I wonder how much of Facebook's ad revenue (and Google's for that Matter) consists of less savvy marketing efforts that don't understand or even care about the metrics which matter. The long tail?
I don't believe the argument in favor of Facebook Ads can be that you need to understand marketing better or differently.
The majority, I presume, of people using these platforms have little to mediocre experience. The disappointment in Facebook Ads comes from this large group.
I've talked to plenty of people and no one has been happy with Facebook Ads. The details of why don't necessarily matter - they've taken their $ elsewhere. Winning them back will be tough.
Would be really interesting to know how much the long tail account for :) But guess we'll never know!
For sure both Facebook and Google should do a better job training users with 0 expertise to better use their platform. I don't think in the long term they have much space to grow more in the enterprise, SMBs, the long tail are the segment where the future growth is ... and if they loose them after the first $50 it will be tough!
And yeah, why not hop on the thread and get some SEO links of your own.
This guy is no better than the people he is slandering.
But if you like to bash something based on data, at least let's do it with some reasonable data set
For advanced digital marketers, the next step of course is looking beyond last click data. The attribution model you view your data through plays just as large a role in determining the success of it as many of the other factors that this article and others focus on.
Since you have conversion tracking setup for FB, FB conversions will obviously be higher than what GA shows in its standard reporting since FB's own conversion data is the equivalent of awarding 100% attribution to all assisted click conversions.
What would be more interesting is to see how this stacks up along with your other channels with various attribution models.
For those that are wondering if FB is working for you and looking at last click conversion metrics, you're doing it wrong. For a large % of scenarios, Facebook tends to play a much bigger role at the beginning of the conversion funnel, ie. the "Awareness" stage. This is also true of many forms of display advertising. To expect it to perform strongly on a last click model is unwise. First click models are likewise not great, but even that stark comparison will give you a sense of the contribution, and the GA multi-channel reports can show you that overlap.
I'm constantly blown away by how many amazing attribution tools Google gives away in the free version of GA and I'm always disappointed that none of the marketing articles that hit HN focus on that piece of the puzzle.
Totally agree that overall Facebook Ads is great for demand generation while Google Adwords is much better for demand fulfillment. Also you're right on the attribution model, Facebook clearly attribute to itself every conversion from people who clicked the ad no matter of the last click.
In the future I'll try to make a followup post playing with GA various attribution models and checking how they change the data!
I did learn after I wrote my post how to target Desktop only and am running a follow up experiment, but if you're going to talk shit, at least do a valid comparison. Also I'm not sure what SEO you think I care about for my random Tumblr... (I specifically did not post it under my company blog)
In the last Facebook bashing post, the author compared the CPC on Facebook to the cost on AdWords which is a terrible comparison because the intent of a directed search on a search engine is so much more legitimate than just being somewhat interested in something on Facebook.
The problem has to do with the messaging to small business people by the big online advertising platforms. The messaging is that it is easy, fast, and has a small minimum spend. It's akin to the '90s era messaging around discount stock brokerages that encouraged average bums to become day traders. While yes, the average bum can day trade, it is not a good idea for the average bum to day trade. It is the same for online ads for people unwilling to spend the time/effort to study, filter out the junk information, and practice.
My experience with FB is that the conversion rate is essentially zero and limited by your ability to donate to FB.
Customer: "But using it, I'm loosing money on every purchase." Vendor: "Don't worry, buy more, you'll make it up on volume."
I'm the first to say that Facebook Ads don't work for everyone. And in advertising you should immediately stop spending on anything that don't have a positive ROI.
Still before stopping you should learn a bit how to use the platform and give it a fair try.
Then if it does not work ... stop it immediately and move on testing another channel :)
I'm with you. There are far too many variables ranging from audience, timing, ad setup, money, etc to even begin measuring in any scenario. The million dollar per month investment may see a better conversion rate than the ten million dollar per month investment. There are just far too many variables at play.
While American Idol was becoming a thing, I acquired #1 ad placement on the keyword 'dance' for 2 cents per click through Adwords. I was getting 100,000 impressions an hour. For me, Adwords was the greatest thing known to humans. Then, I attacked more keywords for other sites. Horrid conversion/CTR. Just different sides of the spectrum. You win some, you lose some.