Not long ago, I wrote a post on the 60 Second Marketer blog called The Truth About Facebook Ads: They Don’t Actually Work. It created a bit of a stir in the online community because there were a lot of Facebook loyalist who defended the platform and who have actually had some success with Facebook ads.
The post generated over 33 comments, many from members of the 60 Second Nation and some from people who were just stopping by. I love those kinds of dialogues because they highlight what the 60 Second Marketer is all about — stirring up debates among marketers about the science of marketing.
But on Friday, one of our SIXTY clients asked a question about Facebook ads that prompted me to clarify what I mean when I say that Facebook ads don’t actually work.
As stated in the original blog post, Facebook struggles to have relevancy among mainstream marketers like Coca-Cola, Nike and Apple, many of whom have robust Facebook pages, but almost never use the platform for advertising.
So, Should You Abandon Facebook Advertising?
Well, no. And yes.
Here’s what I mean.
If you’re using Facebook as your primary advertising tool, you’ll probably struggle to generate the ROI you’re hoping for. It’s particularly useless if you’re driving people to a link outside of the Facebook platform. It’s less useless if you’re using a Facebook ad to drive people to a page within Facebook. (Facebook likes to keep people inside the Facebook world.)
But if you’re not using Facebook as your primary advertising tool — in other words, if it’s one of many marketing tools you’re using to build awareness and drive leads to your business — then it’s an acceptable platform.
In other words, if it’s used as an add-on to an existing (and robust) marketing campaign, then it can be perfectly suitable to round-out your overall program.
That concept — not to lead with Facebook, but to use it as an add-on instead, is a quick and easy way to remember the key point I’m making about Facebook ads.
Are there plenty of people who have been able to make Facebook ads work? Sure. And many of them will have been incredibly lucky and will have generated a client or two (or more) from their ads. It’s also worth noting that Facebook is constantly working to improve and enhance their platform.
But if I were a company with a reasonably nice-sized advertising budget, would I spend my money on Facebook ads? No, I’d spend them on about 5 or 6 other vehicles before I ended up spending a dime on Facebook.
So, I hope that clarifies things for you. Facebook ads can be useful — once you’ve exhausted several other vehicles first. Otherwise, they can be a hit-or-miss proposition.
Jamie Turner is the CEO of the 60 Second Marketer and SIXTY a marketing communications agency that works with national and international brands. He is the co-author of “How to Make Money with Social Media” and “Go Mobile” and is a popular marketing speaker at events, trade shows and corporations around the globe.
View Comments (14)
My experience in a developing country is that for small and medium sized businesses/brands, Facebook advertising is the most cost-effective form of acquiring new leads and creating interest in their products and services by far
Hi Paul --
I'm glad to see you've been able to make it work. You might consider running a test between Facebook and Google to see which one has the best return on investment. Good luck with your efforts -- I wish you all the success in the world.
Cheers,
Jamie
I am focussing my comment on my primary market, El Salvador, where we have less than 20% of the population with access to the internet. Google advertising is weak here versus FB advertising results (almost a 8:1 ratio on results) It is a peculiar market - to give you an example, our subscribed email marketing open rates are running at an average of 39% on a population of 400K email list and click rates around 19%!
Hi Paul --
You're exactly right -- it depends on the marketplace. It sounds like you've done some good studies with your market in El Salvador. Keep up the good work!
Cheers,
Jamie
How do you think Facebook ads work for promoting book sales for a self help book? The link goes to my webpage.
Hi Mumabear1 --
The best way to see if your approach is working is to set-up a specific landing page for your book for traffic coming in from Facebook. If you track the clicks to the page coming in from Facebook and then figure out how many sales you made from that specific page, then you can calculate if $1 spent on Facebook generated $10 in revenue from your book (that's a good ROI).
Good luck. Keep us posted on your results!
-- Jamie
I have been using fb promoted posts and ad's and also promoted posts on twitter to augment current advertising campaigns. Really find it effective (receive a lot of likes and views) when I use the same creative visuals that I use in my newspaper, transit, newsletter and other advertising to tie it all together. I do have to tweak the images for use on social media (i.e. for FB # of words on the image - need to be moved into the post body and off the image). For many reasons (and you have previously discussed several of them), I have not ever used social media as the primary advertising channel for any campaign. However, when I have used SM ad's as part of an integrated advertising approach they offer good value to augment and reinforce a marketing campaign and I highly recommend SM advertising be a part of advertising budgets when used in this fashion.
Hi Ron --
You summed it up perfectly when you said, "...when I have used SM ad's as part of an integrated advertising approach they offer good value..."
Yes, I couldn't agree more -- when social media ads are used in conjunction with other ads, they're much more effective than when used alone.
Thanks for stopping by.
-- Jamie
You Abandon Facebook Advertising. don't abandon , No person tell it.
Thanks for your thoughts on this one, Wang. :-)
It should be noted that just because someone "like's" your page or likes, comments, or shares your post doesn't mean that you are having an effective marketing campaign, only unless your only goal is for the purpose of growing your FB fan base. The information that the article refers to is ROI, not FOI (fans on investment). Too many marketers are going after fans. If I have a high-end window company, my target goal on FB is not to add fans to whoever will like my page, but to get fans who OWN homes who I can engage with, who can purchase my high-end windows. Again this would not be my first form of advertising, it is used in conjunction with other campaigns. I have seen (myself included) a lot of people spend money on FB advertising to see no real desirable results. It can be very similar to buying hair spray when you don't have hair. I love this post!
Great thoughts, Jeremiah. Thanks for sharing! I'm going to write a short post on your comments right now -- with due credit to you, of course.
Facebook is a great place to advertise. But do not expect a 100% success. The return of investments still relies on the way you make you slogans, pictures and the quality of your products. Facebook can provide you with the things you might need as you choose your target market. But, it cannot ensure 100% success in your advertising.
Agreed, Barbara. It's best to use Facebook as an add-on to an existing campaign. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!