Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#161

Post by randartie » Sat, Apr 05, 2014, 7:03 AM UTC

gfodor wrote: post #144

kposehn wrote: post #102

The problem with the article is that the author draws a conclusion with far too little data, akin to signing up for NetFlix and saying it is a terrible service when the first movie doesn't buffer fast enough. I've spent mid six-figures on Facebook CPC ads over the last several years and can definitively say that they work very, very well - depending on your use case . Mine is not the OP's use case (though I've sold a…

You didn't read the article. The point of the article has little to do with the campaign performance and more to do with the forensics he/she did to show evidence most of the clicks are misclicks on android phones. If this is true it means even "successful" campaigns are paying this tax.

The article is titled "Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money ", I think it's fair for him to explain why it was not a waste of money for him.

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#162

Post by conanbatt » Sat, Apr 05, 2014, 9:11 AM UTC

hagbardgroup wrote: post #105

Oh boy. Another one of these posts. While you can self-serve advertising, it is not necessarily a good idea, in the same way that representing yourself in court is not necessarily a good idea. Facebook cares much less about fraud than Google does, because FB has been under much less external pressure from shareholders to do it. That is not to say that various Google properties do not have fraud issues still. This is…

On item 1) the quality of the ad is not relevant in the sense that people dont click on it. Unless you think that "bad traffic" comes from "bad ads".

The fact that fraud exists is huge, and that it runs so unmitigated on Facebook should be subject to class-action lawsuits. That you should work to avoid click-farms, to avoid Facebook from profiting from click-farms, is unacceptable.

FB is in a perverse incentive position to not fix something that makes profit for them, much like any other running scam. And the size of this beast is unknown, because its not recognized.

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#163

Post by wellboy » Sat, Apr 05, 2014, 10:59 AM UTC

underdown wrote: post #158

wellboy wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus, you won't be able to remove that negative as you can't remove likes and your page will be seen less forever. What does this show? Don't ever, ever pay for likes.

...Unless you are targeting your custom audience (past buyers/users) etc.

But isn't it that no matter who you target and where, the click farms always steal the clicks?

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#164

Post by sanswork » Sat, Apr 05, 2014, 11:58 AM UTC

wellboy wrote: post #163

underdown wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...Unless you are targeting your custom audience (past buyers/users) etc.

But isn't it that no matter who you target and where, the click farms always steal the clicks?

Only if they have accounts inside those verticals. The more specific you are the less likely this is to be the case.

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#165

Post by chrisweekly » Sat, Apr 05, 2014, 12:05 PM UTC

YMMV, but as an anecdote my wife's FB CPC campaign for her new private psychotherapy practice saw a > 2% click-through rate to her PsychologyToday page, and the number smust have been close to real because they led directly to phone calls from prospective clients who confirmed they'd seen her ad, deliberately clicked it. It took her maybe 6 weeks to fill her schedule and she turned it off.

Note a photo of a smiling female is the best creative for CTR, and narrowing the demographic in her use case was simple: females within 15 miles of her office, aged 25-45, in certain income range. We think the average lead who actually called probably saw her ad 6 or 7 times before clicking.

OP may have valid criticisms of FB ads, but in our case it was a massive success. Spending a couple bucks to acquire a client w a LTV over $1000 is a no-brainer.

Again, YMMV but if you use it right FB can be a fantastic tool.

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#166

Post by aelaguiz » Sat, Apr 05, 2014, 1:07 PM UTC

A CTR of 0.4% is absolutely abysmal for a newsfeed ad and the fact that the author thinks that it is "quite high for an ad like this" makes me think he has no idea what he's talking about.

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#167

Post by Encosia » Sat, Apr 05, 2014, 5:42 PM UTC

acoyfellow wrote: post #155

napoleoncomplex wrote: post #39

Like others have said, it really depends on what you're selling and who you're targetting. Our example (country specific mobile app for doctors), spent 100 € on AdWords, end result was literally 0 app installs, 0 sign-ups, 0 everything. Medical keywords are expensive, no chance of sending them directly to the App Store/Play Store (that we saw at least), and no other useful targetting. Here come Facebook mobile instal…

I totally agree, "it depends". Facebook advertising can be much more useful than the OP and many others are suggesting. One tiny little thing that 99% of people are completely overlooking: -Page owners have the ability to restrict access by country. This means it's literally just a couple clicks, and you can completely disable the "click-farm" countries from seeing your page (+ advertisements). http://sendgrowth.com/…

In the test that this guy did for himself, restricting by country didn't help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=oV...

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#168

Post by joanojr » Sat, Apr 05, 2014, 8:51 PM UTC

Lol paying for marketing. Go find your customers, it's free.

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#169

Post by wellboy » Sun, Apr 06, 2014, 10:46 AM UTC

sanswork wrote: post #164

wellboy wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But isn't it that no matter who you target and where, the click farms always steal the clicks?

Only if they have accounts inside those verticals. The more specific you are the less likely this is to be the case.

But aren't the click farms in every verticla, in every location?

Re: Facebook CPC – Don't Waste Your Money

#170

Post by sanswork » Sun, Apr 06, 2014, 1:07 PM UTC

wellboy wrote: post #169

sanswork wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if they have accounts inside those verticals. The more specific you are the less likely this is to be the case.

But aren't the click farms in every verticla, in every location?

No, there isn't any need for that. There will of course be some spread but it isn't intentional or planned. They don't need a solid distribution of verticals and locations for what they offer to clients since they don't need to see their clients ads just click like on their pages.