemicals must not cause reactions."

Think of it like a computer program. If 99% of the program is right but one thing is broken, the entire thing won't work. Marketing is, in a lot of respects, the same way. You can be missing one single variable and your entire campaign falls apart.

Look at all of the variables in this campaign - title, image, targeting options, whether you do sidebar ads, newsfeed ads, or mobile newsfeed, and most importantly the product/service offered on the other side (not to mention the conversion rate of the specific landing pages). Apparently this campaign wasn't profitable, but I run a half dozen profitable campaigns on Facebook at any given time (most of them CPC), and I know people who spend $10,000/day on Facebook ads.

Facebook ads do work under the right circumstances. Concluding that they don't after one try is a little absurd.

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