Facebook Ads don't suck • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook Ads don't suck

#21

Post by htk » Thu, Apr 10, 2014, 6:33 PM UTC

DivByZero wrote: post #12

jmathai wrote: post #7

I don't think it's about Facebook Ads sucking or not sucking. That's the narrative but the underlying issue is people feel that Facebook Ads are a rip off. I wonder how much of Facebook's ad revenue (and Google's for that Matter) consists of less savvy marketing efforts that don't understand or even care about the metrics which matter. The long tail? I don't believe the argument in favor of Facebook Ads can be that y…

Agreed but doesn't this apply to every Advertising platform? Are you going to get much better results if you spend $50 with no expertise on Google AdWords or display advertising ? Would be really interesting to know how much the long tail account for :) But guess we'll never know! For sure both Facebook and Google should do a better job training users with 0 expertise to better use their platform. I don't think in th…

So what you are implying is that one cannot talk about his bad experience with Facebook ads because other platforms have the same problems?

Re: Facebook Ads don't suck

#22

Post by hagbardgroup » Thu, Apr 10, 2014, 6:33 PM UTC

It is not that Facebook ads suck. They are fantastic for particular, specific business goals. Companies that have access to expensive and effective software outside of Facebook can make even better use of their platform in conjunction with others.

The problem has to do with the messaging to small business people by the big online advertising platforms. The messaging is that it is easy, fast, and has a small minimum spend. It's akin to the '90s era messaging around discount stock brokerages that encouraged average bums to become day traders. While yes, the average bum can day trade, it is not a good idea for the average bum to day trade. It is the same for online ads for people unwilling to spend the time/effort to study, filter out the junk information, and practice.

Re: Facebook Ads don't suck

#23

Post by ry0ohki » Thu, Apr 10, 2014, 6:38 PM UTC

This is the original author, you only targeted Desktop, so your analysis does not refute my original point (that mobile clicks are accidental).

I did learn after I wrote my post how to target Desktop only and am running a follow up experiment, but if you're going to talk shit, at least do a valid comparison. Also I'm not sure what SEO you think I care about for my random Tumblr... (I specifically did not post it under my company blog)

Re: Facebook Ads don't suck

#24

Post by shostack » Thu, Apr 10, 2014, 9:07 PM UTC

Interesting post and you are spot on with this from a high-level.

For advanced digital marketers, the next step of course is looking beyond last click data. The attribution model you view your data through plays just as large a role in determining the success of it as many of the other factors that this article and others focus on.

Since you have conversion tracking setup for FB, FB conversions will obviously be higher than what GA shows in its standard reporting since FB's own conversion data is the equivalent of awarding 100% attribution to all assisted click conversions.

What would be more interesting is to see how this stacks up along with your other channels with various attribution models.

For those that are wondering if FB is working for you and looking at last click conversion metrics, you're doing it wrong. For a large % of scenarios, Facebook tends to play a much bigger role at the beginning of the conversion funnel, ie. the "Awareness" stage. This is also true of many forms of display advertising. To expect it to perform strongly on a last click model is unwise. First click models are likewise not great, but even that stark comparison will give you a sense of the contribution, and the GA multi-channel reports can show you that overlap.

I'm constantly blown away by how many amazing attribution tools Google gives away in the free version of GA and I'm always disappointed that none of the marketing articles that hit HN focus on that piece of the puzzle.

Re: Facebook Ads don't suck

#25

Post by DivByZero » Thu, Apr 10, 2014, 9:26 PM UTC

shostack wrote: post #24

Interesting post and you are spot on with this from a high-level. For advanced digital marketers, the next step of course is looking beyond last click data. The attribution model you view your data through plays just as large a role in determining the success of it as many of the other factors that this article and others focus on. Since you have conversion tracking setup for FB, FB conversions will obviously be high…

Thanks for the comment. Great considerations.

Totally agree that overall Facebook Ads is great for demand generation while Google Adwords is much better for demand fulfillment. Also you're right on the attribution model, Facebook clearly attribute to itself every conversion from people who clicked the ad no matter of the last click.

In the future I'll try to make a followup post playing with GA various attribution models and checking how they change the data!