Is All The Buzz About Facebook Ads Just BS?

[Wunderkind]

I'm curious if anyone out there is having any real success with Facebook ads. I've been experimenting with them for 6 months now, and I am less than impressed. This is across multiple niches.

I have found they work well for building a following to Facebook business or fan type page. However, for selling a service or a product, they have performed so much worse than AdWords. They are certainly cheaper, but the ROI is garbage on most of the campaigns I have run.

There has been a ton of buzz and no shortage of internet marketers putting out their latest courses on how to make a bazillion dollars using Facebook ads. I'm wondering if there is some big secret I am missing or if they are just full of shit and following the usual MO of preying on people that don't know any better.

Maybe I have no idea what I am doing. I have managed to turn my campaigns into something that is moderately profitable, but my ROI in AdWords blows them out of the water. 

What got me interested in trying this is that if I can figure it out, there are a lot of niches I wouldn't touch with AdWords because of the high costs, but there might be opportunities in Facebook instead at a much lower cost. 

Just curious what kind of experiences others have had with Facebook ads. 

I was going to post something like this at that other place, but I know what kind of responses I would get. It would likely be people either trying to sell me something or people who have never run a single Facebook campaign, but would love to give me advice anyhow. 

 

[Khemosabi]

I've been studying the ads that come across on my page(s) for a while now.  Honestly, I can't see the value in them.  

1 hour ago, Wunderkind said:

I have found they work well for building a following to Facebook business or fan type page.

^^ This.  I've joined two groups because of one of my 'friends' liking a business page.  

What I've really noticed, is the discussion parts.  Each page has products for sale, and services, but they don't really promote them in the discussions.  One, posts a lot of educational pictures (it's about hoof trimming), and how her product and her lessons can really help you get your horse back to 'sound'.  

Now, the ads that come across my pages, sure, I read them and IF they're of interest, I open a new tab and type in the URL.  I NEVER click on them.  I know a lot of people do, though.  

With my own personal page, I've noticed that FB selectively posts things.  Out of the 27 friends I have (don't laugh, I'm not that damned social), I will only see 3 of my friend's posts, and the rest are all groups I follow. FB can make money off of groups/pages, but not personal.  AND... their "2 years ago, so and so posted this!".. <-- who cares?  Those type of posts are to promote FB and their agenda.  Which, reminds people of something and gets them back involved with something 2 years old.  Clever.  

With all that being said, I see more bang if you keep it social.  Join groups, have discussions.. blah blah blah.  

I am going to be testing an ad in the next week or so to see if I get any action.  

With your various niches, they sound like they're popular, keep an eye out for the ads on the side banner.  Going back to my horse trimming group, I noticed an ad that was AGAINST this method of trimming.  It worked, it put doubt in my head and I wanted to read it.  Again, I NEVER click on ads, but I do notice which ones get my attention.  The one's that put doubt in my head or alternative solutions.  

1 hour ago, Wunderkind said:

There has been a ton of buzz and no shortage of internet marketers putting out their latest courses on how to make a bazillion dollars using Facebook ads

That means there's a bazillion people out there doing the same stupid thing.  They're using the same type of headlines and such.  I don't think it's just marketers that are ad blind.  "Ten crazy tricks to lose 150#s in two weeks!"  "So and so used this product and you won't believe what happened!".. 

People are so used to those headlines now, they don't gather the attention the ad poster is looking for.  

People scroll through FB.  You have about 2 seconds to catch their attention.  Say we use the weight loss niche.  Here's a popular headline;

"Never diet again!"  Me, I'd use a headline like;

"I stopped dieting and finally lost the weight!"  It's more believable.  ??  Maybe?  I hope you get where I'm going ... 

1 hour ago, Wunderkind said:

or people who have never run a single Facebook campaign, but would love to give me advice anyhow. 

And........... that would be me!  LOL!  

Sorry Wunderkind.. I need a nap!  

[Wunderkind]

23 hours ago, Khemosabi said:

 

On October 18, 2017 at 11:38 AM, Wunderkind said:

or people who have never run a single Facebook campaign, but would love to give me advice anyhow. 

And........... that would be me!  LOL!  

Sorry Wunderkind.. I need a nap!  

I should have been more clear and added that they would give me advice with no evidence or thought behind what they were saying.

Actually, there would probably be several replies quoting question and answer sites to tell me what Facebook Ads and AdWords are. 

 

 

[Wunderkind]

One thing I have just recently started, and I think this might be the real winner is to use Facebook ads to build up the followers of a page. I'm also using some other organic and paid methods to build up those followers as well.

THEN, I am going to run ad campaigns to just the fans of that page. It will be a more targeted group this way, and I think it can payoff better. The reason that most people out there are not talking about this idea (from what I can see) is that many internet marketers are allergic to spending money when there is not an immediate return. This is going to take some investment upfront to position myself to run what should be a campaign with a better ROI.

 

[Khemosabi]

I saw something a lady that owns a group I belong to, the horse trimming one, and she has also started using ripl.com to put together some really cool mini slideshows for a topic.  It really helps engage her followers into a conversation.  

Thanks for the tip about running ads for just the fans of a page.  I think that will work well for a couple of my clients.  

You're right about the products out there ... they're old, and oh so tired.  I'm anxious to get started on ads, probably this coming week I'll start.  I'll be running one for 'services' and one for 'products'.  

Running ads is risky and I 'get' the fear behind it.  So many start out just throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks and never really do any research, first. 

They miss the whole:

A site filled with Adwords is ugly and frustrating.  

Posting CONTINUOUSLY on FB about your services and not engaging in our audience, never works!  

[JohnHemmer]

On 10/19/2017 at 12:15 PM, Wunderkind said:

One thing I have just recently started, and I think this might be the real winner is to use Facebook ads to build up the followers of a page. I'm also using some other organic and paid methods to build up those followers as well.

THEN, I am going to run ad campaigns to just the fans of that page. It will be a more targeted group this way, and I think it can payoff better. The reason that most people out there are not talking about this idea (from what I can see) is that many internet marketers are allergic to spending money when there is not an immediate return. This is going to take some investment upfront to position myself to run what should be a campaign with a better ROI.

 

I took this idea and implemented it on a site recently. It has actually become a pretty nice source of traffic and sales. It was a bit of an upfront investment with basically no sales. Since then though there have been some decent sales coming through from my activity on the Facebook page. I'm almost at a break-even point from what I spent initially on the ads. I'm still running some ads, but dropped the budget down a lot after the first month. Now the page is mostly growing organically and it is bringing visitors and buyers to the site. Posting on the page about 8-12 times per week.

 

[ThomasBelknap]

I've only played around with Facebook but the audience tends to be different in that they are not actively looking to purchase a product like you would see when using Adwords.  

One time, I was sending traffic to a page that had some free software downloads.  I would get their emails through registration of the software.  Even when I stopped sending people it was growing organically through the likes.  That was years ago and I still get people trying to download that software.  

[deezn]

Did you receive any training or was it just trial and error? I'm in two huge Facebook Agency groups and lots of people in there are doing well. But it depends on the service/product. Some products or services are better off with adwords and FB retargeting. Some do well with Facebook.

General interest stuff (hair, nails, restaurant, estate planning, real estate) facebook is good. Some I need it right now services, are better on Adwords.

Estate Planning/Taxes/Investments - Facebook.

Personal Injury, DUI, divorce - Adwords

[Guest]

I pretty much did the same as Thomas - just an experiment really to learn how it worked. Based on my experience, I agree completely with the idea of building up followers to a given page/group first and then running a targeted campaign to the members of that page/group. 

[AlbertoEbert]

I think due to lack of experience you are not able do Facebook ad campaign in better way . So if you want better ad campaign you need some tips for advertising.
Therefore, the best tips for Facebook ad campaign are as:-
#1: Build a Sales Funnel.
#2: Monitor Ad Frequency to Manage Exposure.
#3: Scale Your Budget Based on Ad Performance.
#4: Try to target your audience according to your product.
#5: Select Proper ad Placement for Increased Reach.
#6: Choose the Right Bidding Option.
#7: Reuse Old Ad Posts for New Campaigns to Preserve Engagement Stats.
 

Hope this tips help you for better Facebook ad campaign and with this you can able to get the better ROI for your Facebook ads. 

[LukasHuels]

Facebook is a great marketing platform if you use this platform with the right strategy then you can explore your business and get the new audience for the business and without the Facebook ads, it will not profitable way to reach your large audience.

The Best Facebook ads Guides are as follows:

1. Develop Your Strategy First

2. Choose Your Objective

3. Target Your Audience

4. Choose Where You Want Your Ad To Be Displayed

5. Set Your Budget

6. Choose Your Ad Format

7. Don’t Forget the Details

8. Monitor Your Ads Carefully