Facebook ads: bad investment for small businesses

That is a great article. Thank you for writing it and sharing here. Great method for using several forms of ads together to grow conversions.

In my case I don't have any products to sell, just trying to promote my website using a page on facebook. I post pictures, status updates regularly and includes a link to my website in the description on each picture. I have a pretty good reach and lots of people click like on the pics etc, but it wont convert at all. I also tried the ads to get more likes and also ad campaigns to drive some visitors strait to my website, but until now its been a complete waste of money.

To me it seems like people are so stuck on Facebook that its impossible for them to leave outside the borders of facebook.

You simply need to get as much info about how to advertise right be it on facebook or anywhere for that matter.

I will suggest besides above, create several similar ads and test, test, test.

Cheers.

Now that is somewhere to start..

I just got your ebook. Hoping its gonna deliver the juice?

Lol.

I totally disagree. It's widely accepted that CPC is the best option for FB advertising. If you have a good ad and a nice landing page, you're only going to be paying pennies for each Like.

People who newly like a page are the most tuned in, those who have been around for a while won't be unless you have a history of engaging content. Have you tried posting stuff on your Facebook page that's likely to be shared/liked/commented on that isn't a marketing piece? It's tough to transition a user from a post to a page, but if you can entertain them for a little while and then move in for the kill you'll have their attention when you do.

My firm manages the pages for a handful of major brands, and one of the things I do is commit to NOT promoting the brand's products. The Facebook page is a place to engage consumers... entertain them and be "in their face" every day with content that has high likes and comments, and when you DO occasionally throw out a reason for them to click through to the website, more of them will see it.

Your post visibility in others news feed is controlled by how "important" Facebook thinks your content is. If all you post are marketing pieces, you will be seen by very few people (hence the Forbes contributor's frustrations). But i you're posting content that a lot of people like/share you'll start becoming visible again to those who have ignored you. There's also the 'Add to Interests Lists" trick (detailed at the link).

Your original post inspired me to go on a rant of my own today, lol. Here is its:

Are Facebook Pages Bad For Small Business?

Ok good so you're on the right track then. If you're comfortable with the number of followers you have, try doing what I suggested with the promoted post about getting them to add you to their interests list. I've used a few variations of the copy below, but this version took us from an average "Seen by" of 200-300 to 2,800 on a page with 8,000 likes.

"Hey guys, since Facebook has recently changed the rules of what shows up in the news feeds we realized that a lot of people weren't seeing our posts - in fact, I had to pay $10 just so you would see THIS one. Do us a HUGE favor and head over to our page, click the gears icon next to the Like button, and hit "Add to Interests Lists" - that help make sure you won't miss any of the awesome stuff we share. Plus, if you do it, we will think you're really cool and tattoo your name all over our bodies. Yeah, we're good like that."

Include an image like what I put in the article but for your own page (showing them where to click) in the post.

That's an excellent point ... How "fanable" is your product? That will have a huge impact as well. If you're selling cool tech gadgets, you can have huge success with Facebook, but if you're an accounting firm you're totally wasting your time.

Heh. If your business has "cool factor" and is something that lends itself to a following, like gadgets, restaurants, alcohol, social events, etc. you're going to have a completely different experience with Facebook than a "boring" business that doesn't excite people. Look at BDO - biggest accounting firm in the world, 1200 offices in 130 countries, $620 million in annual revenue ... 5 likes on their last Facebook post. Accounting is boring. Facebook isn't a fit for them and wouldn't be worth their time.

Yeah, the $30,000 worth of sales in one day due to posting a CyberMonday deal on Facebook to all of the fans we spent the year collecting made the two minutes a day spent on Facebook such a waste of time. :rolleyes:

I agree that Facebook is a fad - but so what? That's like saying you won't buy advertising on the most watched television show because some day that show will be canceled. If it works now, do it.

Like any form of marketing, it all comes down to strategy and audience. If you ran TV ads on animal planet selling hunting gear you probably wouldn't do too well... it doesn't mean "animal planet ads are a waste", it's just the wrong audience for that product. If you were dog vitamins you'd do great. Some products can do really well with Facebook and some won't. You don't need to be an expert to know that.

LOL

You use facebook to build that email list.

If you weren't building a list and were just accumulating fans and not getting them on your email list then clearly you had no idea at all!

I have got ads running as high as 20% click through rate costing me as low as 2 cents per click....you can't get that on Google or anywhere else particularly when they are so highly targeted!

So rather than say facebook ads and marketing doesn't work, maybe you should say it didn't work for you coz you didn't know what you were doing!