The Future of Advertising on Facebook
- 48 Comments
- By Zac Johnson on January 14th, 2009
Going into this year’s Affiliate Summit West, I wasn’t looking towards anything spectacular and didn’t have any big aspirations. I was excited about being on the “Advertising on Facebook” panel, but had no idea how beneficial it would end up being.
During the first day of the summit while walking through the meet market, I was surprised to see that Facebook had their own booth, along with plenty of staff members from the company. Not only were these members from Facebook, but they were actual team members from the Ads department and they actually understood the frustrations we have been experiencing with the Facebook approval process and their advertising platform.
I met with almost all of the members from the company, but spent the most time with Alex Shultz who is the head Marketing Exec at Facebook and also has a deep background in affiliate marketing. While in the meet market we ended up talking for about an hour and it was great to hear about the changes to come.
The next day Alex Shultz, Dan Murray, Myself and ShoeMoney were on the “Advertising on Facebook” panel. The room filled up quickly and ended up with standing room only. In addition to answering plenty of Q&A from the audience, the following points were discussed.
- Shoemoney briefly talked about how he is using Facebook Ads for local advertising and driving leads for car dealerships and dentists in his area. This method of advertising is extremely new and lucrative because barely anyone is doing this.
- There is a misconception by some that Facebook has a “college crowd”, but this is so far from the truth. There are currently over 150 million members on Facebook and some of the fastest growing demographics are over the age of 25.
- Facebook members from NON-US countries are one of it’s fastest growing areas, with Italy recently leading the way. Foreign clicks are cheaper along with less saturated.
- When setting up a new campaign, make sure to test multiple images and text headlines. Alex mentioned that the TEXT headlines of ads actually factor more in the overall CTR than the image used.
- While other social networks may start at .10 or .25 per click, it is possible to receive clicks in the .02 to .04 range. Price factoring comes down to a click through rate and cpm process. Continually tweaking and improving your ad campaigns for a better click rate, will result in lower click costs.
- Cloaking links is not fooling anyone at Facebook. They are aware of “black hat” methods and are in the process of taking actions against these advertisers and accounts.
- When Alex was asked what offers he would run on Facebook to make money, he said “dating” and “weight loss” offers are always in the top performers.
Overall. the “Advertising on Facebook” panel went well. More than anything else, I was thrilled to see Facebook made the effort to attend and put themselves out there to get real user experience stories and feedback. They know the ball is now in their court and they have made mistakes in the past, but are working to improve the system. There is no easy fix and this will take time, but improvements are on the way.
I know Alex and the Facebook team will be looking over the comments in response to this blog post, so please feel free to leave any comments, complaints or improvements you feel would be useful.
- Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Summit, Facebook, Make Money, Marketing
"With great power comes great responsibility".... my Uncle Ben told me that. Haha, just kidding! I'm Zac Johnson and I've been making money online for over 10 years now. In short, I started making money online while I was in high school... but my passion for marketing and making money goes back way earlier than that. I created ZacJohnson.com to help motivate you to start making money online, and live the life the you always dreamed of.
Hey, great post. Sounds like you had a good time. Great info on Facebook too. Thanks for the Scratchback love.
ReplyZac, thanks for the write up. Much appreciated since I couldn’t be at ASW09.
As I said on our panel at Affiliate Summit Social Media, until Facebook can get past dating and weight loss (or broadly, personal improvement), it’s not a great place for most advertisers. Being able to micro-target, even at very low CPMs, isn’t profitable if users won’t click with intent (and I submit that many ad clicks on Facebook are accidental, given the bounce rates and time on page metrics that we see).
I still say it’s easier to interrupt users on MySpace (even with the terrible Flash-based myAds program) with a broader range of offers than it is on Facebook.
I love Facebook - we even give people bonuses on their Seller Rating on Dawdle.com when they link their accounts - but they’ve got to do better than what they have done to date.
ReplyHey Zac, thanks for this overview. I wasn’t able to make it to Affiliate Summit and the facebook panel was what I most wanted to attend. Thanks.
Reply@Sachin Agarwal:
ReplyThanks for the feedback Sachin. I’ve had awesome success on Facebook and some campaigns with very high ROI ranges. The main concern for myself and my other affiliates, is the approval process. We know how to make profitable and quality campaigns, and are willing to spend several thousands per day… it’s just a matter of Facebook getting the approval process down pat and in a consistent matter.
So, when do you think the approval process will get better?
I am one of those ready to spend thousands, but can only get 1 out of 5 approved… Wtf?
Although, I turn a great profit with my small amount of ads…
ReplyWhen are they going to quit declining all of the dating and diet offers if they are the best, ha.
ReplyI have the same question as browie asked above…
If they say dating and weight loss offers are the best why do they keep denying them?
ReplyThanks for the heads up. Hopefully, the changes Facebook make in ‘09′ are for the better…
ReplyI think the Facebook advertising platform will be very profitable for those who know how to utilize it’s struggle most effectively, first
ReplyFacebook needs to work on their ad approval times, especially on weekends. Having to wait in some case 15+ hours for an ad to be approved is a headache.
They also need to make sure their editors are all following the same guidelines while approving or disapproving an ad. I’ve come across the situation where I set up an ad and have it approved, and then set up the exact same ad a week later only to have it disapproved.
ReplyI’ll jump in here and add another complaint about the approval times.
Having to wait a day just to get 1 or none out of 5 ads you worked hard on approved is not cost effective in terms of time spent.
ReplyHi Zac,
I was in the Facebook Advertising session at Affiliate Summit West 2009, and enjoyed the transparency of Alex and his Facebook associates in accepting the negative feedback graciously.
Alex assured the attendees that Facebook was well aware of the issues in ad approval you have stated, and they are promising to address each one as soon as possible.
With any new platform like Facebook ads, a certain amount of ‘live bench testing’ reveals the bugs and forthright people like Alex are solving these problems today.
Thanks for speaking with me after your panel, you always provide useful information regarding your experience. Thank you!
Respectfully,
Nicholas Chase
ReplyChase Marketing
http://www.twitter.com/nachase
Thanks for the heads up on this, I Hope to get into facebook advertising one day.
ReplyWish I could have made the panel! Sounds like it was a great one. Thanks for the recap though Zac.
And of course I agree with the others that there needs to be some major changes to really make Facebook a premier ad platform. But it’s definitely possible. Hopefully Alex takes the concerns to heart and has the power and insight to fix it.
ReplyHey man, Thanks for the write up. Really helped with the new way things are going!
ReplyI’ve been looking into advertising for a few of my websites on Facebook. This is great information on it. Always saw Facebook as the college student social network but good to hear that over 25 year olds is becoming a fast growing demographic on there.
ReplyAdvertising on FaceBook is quickly becoming profitable. First people didn’t click on them because they’re too busy chatting, but now they do. So I wonder what changed. Or are they displayed differently lately? I don’t know, but it seems like the right technique has been used.
ReplyThanks for the great summary of key points in this presentation. Your points were thorough and clear. As someone who could not attend the event, I am especially grateful to learn the valuable information that was shared.
ReplyHey Zac,
It was great seeing you again in Vegas. In retrospect I wish I took you up on your poker offer. This sessions was one of my favorites. I was able to ask some questions to Facebook people and getting ready to start some campaigns. Really looking forward to growing with Facebook now.
ReplyThanks for this post Zac. I was thinking about using Facebook for advertising but haven’t gotten around to it yet. Hopefully, they’ll get this approval thing fixed. That’s one of the best things about Adwords even though I rarely use it anymore - immediate approval.
ReplyGreat post Zack. You really “snuck” in some great content and tips on using creatives and niches to test on Facebook. Anyway, thanks for the tips.
ReplyGreat post. I didn’t really know much about Facebook advertising but hey, I do now! I do know how big Facebook is and its member base though. Maybe I will profit from it soon as well!
ReplySo will Facebook advertising actually work for smaller businesses? Anyone have an opinion on this?
ReplyI’ve reluctantly joined Facebook — and is it just me, or does anyone actually pay attention to the ads? I can’t say I do.
ReplyI’m going to sit back and watch on this one. See how it works for others.
ReplyHey Zac, thank you very much for this post. Few of the the bullet points cover some really interesting facts for people looking to advertise not only on Facebook, but any social networking site.
ReplyThanks for the Facebook reminder. After having a rough time getting some ads approved by Facebook, I’ve been having a hard time getting back at it. I appreciate the reminder and pointers for giving things another shot.
Replyi never advertise my product in facebook.
Replybut maybe i’ll do it later.
thanks.
i never advertise my product in facebook.
Replybut maybe i’ll try it later..
thanks for the information.
Good article….and you’re right…not many people know how to advertise a local business on Facebook. For those that can show advertisers how to do it, the upside is very good.
ReplyI have to say that there would need to be Obama-esque sweeping changes to their advertising system if they are going to have it work.
Most advertising systems that are useful tend to only make money off of a short-tail. I have been advertising local businesses ( of my own and others ) on Facebook for years ( I miss Facebook Flyers ). Businesses that are offline ( dentists, car dealerships ) have such a huge range of solutions available, and the middle-man advertisers don’t see these networks as viable solutions.
One reason is that most of the people who are selling solutions to the busines aren’t privy to the intricate matters in marketing within these social realms.
The people who are tend to follow the “word-of-mouth” online grassroots campaign, and none of this ever reaches the business consumer.
The 2nd problem lies within their limited advertising solution. Although it replicates Google in a way with the limited lettering, the psychology of these spaces don’t permit the same type of response. It is the equivalent of seeing a movie preview on tv and a movie preview at a party. Google is in itself a sort of evolving data directory, where Facebook is not. So I am still surprised they set up their ads that way.
A third is their lack of use for crossing information and expanding solutions to the grassroots crowd on Facebook. Their are a lot of issues with how they set up their groups and mailing lists. I know its because of the initial design and security and the whole shebang, but there is a lot of money that could be made with developing their core functions and setting premiums to other functions alongside them.
If I don’t see certain sweeping changes by August, I will bet the farm they will have big revenue problems down the road ( Not everyone is going to try to become experts at their ad system and luring customers. They will flock elsewhere). If Facebook would come see me, I would put them over the top.
PS: Also peeved they have these bogus “eye” and “make money” ads bursting through, and my ad for a Chinese restaurant was disapproved. In all honesty, their ads worthiness is comparable to a childs sports team blog. I seldom see something of worth, and I try my best to look to my right. But like Beyonce, I always go back “to the left, to the left.”
ReplyI am doing some advertising on Facebook, and I have a very low CTR for my ads. But who cares? If I am paying per click, why does my CTR matter? Would I get a lower cost per click if my CTR was higher?
ReplyHey Zac, thanks so much for that insight into face book. I never knew face book had such huge potentials for marketing. Always thought differently.
ReplyThanks for the insight into the meeting. I advertise with the major search engines, with the best results coming from Google, but after reading this, I may try Facebook.
ReplyFacebook advertising seems to be a great idea. I’m gonna give it a try later on. Thanks for the valuable post.
ReplyI’ve tried to use Facebook ads to promote a CPA offers but always got rejected, this facebook marketing is a mystery to me.
Mikey
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