Facebook advertising is a waste of money

What a stupid thing to say.

Let me rephrase that:

We ran a handful of experiments with Facebook advertising and the results were inconclusive.

Background:

We do a lot of work with Google AdWords, but Facebook really appealed, mainly due to the razor-sharp targeting.

With Facebook, for example, we can target people interested in Software Development in the UK and US between the ages of 25 and 55.

Try doing that with AdWords.

We were also realistic in our expectations, mainly in that we had none.

Facts:

– This was no more than dipping our toes in, so we budgeted $2,500.

– We committed almost no time to learning the system. This was our learning experience.

– We only setup a small number of campaigns and ad variations.

Results:

– 8,384,960 impressions

– 957 clicks

– $2,466.54 total spend

– $2.58 per click

– 1 lead

– 0 conversions

Analysis:

– Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in AdWords any more. Those click through rates would be nauseating in AdWords, but this isn’t AdWords.

– Time spent on the website and bounce rates were very good, so the targeting appeared to work.

If we really wanted to establish whether or not Facebook would be a good fit for our company, we’d have to make three commitments:

1 – time to master the system

2 – time to manage the campaigns

3 – a reasonable budget

Conclusion:

I was hoping for a black or white result. Either Facebook advertising works or it doesn’t. But I didn’t get one.

If one person had signed up for our services, and remained with us for only three months, we’d certainly have made a healthy profit. But they didn’t. Not yet at least.

So we’ve established that Facebook might work for our company. Potentially.

The problem with dipping your toes into the water is that it’s sometimes difficult to see whether it’s cool or warm. You can rule out boiling or freezing, but sometimes the only way to really decide whether it’s for you is to jump in.

The only way to decide whether this works for our company would be to make the commitment to try, this time properly. But deciding that Facebook isn’t a good fit might prove to be a costly mistake in the long run.

If only everything was black or white.