Has anyone tried facebook advertising?

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A

amyd

Free Member
Jan 23, 2009
85
3
  • #1
    Hi guys!

    As always on a mission to increase our sales...I'm looking into advertising on facebook. We're a online fashion store selling graphic t-shirts and a lot of our customers do use facebook so was thinking it could be good.

    What are peoples experiences? Please say what you sell so I can compare if it would apply to us.

    A company called us up a while ago claiming that they were the biggest reseller of facebook advertising and they could do it much cheaper than if we went though facebook ourselves. I didn't go for it based on the fact that the company that claimed that they were THE company for facebook advertising had like 1 facebook fan (if you're so good at facebook advertising theres just no excuse for only having 1 fan!)

    So was just wondering if there was a proper company out there that does this..or if its just better to do it yourself.

    Thanks

    Amy
     
    J

    Juliee

  • #2
    Amy,

    I am really surprised. I don’t thinks so, there is any reseller of facebook. I am hearing this first time. Anyhow If you really want to do advertizing of your products on facebook you can directly contact to the admin of facebook. It will certainly save and quiet reasonable. Other than this, if you have your website, you have option of search engine optimization (SEO) of your volusion store as it make sure a high position on all major search engine that is important for more traffic on you site.

    Good Luck :)
     
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    deniser

    deniser

    Free Member
    Jun 3, 2008
    8,081
    1,697
    London
  • #3
    I am sure this company is a scam as I have had this call several times too.

    First, they implied they were the ONLY way to advertise on FB. When I said that's funny, how come I've done it myself then, they put the phone down.

    Secondly, because I told them 3 times I am registered with the TPS and they ignored it.

    Thirdly because they told me to not get their calls under the TPS I had to tell them so in writing - a blatant lie.
     
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    maxh

    maxh

    Free Member
    Apr 15, 2010
    1,115
    313
  • #4
    Facebook can be good in some instances. But it is WILDLY un-targeted.

    It's good for brand awareness, and targeting particular demographics (like 18-24 yr old men from London)

    However, you can't target on what people are talking about which is really irritating!!

    CTR are around 0.1% --> 1% which is much lower than a PPC campaign.
     
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    Nine Fish

    Nine Fish

    Free Member
    Sep 10, 2010
    19
    1
    Lincoln
  • #5
    We have used Facebook for several campaigns, for both our own products and services and those of our clients.

    All in all we have had decent success with Fitness Related Products, MMA Fight and Workout Clothing and Internet Hosting Services.

    If you spend a little time doing your homework , I am sure Facebook could be useful to you.

    I would also recommend that you set up a fan page for your brand

    Good Luck
     
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    P

    pixelo

    Free Member
    Jan 30, 2010
    81
    2
  • #7
    Facebook is pretty poor for anything that requires the user to actually get their credit card out right there and then. I worked on a large international hotel chain's Facebook campaign, probably the most widely recognised hotel name in the world, and even with their brand recognition they spent around £5000 in month one as a test and got precisely zero sales.

    But if you are looking to build a list of potential customers, or do some lead generation for local businesses it can be a gold mine. Think stuff like cosmetic dentistry, local events etc.

    You typically need to build the most frictionless sign up page possible then have some convincing call to action like a prize, then make plenty of ultra targeted campaigns. So one campaign for women aged 41-42 in London, one campaign for men aged 51-52 in Glasgow etc etc. It's time consuming, but its the only way to achieve any results on Facebook.

    Check out these for a good example of a landing page that works well on Facebook:

    Company generating leads for laser eye surgery:

    http://www.lasereyesurgerynow.co.uk/


    Company generating leads for their social game:

    http://exclusivegiftcards.com/rd_p?p=202987&t=14576&c=&a=16015



    If you put yourself into the mind of the user you can see why this gets more results than an ecommerce shop or hotel reservations page. People just arent going to get out their credit card whilst idly browsing friends photos.
     
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    V

    Vad Boz

  • #9
    I think the best way to advertise on Facebook is to create your own fan page, then you can go to a site like Fiverr to get some fans to start with and grow from there.

    But I would definitely not go for direct PPC campaign. Not targeted.
     
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    P

    pdhulme

  • #13
    I was blinded by the initial figures when I advertised my company on Facebook. In a month we had 4 MILLION impressions of our Facebook advert. I was amazed but when analysing the clicks and ROI it was very,very poor.

    We ran a sweepstakes competition in the Facebook advert because I thought we needed a strong 'hook'. We had around 40 - 50 entries of the 150 total entries from the Facebook adverts.

    Summary, For exposure it's good but bear this in mind, when you did you last notice an ad on Facebook??
     
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    B

    BrightDesigner

  • #15
    I wouldn't recommend Facebook advertising either. I offer to spend up to £10 per day for my web design company, reasonably targeted, and I get a report every month with Zeros all over it.

    Probably good for brand awareness as Mexh says but not much else.

    As for this reseller, Ignore them.
     
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    R

    ricwood

  • #17
    An alternative worth looking at is stumbleupon. It costs 5 cents per view, but you can narrow down the demographic by interest as well as age and location. Compared to the cost of advertising on FB I think it offers very good value! If you do decide to go down this route make sure you track the bounce rate, and optimise the landing page for the best effect.
     
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    RobinJames

    RobinJames

    Free Member
    Oct 28, 2010
    98
    4
    Bournemouth
  • #20
    ricwood said:
    An alternative worth looking at is stumbleupon. It costs 5 cents per view, but you can narrow down the demographic by interest as well as age and location. Compared to the cost of advertising on FB I think it offers very good value! If you do decide to go down this route make sure you track the bounce rate, and optimise the landing page for the best effect.
    Click to expand...

    I just 'stumbled' my own site, and got 193 'stumble-throughs' from them in one day! and that was free :)
     
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    LinkBright Media

    LinkBright Media

    Free Member
    May 15, 2010
    293
    34
  • #23
    I paid for FB advertising when I first set up my business 'fan page'. It helped get it going and I now have nearly 5,000 'members'. Anything I put on my FB page (special offers, new products etc) those people see in their FB updates.... so IMO you should be linking your ad to your FB page and not your website. The ROI is longer term rather than looking at who buys immediately after clicking your FB ad
     
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    S

    stephan42

    Free Member
    Feb 7, 2011
    14
    0
    Loughborough
  • #26
    Just reiterating what has been said above really, Facebook advertising is very targeted as relies on the information gathered by Facebook profiles. As a PPC system it is about 5 years behind that of Googles and well be very evident when you start using it. Also because of its simplicity you can easily end up spending alot of money so be careful.
     
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    P

    pixelo

    Free Member
    Jan 30, 2010
    81
    2
  • #27
    stephan42 said:
    Just reiterating what has been said above really, Facebook advertising is very targeted as relies on the information gathered by Facebook profiles. As a PPC system it is about 5 years behind that of Googles and well be very evident when you start using it. Also because of its simplicity you can easily end up spending alot of money so be careful.
    Click to expand...

    Id go even further and say that its more than just 5 years behind Google's PPC offering, not only is the system more simplistic, the actual motivation for clicking an ad on Google and Facebook is completely different. With an Adwords click you know there is some definite motivation as the user has proactively initiated a search, whereas Facebook ads are about distracting the user from a completely unrelated activity with an ad.

    What works well on Facebook:

    Simple lead generation campaigns that require a simple form fill for very broad based - in demand products.

    Think dating, medical, local advertising. To maximise your return on investment from Facebook - create simple lead gen pages aimed at capturing the customer's info as efficiently as possible.

    An example lead gen page we made:

    http://pinlocal.com/dentistry/

    What doesnt work well:

    Ecommerce sites, niche offerings

    The clicks on FB are also disproportionately expensive nowadays - the system often expects you to pay $0.75+ per click in the UK.
     
    Last edited:
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    P

    pixelo

    Free Member
    Jan 30, 2010
    81
    2
  • #29
    Simply Bedrooms said:
    We were contemplating it for a while but thought better of it as said by another member, ads on facebook are just a distraction and would probably cost you money for not much returns.
    Click to expand...

    Definitely would recommend keeping your advertising budget with Google - your products are not the sort of thing someone might buy whilst browsing Facebook...

    How is your return on investment with Adwords?
     
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    M

    marketingquotes

  • #30
    Hi Amy,

    Google really own the online advertising industry.

    Facebook (in our opinion) would be good for brand visibility, but the ads are easily clicked on by accident (especially on mobile access).

    We have not heard of any companies using it as a successful marketing route yet.

    Regards,

    Marketing Quotes Support.
     
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    M

    MartBrooks

  • #32
    amyd said:
    What are peoples experiences? Please say what you sell so I can compare if it would apply to us.
    Click to expand...

    We've tried many different ways of advertising and promoting antibodyMX. I think we budgested about $1000 for Facebook, being careful about our target audience and not just advertising on every page possible.

    We got literally thousands of clicks on the website which chewed through our budget in just a few days.

    From those thousands of clicks, we got _zero_ enquiries. Not one single one.

    YMM, of course, V.
     
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    P

    pixelo

    Free Member
    Jan 30, 2010
    81
    2
  • #33
    marketingquotes said:
    Hi Amy,

    Google really own the online advertising industry.

    Facebook (in our opinion) would be good for brand visibility, but the ads are easily clicked on by accident (especially on mobile access).

    We have not heard of any companies using it as a successful marketing route yet.

    .
    Click to expand...

    To be honest that's not true - Facebook just works better for lead generation, broad based products - dating, medical etc.

    Google Adwords is a far more effective marketing channel for 90% of businesses in my opinion, but businesses didn't spend $1.7 billion on Facebook ads last year for fun, we've got ROI for some clients on FB - obviously thousands of others are too.

    http://mashable.com/2011/01/17/facebooks-ad-revenue-hit-1-86b-for-2010/
     
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    Hugnkiss

    Hugnkiss

    Free Member
    Feb 8, 2011
    1
    0
  • #34
    Hi Amy

    You can set up a facebook fan page, you would need to build it slowly by advertising it and introducing your friends and encouraging them to introduce people. You can show pictures of your products, you can link it to your website, advertise any events that might help your business grow. A fan page is free so could be a good place to start. I can send you a link on how to set it up if you pm me.

    Good Luck
    H.
     
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