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Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

jamespanderson.tumblr.com

41–50 of 172 posts

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#41

Within the last week I performed a similar "experiment" for newly created facebook.com/AmeriStartup. I created two FB mobile advertisements to direct traffic to the website, though the website is more eCommerce/service than any type of sign up. Budget $50 over 3 days reach was ~20,000+; the click through rate was .5% and .4% for the 2 ads; just under 100 clicks to the website with none resulting in conversion. More d…

i believe the current theory is that the illegal bots hide their paid likes by liking innocent pages as well...

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#42
post #34

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…

Part of me suspects you didn't actually read the article. While the title is sort of link-baity, the actual content is interesting in that it compares Google Analytics, server logs, and his Google Adwords campaigns to the Facebook one. I don't think his conclusion is that Facebook ads don't work. It's more that Facebook is charging him for false clicks and non-unique clicks. His last sentence sums up his own experien…

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Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#43
post #32
post #22

I'm getting fed up with these post saying "Media X" is bad (where X is usually something to do with Facebook or Google display). Two comments: 1. This media is sold in an auction. If the quality of the traffic vs what you pay for it is bad value then the bids are set too high. If I pay over the odds for something on ebay it isn't just ebay that is at fault. 2. Doing online advertising well is harder than Facebook and…

The OP is not stating the approach is bad. I think the claim is that Facebook CPC is implemented somewhat fraudulently. What is promised is not what is delivered.

Fair point.

As the adverts are sold in an auction, shouldn't the cost per click reflect the proportion of fraud?

E.g. if value of true click is $1 and 50% of clicks are fraudulent then CPC should surely approach $0.50?

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#44
The moral of this story?

Don't do business with scumbags.

Facebook is professional scumbaggery.

Just a taste

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Facebook#Privacy_...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Facebook#Data_min...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Facebook#Inabilit...

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/06/03/facebook-ceo-mark-zuc...

http://www.socialmedianews.com.au/zuckerberg-in-trouble-over...

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/it-security/why-you-should-...

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#45
post #6

Why would you send mobile FB clicks to your website? Send them to a mobile app on mobile (!!!) You can target only desktop users, if you want to send people to a website

If I click a link on my phone and it tries to get me to install an app, I'm instantly hitting the back button.

Do people really install random apps because they saw a one-sentence advertisement on facebook? I really don't know what normal behavior is for the average facebook user.

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#46
How much of Facebook's traffic is mobile these days? I personally prefer the desktop version, but I spend unhealthy amounts of time at the computer anyway. I know that my mom uses FB almost primarily through her iPad since she got it.

If FB's traffic is almost or even largely from mobile devices, paying to show ads for a non-mobile site to that traffic seems just silly. The site is downright hostile to mobile users; the text loads last, it starts with a video and a worthless image, and the actual text ping-pongs across the page to accommodate the clip art and screenshots.

Given this exact same data, the OP could spend a week making at least his landing page mobile, run another FB ad, and make a blog post about A/B testing your landing page for mobile users. But no, it's all Facebook's fault, because bashing Facebook will always, 100% get you upvotes on this site...

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#47
>I created a Facebook CPC campaign (“Clicks to a Website”), and targeted females aged 22-40 in the USA and Australia who like several of my competitors pages and have an interest in Personal Finance.

(Sorry, this is a little off topic.)

Can the OP or someone else fill me in on how he was able to target people who like other pages (that he doesn't own)? Is it through lookalike audience or is there a more direct way to do it? I've been trying to do the same (target similar pages) but I'm clueless as to how to do it.

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#48

Within the last week I performed a similar "experiment" for newly created facebook.com/AmeriStartup. I created two FB mobile advertisements to direct traffic to the website, though the website is more eCommerce/service than any type of sign up. Budget $50 over 3 days reach was ~20,000+; the click through rate was .5% and .4% for the 2 ads; just under 100 clicks to the website with none resulting in conversion. More d…

This is my experience too.

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#49
post #34

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…

Part of me suspects you didn't actually read the article. While the title is sort of link-baity, the actual content is interesting in that it compares Google Analytics, server logs, and his Google Adwords campaigns to the Facebook one. I don't think his conclusion is that Facebook ads don't work. It's more that Facebook is charging him for false clicks and non-unique clicks. His last sentence sums up his own experien…

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