Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

jamespanderson.tumblr.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 172 posts

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#81

Post by napoleond »

bigbugbag wrote: post #56
austenallred wrote: post #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…

Please enlighten us about those right circumstances that somehow magically turn facebook ads into successful and profitable campaigns.

Largely depends what you're selling. For example, I have a client in the travel industry--their ads kill on FB.

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#82

Post by ry0ohki »

ShaneOG wrote: 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...

Thanks, I will give this a try and retest!

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#83

Post by j_s »

cmstoken wrote: post #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…

Beware TOS violations (read comments)

http://www.quicksprout.com/2014/02/19/how-to-steal-your-comp...

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#84

Post by shadowmint »

This is vaguely interesting I suppose, but while 123/21243 (click through rate) is significant, 61/92 (lost clicks) is not.

...and therefore every single derived stat is completely nonsense. A percentage you say, on a sample size Whats your confidence level on that?

(I also think that Facebook ads are a waste, and the conclusion is plausible; but the stats in the post are meaningless and probably deceptive)

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#85

Post by lutusp »

stonemetal wrote: post #76
cshenoy wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

What is the driver of false clicks on FB? So far as I know it isn't like Google where a third party will be paid something for the click. Isn't FB the only one getting paid when I click a FB ad?

> What is the driver of false clicks on FB?

Facebook's reputation as en effective advertiser is improved. As Deep Throat said during the Watergate scandal, "Follow the money."

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#86

Post by sanswork »

will_brown wrote: post #79
sanswork wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then it's equally likely that the poor conversion rate has to do with the destination instead of the traffic source. Though I do agree with you that buying likes is useless and a waste of money.

You could be correct that only legit users clicked the FB ads and upon review of my site they had no interest in using my service or my pricing scared them away (or any other legit number of reasons). However, it would be willful blindness to ignore what I can verify vis-a-vis the FB paid promotion. Moreover, when I can verify the majority of likes are from illegitimate users/profiles, based on not having any posts a…

There was a video released recently talking about fake accounts and clicking on paid like ads. It explained pretty well why they do it. That doesn't really carry over to other paid ads though.

As for the second part probably because it's a huge privacy violation.

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#87

Post by lbotos »

will_brown wrote: post #30

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…

Can I ask how you saw who liked your page? Was this a feature of the Ad campaign? As a page manager, there is no way I can see who liked my page who isn't a friend. This makes me sad as I believe I'm getting spam likes which lower your "engagement quotient" and make it harder for me to get content to actual people.

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#88

Post by rfergie »

ameister14 wrote: post #72
rfergie wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

That only happens with greater transparency. Essentially, you have to recognize the fraud to evaluate prices properly, and my impression is that most people don't.

That is true. If you only evaluate the effectiveness of advertising based on the number of clicks you get then you will be unable to set bids to take fraud into account.

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#90

Post by willholloway »

The fraudulent clicks are a fact now, and they were in 2009 too, but if your earnings per click margin is high enough FB ads can definitely be worth it.

I did really well running dating ads in every English speaking market, and a lot of Spanish speaking markets as well.

FB ads were the second step in my post-college process of bootstrapping myself as a viable economic entity amidst the fallout and financial devastation of the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

So thank you Mark Zuckerberg, if it wasn't for your creation I might have had to get a real job.

Post reply on HN