For those looking to explore the possibilities on PPC advertising (that’s pay-per-click for you newbies), Facebook generates a strong appeal. No longer representing a slice segment of the market, Facebook has quickly become the standard social network, leaving Myspace and others in the dust.
Their advertising interface is extremely easy to use, and requires very little technology comprehension. This should be highly attractive to those looking to spread their wings in the world on PPC. Furthermore, their segmentation abilities are amazing; not only can you target based on age, location, and gender, but you target consumers based on religion, sexual orientation, and relationship status. Even more amazing is their ability to create search parameters within users profile to advertise (e.g. “target anyone who lists Tool as their favorite band and Watership Down as their favorite book”). If you choose a larger campaign, you create a plethora of ultra-targeted ads in a sort of micro-segmentation.
The Catch:
While these technologies are great, for those companies leading larger campaigns, Facebook’s cost per ad is much more expensive than most other PPC opportunities. For those selling a product rather than promoting a campaign, this will take a big bite out of your ROI (return on investment). This is a huge drawback for those on limited marketing budgets as well.
The Takeaway:
If you want to test content in a limited fashion, or have a high-end product that doesn’t require widespread response, the segmentation abilities of Facebook ads are great. This is especially true for those who are not technologically savvy. If you want to run a larger PPC campaign, many other opportunities exist that will give you better ROI. Remember, even if the segmentation ability isn’t there, if only interested people are clicking on your ads, you are still reaching your target audience.
For more specifics as to how to execute a Facebook PPC campaign, look at Facebook Ads 101.
Have to say I dont really agree with this! Whilst Facebook is a tactical solution rather than a strategic one (like PPC), it is more effective in the short term due to the LOWER CPCs available for many categories.
How does it realyl compare with google adwords? With google you know you are bidding on keywords against other users. On Facebook you can bid your CPC higher based on their suggestion, but you have no choice of keywords. In other words it could use a bit more work. Kerhaps facebook could also implement a keywrds type auction. It should not be that hard to figure out…
[...] One marketer wrote: Furthermore, their (Facebook’s) segmentation abilities are amazing; not only can you target based on age, location, and gender, but you target consumers based on religion, and relationship status. Even more amazing is their ability to create search parameters within users profile to advertise (e.g. “target anyone who lists Tool as their favorite band and Watership Down as their favorite book”). If you choose a larger campaign, you create a plethora of ultra-targeted ads in a sort of micro-segmentation. [...]
I’m not sure what I think of this. I have been using facebook ads and I have totaled clicks-4,252 impressions-18,800,037 ctr-0.023% acpc-$0.65 total-$2,752.94 through about 14 different campaigns over the last year or so. I’m not so sure I’ve gotten the result that I’m looking for. I sell club crawls (see my website) and i’m really starting to think that adword optimization is probably the way to go. It’s really hard to say at this point. I have noticed that most of the facebook hits i get to my website don’t really stay on the site for long and I’m really not seeing much benefit for having a fan page.
Hey Nick, thanks for sharing your experience. One of my suggestions would be to create a landing page graphic on your Facebook page and rather than send your visitors to your web page, request that your visitors “Like” your page. Think about conversions. On your website, you are asking visitors to make a much bigger commitment than just clicking the like button. This is going to significantly reduce your conversion of the ad. If you can lock them in as a Fan of your FB page, then you increase your capacity to market to these folks over and over again…rather than just the one time they click your ad and hit your website, at which point they may leave and never think about Whistler again.