Earlier quoted context omitted.
at my company, like many other companies... we've found that advertising on facebook is almost pointless (the paid adverts). the actual engaged customer return you get back is not enough to justify the cost. Think about it, how many users are on facebook chatting with friends, see an advert, and suddenly say, "gee, i'm going to go buy that!". It doesn't happen often.
Facebook's display ads won't be profitable for every direct response advertiser, but they are incredibly effective. Have you tried working with third parties like Nanigans or Tellapart to optimize your ads?
No they are not. They are only effective for very specific and narrow Brand promoting.
Email marketing, Bing and Google, and Amazon ads are all far, far more effective than Facebook ads are, or ever will be.
You can "Boost" a facebook post, get 100's of thousands of views/impressions and 1000's of likes on it. Yet, maybe a small handful of users actually convert into a sale. That is simply not worth the money nor time. And of the users who have "liked" your ad, very few actually engage again unless you "Boost" another post. There have been countless write-ups about this supposed "Facebook sanctioned click-net" of users who somehow "like" everything yet never actually engage.