Last month, in light of Facebook’s new advertising platform, dubbed Flyers Pro, I decided to try it out for myself. Here are my metrics from the first 30 days:
Setting up was easy enough: Upload an image (a major difference compared to Google AdWords), write some text and save. Payment is ecommerce driven and my card continuously gets charged each month.
Targeting is impressive - being able to put my ad in front of particular companies is a big plus - but the keyword function is unlike what you’d see in a typical search marketing campaign, driven more by specific subsets on Facebook than on-page content.
Facebook’s poor click-through rates on banner ads is well documented, and my experience was no different. Albeit a very small test for a very short time, I would imagine my results of about 1/2 of a percent would stay consistent.
For the company, a lack of results in a pay-per-click environment means lack of revenue, as my whopping 52-cent spend exemplifies. Facebook probably needs to get a little more creative if they want more of my ad dollars (or get a lot more advertisers to drive up click costs), because I doubt user behavior will change the tide.
In all, however, this initial test was worth my time and effort. I’ll tweak and better the campaign each month. I’ll also expect other social networks to follow suit with similar advertising options, making this a nice baby step into what should be a growing trend.
October 22nd, 2007 at 12:03 pm
I tested the waters myself and agree whole heartedly. It was a snap to set up. However, the results were pathetic (see below). Granted, I only spent 35 cents and it certainly didn’t hurt to try. But check out the numbers:
5 clicks
3,095 impressions
CTR 0.162
Max CPC 0.10
Ave. CPC 0.07
Daily Budget 2.00
Total Spent 0.35
October 22nd, 2007 at 3:55 pm
What exactly were you advertising for? Was it for your business or for a clients? If for a client, then what type of positions? Entry-level? What industry? Steve Rothberg at collegerecruiter.com just told me about this and I’m interested to explore this further. I’m not a big fan of banner ads, but the highly-targted aspect of this is very appealing to me.
- Ben
October 22nd, 2007 at 4:13 pm
The initial test was for a blog, but things will no doubt grow into helping clients leverage the platform. My advice to you: Go ahead and try it. The cost certainly isn’t a barrier.
October 22nd, 2007 at 7:36 pm
I have been usiing it for about a month now. Lots and lots of impressions. A total of 5 clicks.
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:45 am
I’ve created a facebook flyer / ad 4 HOURS ago and here are my first results:
8 clicks
1,405 impressions
CTR 0.569
Max CPC 0.10
Ave. CPC 0.04
Daily Budget 5.00
Total Spent 0.32
I’m impressed.
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:34 am
While results will always depend on the message and the audience, I don’t know that 0.5% CTR is that bad for banner advertising. Unlike paid search advertising, where the audience is actively seeking what you’re advertising, banner ads (and text content-based advertising) generally appear when the audience isn’t looking for them.
I’m surprised 30 days of advertising only yielded 1,108 impressions. Was the targeting very narrow? For comparison, Doron got 1,405 impressions in 4 hours!
October 24th, 2007 at 1:03 am
one day later my ad got 5,473 impressions with a 0.640 CTR (35 clicks). I am targeting people between 20 and 60 years old who are single, in a relationship, engaged, or married in China who graduated from college.
November 9th, 2007 at 2:33 am
Cheez,
Log back into your Facebook account and try and access FlyersPro. It’s been replaced! Now called Facebook Ads. They are still honoring your previously activated ads, but now they have a new service.
My ads were doing great. I received 1.160 million impression, 4680 clicks, and it’s cost me $203.32 so far.
My ads don’t have an expiry date, so we’ll see how long they let them run. I have 26 ads still running as of today.
Here’s some info from their site:
“Flyers Pro is no longer available for purchasing ads on Facebook.
Self-service, deeply targeted ads are now available through Facebook Ads.
You can still access any ad campaigns created before November 7, 2007, from this page.
To see Facebook’s new, integrated, self-service solution, check out Facebook Ads.”
Darren Dickey
InQuarry.com