Hi Fred. Word of mouth seems to works better in the second case than in SocialAds. Maybe there aren't any new entrepreneurs on Facebook. Or, your advertisement skills aren't very good, or.. (although it might be a bit early to draw such conclusions ;-)) But honestly, I am a bit of a skeptic towards SocialAds. It is aimed at the advertiser who would like to have the "word of mouth" principle available for his advertisements. But the "word of mouth" process in the physical world is quite different from the on-line world. Users might just see the SocialAd for what it is, a personalised billboard, instead of what it was meant to be ("an advice from a friend"). Nothing wrong with that, but it doesn't provide friends with a lot of value. I feel it will turn out to be quite difficult to monetize Social Graph information within the network itself (people might distrust that).
Nihaar
· 2 years ago
Fred, We performed a similar experiment at Youlicit a few weeks ago testing Facebook Flyers as an advertising platform and got dismal click through rates as well (http://youlicit.wordpress.com/2007/10/04/facebo...) . We do think copy and creative play a big part and are working on a new campaign with a more targeted message (for each demographic targeted) and design to see what effect that has on CTRs. Will post our results as soon as we get them. I also however do agree that there are more effective (and viral) ways to get exposure on Facebook through creatively designed and engaging groups, applications (if applicable) and business pages.
fred. i think its more about making it more visual. i've had much better success on it than i expected.
what are you trying to gain from it? more bplan submissions?
fredwilson
· 2 years ago
insight on how to market in facebook with ads
Chris Hamoen
· 2 years ago
Why would people click on that ad? I think you are right - it's not very compelling.
Who on facebook would click through? Who are you targeting?
Travel With Me
· 2 years ago
Fred, i'm surprised you don't know this by now. You know that every time you wrote about someone's blog, or someone writes about your blog that you drive traffic to each other's pages. It's more personal and legit that way. I go to restaurants and gothamgal recommends because I think she has good taste (except for the asian foods...but that's just b/c I'm asian). But if one of your banner or skyscraper ads read, "go to Tasca. The Tapas are great!" I probably wouldn't go because of. But I would go because gothamgal said it was good (which she did a bunch of months ago). I have been there. And it's pretty good, by the way. =) But yeah...Ads are a hard sell, they're not as engaging. Maybe the future of ads are really more of an affiliate/rev-share model in combination with "church and state" separation...ok...later!
stone
· 2 years ago
Yep - damn ads need to work in order for Facebook to be successful. I'm a contrarian on them for this very reason --- I don't think they'll get the ad system right because the user intent is so damn thin on the site. This will lead to lackluster ad performance, making their ad play a volume game not a high CPM game like Adwords. As such, they'll be unable to export the system because the CPM's will be too low. Give this some thought.
Dedicated Hosting
· 2 years ago
Good post, glad to see your business profile is doing well.
AReadr
· 2 years ago
I'd be surprised if any ad campaign on Facebook is successful (ad least in the way Facebook presents ads now).
Unlike search (where people are more likely to look at and click on an ad), people don't log into Facebook to look at ads: they want to see what they're friends are up to, when the next party is etc.
Chi-chi Ekweozor
· 2 years ago
Social Ads and Flyers on Facebook don't work for a reason:
People are on Facebook to communicate with people they know. Anything else is a distraction.
In my opinion, the most effective way to advertise on Facebook is to create a group focused on a particular topic and to target that group to a specific demographic.
The topic need not be named after the product or service being advertised, necessarily.
Provided the group is well moderated and features relevant and up-to-date information; people will have a reason to hang around and share their opinion. And you’ll get instant feedback...
Kind of sounds like a blog, actually...
Personally, I reckon Facebook should consider offering a monthly subscription for people who don't want to receive Social Ads. At least they are guaranteed some monthly revenue that way.
Here’s the open letter I wrote to Mark Zuckerberg regarding this:
Once again proved that facebook users are ad blind :(
high tech
· 2 years ago
are you sure?
Brandon
· 2 years ago
I saw you post on Valleywag... here's a thing to try.
I just started a campaign (seconds ago) with a max of $5 per day... and $1 per click...
So far 156,779 impressions 5 clicks, $0.37 per click...
Try it.
william
· 2 years ago
If Facebook is clever, they have a eCPM system, so cpc campagin compete with cpm campaign. With click rate so low, the CPC campaign will be suspended sooner or later
Brandon
· 2 years ago
That's if they are smart. Right now it doesn't look that way. Here's a link to my follow-up post detailing the results to my tests:
I ran ads targeting 25-45 yr old moms. Same thing. Thousands of imps, no clicks. ZERO. I ran an ad network for 4+ years - zero clicks is actually hard to do. Even with the worst possible ad you can imagine, someone usually clicks by accident. It almost makes me wonder if their tracking is broken.
Our internal stats did show one click from the ad. Worth a try, and nice free branding. But right now I dont think people are interested in clicking or even know why they would click.
Next we'll try the business pages.
We will be trying the
Michael J. Pratt
· 2 years ago
Fred - Your journey through this new world of business possibilities in FB has guided much of my experience thus far in FB's world of ads and business pages. I have made many changes and additions to our page (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=5725644169) and I blogged about it as well. (http://blog.giftgirl.com/2007/11/spreading-the-...) We're taking the Beacon thing a bit more slowly to see how it develops - both side make very good arguments. Our biggest fear is that Fb lets pages go the way of the group and everything devolves to a sort of lame fan club/destination that no one visits but loves the status of joining a club with a zillion members.
Please don't stop posting. You're my best consultant!
All Comments
But honestly, I am a bit of a skeptic towards SocialAds. It is aimed at the advertiser who would like to have the "word of mouth" principle available for his advertisements. But the "word of mouth" process in the physical world is quite different from the on-line world. Users might just see the SocialAd for what it is, a personalised billboard, instead of what it was meant to be ("an advice from a friend"). Nothing wrong with that, but it doesn't provide friends with a lot of value. I feel it will turn out to be quite difficult to monetize Social Graph information within the network itself (people might distrust that).
We performed a similar experiment at Youlicit a few weeks ago testing Facebook Flyers as an advertising platform and got dismal click through rates as well (http://youlicit.wordpress.com/2007/10/04/facebo...) . We do think copy and creative play a big part and are working on a new campaign with a more targeted message (for each demographic targeted) and design to see what effect that has on CTRs. Will post our results as soon as we get them. I also however do agree that there are more effective (and viral) ways to get exposure on Facebook through creatively designed and engaging groups, applications (if applicable) and business pages.
Nihaar Gupta
Youlicit
http://www.youlicit.com
what are you trying to gain from it? more bplan submissions?
Who on facebook would click through? Who are you targeting?
Unlike search (where people are more likely to look at and click on an ad), people don't log into Facebook to look at ads: they want to see what they're friends are up to, when the next party is etc.
People are on Facebook to communicate with people they know. Anything else is a distraction.
In my opinion, the most effective way to advertise on Facebook is to create a group focused on a particular topic and to target that group to a specific demographic.
The topic need not be named after the product or service being advertised, necessarily.
Provided the group is well moderated and features relevant and up-to-date information; people will have a reason to hang around and share their opinion. And you’ll get instant feedback...
Kind of sounds like a blog, actually...
Personally, I reckon Facebook should consider offering a monthly subscription for people who don't want to receive Social Ads. At least they are guaranteed some monthly revenue that way.
Here’s the open letter I wrote to Mark Zuckerberg regarding this:
http://http//www.realfresh.tv/hey-facebook-id-g...
I would consider paying...
I just started a campaign (seconds ago) with a max of $5 per day... and $1 per click...
So far 156,779 impressions 5 clicks, $0.37 per click...
Try it.
With click rate so low, the CPC campaign will be suspended sooner or later
http://productiveblogger.com/index.php/p/b/chea...
Our internal stats did show one click from the ad. Worth a try, and nice free branding. But right now I dont think people are interested in clicking or even know why they would click.
Next we'll try the business pages.
We will be trying the
Please don't stop posting. You're my best consultant!
Mike Pratt
COO, Gift Girl
http://www.giftgirl.com