Facebook adverts

[Traceybil123]

Just wondering if anybody has paid for Facebook marketing and if it resulted in any sales?

 

[Ryan Scollon]

Yep, we help a photography company sell kids photo shoots on FB and it works really well. But like anything, it depends on what you are trying to sell and how you configure the targeting settings. It is also fairly cheaper than AdWords.

 

[Traceybil123]

We sell fairtrade products. I paid £4 which targeted 1 post and reached 2000 people but didnt result in any sales

 

[Ryan Scollon]

2000 people sounds great, but are they your right target audience? It also depends on the advert itself: is it interesting? is it informational? Or are you just trying to shove a product in their face?

 

[Traceybil123]

Yeah it was a product! I didnt find Facebooks guidelines very helpful but am going to look at other sellers to see how they are doing it. Thanks for your help

 

[Ryan Scollon]

That's a great idea, look at companies similar to yourself and see how they are doing it. No problem at all

 

[ethical PR]

I think like any marketing or communications it's about looking at any FB ads as part of an integrated marketing approach.

Is FB used by the audiences you want to target?, have you set up your ads to reach this audience?, have you designed this ad to appeal to your target audience? and include a strong call to action?.

One ad in itself if you are a fairly unknown brand is unlikely to result in sales.

 

[Shopclicks]

Are you talking about the EcoStore in your profile?

 

[Noah Kay]

Facebook is the best place now for advertising your business whether its a product or service, normally you will get audience first then you have to do more to make that audience your customers, so far other sources like adwords and youtube can be very expensive, even though you get customers but you will have to spend a lot.
For me the best options for easy adverts is YOU:

Focus on FREE adverts.

• Regular articles about anything that relates to the nature of business you're in (good for search engine - put some links to relevant service or product), atleast two article-blog every week.
• Forums like this, keep close writing and answering what you know, eventually people will start following you and this could be your potential customer
• Video marketing, youtube videos about your product/service; answer peoples questions correctly, give links below if you can, these people could be your customers.

 

[Traceybil123]

yes I just wondered if it is worth pursuing

 

[Noah Kay]

First six months of this project can be a pen in the neck, however the results will be worth your time.

 

[Traceybil123]

Thanks everyone for your help

 

[ethical PR]

Facebook is the best place now for advertising your business whether its a product or service, normally you will get audience first then you have to do more to make that audience your customers, so far other sources like adwords and youtube can be very expensive, even though you get customers but you will have to spend a lot.
For me the best options for easy adverts is YOU:

Focus on FREE adverts.

• Regular articles about anything that relates to the nature of business you're in (good for search engine - put some links to relevant service or product), atleast two article-blog every week.
• Forums like this, keep close writing and answering what you know, eventually people will start following you and this could be your potential customer
• Video marketing, youtube videos about your product/service; answer peoples questions correctly, give links below if you can, these people could be your customers.

Noah FB isn't the best place to advertise your business. It works well for some businesses - typically those referred to as FMCG - fast moving consumer goods and large corporates as part of wider integrated marketing campaigns.

It doesn't work well in general for business to business

Developing online articles, participating in forums and video marketing isn't advertising it's digital marketing.

 

[Fishman12]

I never tried it but I know someone who did pay for a Facebook campaign. After analyzing the traffic to the website we discovered that people from Brazil and India klicked on the links. Conclusion: Worthless traffic, waste of money

 

[myself]

I paid for my facebook ads and I found it does not make big difference, so I would try it without paid advertising at the moment

 

[columbo]

We do Facebook Ads as a brand awareness exercise.

We never do it expecting fast results.

But, over time, we seem to get more of the intended target calling us, so we keep doing it!

(Btw, Facebook Ads is an annoying platform to administer, you need a lot of patience to work it...)

 

[Ivan N]

Yes, My friend had earned money from FB. But he worked very hard.

 

[beasty]

Free advertising? If this is your ONLY option use it

People who spend 20 hours a week posting FREE adverts on Facebook, might just have paid for 1 advert and done something else with the extra 20 hours.. To suggest putting in months and months of legwork v finding an effective paid advert is insane (Unless it is your only option)

I see people pushing a Turkish golf holiday destination online, they guy must spend 50 hours a week posting and its so annoying (If you are in multiple groups you keep seeing his bloody adverts)

A paid advert, would allow that person to stop wasting 200 man hours a month pissing people off

FB can target your audience, but if you simply want people to LIKE your page you are wasting your time, you need to give them a call to action a reason to submit email and phone opt ins so you can accumulate a database of users.

Having 50,000 likes UNLESS THEY are organic, simply shows that you are focusing on the wrong thing.

 

[ethical PR]

Yes, My friend had earned money from FB. But he worked very hard.

Super helpful Ivan what did your friend actually do to earn money from FB....(apart from working very hard).

 

[Krystsina]

Hey, I use Facebook ads quite often to promote the business I partly own. If you target the audience in the right way (location, age, etc) it might be very helpful for you. Facebook ads helped us a lot, from getting more followers of the pages to turning them into our customers. As our product is food, we were promoting pictures of it. I would say that it is quite difficult to get user's attention as much as want due to high level of everyday information, so unfortunately, nowadays it seems to me as most likely the only way you could actually deliver your information to your customers.

 

[Joel Bissitt]

Facebook can be good but you can also spend a lot of money fast with no return. Before you spend money use gorilla marketing tactics. Join groups, build audience, post and message. This way you get to see if it works and then you can use paid to target people that have shown interest in what you do but promoting page, website and posts to likes to your page

 

[EcomAlistair]

We sell fairtrade products. I paid £4 which targeted 1 post and reached 2000 people but didnt result in any sales

@Traceybil123 - how do you know you got no sales from this? Do you have sufficient tracking and analytics in place to be sure?

I agree with almost everything I've read about targeting the right audience ... but traffic generation is only one part of the process, the other side is converting visitors to sales ... this boils down to what happens on your website.

You said you "reached 2000 people"

How many clicks did you get?

If there were no clicks - then the issue is with your advert.

If there were clicks but no sales - then the issue is with your website.

Let me know about the clicks, and we can discuss some things to look at on your website!

 

[Deleted member 226268]

.

Why FaceBook is not really a good place for your adverts and marketing attempts.

https://biz.askleo.com/ill-just-facebook/
.

 

[EcomAlistair]

This article doesn't argue for abandoning Facebook, it argues for taking the right approach to facebook @dave archer.

Social media platforms are a legitimate source of traffic to B2C and B2B websites, but they should be treated with caution - for all of the reasons pointed out in the article you posted.

I have seen businesses go from zero to oversubscribed because of the right photo, posted at the right time on Facebook. The guy just posted a photo of the christmas lights that he installed for a recent client, and the comment thread went ballistic with tens of people asking him to PM them his price to do the same for them.

At the same time, I have seen businesses falling over themselves to 'be more social' and all it has achieved is a waste of their time and money. The principle is that it is about the approach, not the platform.

Sometimes social works. Sometimes social doesn't work. But let's not throw the baby out with the bath water folks!

 

[BigTree]

I've found fb one of the best ways to advertise our products. I hate to admit it but I usually spend only 10-15 mins making an advert and most of that is creating the image. However my customers are fb users and very easily targeted. My products are also unique. It's a great platform for unique t-shirts for example.

I normally use it for low priced items which have just been added to my catalogue.

A quick look at my fb stats and I've two campaigns running. One has cost me £825 with a return of £1800 and the other £236 with a return of £689. I make 40-50% margin.

An excellent ROI but I have had some campaign fail if I've not worded them correctly or tried a new demographic. Don't let them run too long without checking but also give them a chance to work.

Just make sure you've installed the pixel correct to monitor sales (if that's the goal). Also make sure it includes the sales value and not the default $1 per order. Then it's trial and error.

One day I'll do it properly and I should do even better!

 

[kwam-iT]

I tried Facebook ad and it wasn't as I expected. I nearly gave up on my business until a voucher from google I had on my desk for weeks caught my attention; when I switched to google ads however everything picked up! Best thing I ever did!
But as the others said Facebook can also be great it depends solely on what you are trying to offer. I would use it hand in hand with google ads. The beautiful thing about google is it DIRECTS PEOPLE ALREADY AFTER YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE straight to your website. Facebook is more of a strategised stab in the dark.

 

[machinedock]

its just an amazing idea

 

[Louisa Edith]

oh! I'm doing advertising facebook and google for my business. it good. I have a lot of profit from it. I can share the experience with you .

 

[hathu]

I am starting to make money from facebook fanpage to sell my products and drive traffic to Youtube from Facebook. I use an agency account to run ads to save money.