6 ms·

If Facebook is "a company that makes most of its revenues from advertising", and Google is stealing their revenue according to them, they need to work on their

If Facebook is "a company that makes most of its revenues from advertising", and Google is stealing their revenue according to them, they need to work on their Ad Platform. As a small startup, we did some ads on Facebook with 500,000 displays but only 13 or so clicks (but then again, the ads were cheap to run). Nobody cares about Facebook ads and no one clicks on them, I know I very rarely do.

swombat 16y ago
I'm sure that's true and they're no doubt aware of it. But just because your revenue model needs work doesn't mean you should leave the door wide open to your largest competitor to steal your customers who are building apps on your very own platform! Facebook's move makes perfect sense. I'm surprised they didn't do it sooner.
- AlexC04 16y ago
  Maybe they should start making their own adsense then. Allow publishers to put ad units on their own websites out in the wild. The ads would be of various standard banner sizes Placed via iFrame so they were contextually relevant to the page you were on, but also socially tied back to the person doing the viewing - cookie tracking the user. Self management system through facebook gets an option for placement on the "extended network" I bet facebook clickrates would go WAY up because the ads would be everywhere. What's even better is people who get "BANNED FROM ADSENSE" would have a real viable alternative. It's not a small task - but - seems the way to go. Facebook Adsense
  - notintokyo 16y ago
    Could this be what Facebook is planning? They have all the like info from users and plenty of more data beyond that, plus tons of business and developer contacts for leads.
  - tlack 16y ago
    I think this is what they're planning. I note that they have made very slow progress on their on-site platform bits (and actually hurt them in many ways by reducing virality) but are constantly improving their off-site stuff, like Like stream stories, the share widgets, and the FB Comments widget. This makes me think their medium to long term strategy is to convert the entire web into a sellable FB ad unit, rather then get everyone to spend their time on FB directly. I know the logic is a bit strange here but I can't find any other reasoning for their actions.
- esmevane 16y ago
  Do you mean, because they have no ability to compete, they should have made a move to eradicate superior platforms before it became obvious that their ad product is a waste of money?
- blueben 16y ago
  A small correction. These are Google's customers. Facebook is the one trying to steal them away.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
tluyben2 16y ago
Exactly; I click on Adsense ads often and I bought stuff I wanted via those ads. They are often good for my purpose. I made quite a bit of money with Adsense as well. Facebook ads are quite the opposite; I have seriously never clicked on one, because, even though I spend time on Facebook, I never saw even one that looked remotely interesting to me. I hear the same thing from all my friends and read this on most forums/sites I frequent. They have power in numbers, but besides that a lot needs to happen.
- jayzee 16y ago
  Well isn't it basically because when you are on Google you often have the intent to buy something say plan a trip, rent a car or find a restaurant or whatever. On facebook you are checking out your friends and the adds are not immediately relevant to the reason why you are on facebook. makes a huge difference. Facebook needs to build a search engine and the social graph should be a subset of the results like Google categorizes images, videos, maps etc on the top/left. Once fb builds buys a real search engine (blekko) the game could change very very suddenly
  - lallysingh 16y ago
    Nope. I'm often on gmail and am looking at an email from a (non-technical) friend of mine, when a little text ad for a nice little 1U opteron machine shows up top. I click, because I'm interested.
    - esmevane 16y ago
      This is just evidence of the failure of the Facebook ad platform. With the sheer abundance of data that Facebook commands, this should not be the case.
      - lallysingh 16y ago
        I donno. I was looking for opteron serversm (still am, actually). I don't think there's anywhere that facebook would actually know that. I'd ignore any intel boxes, so they'd have to be pretty accurate to get something that I'd click on. If I was facebook, I'd focus on social activities that I'd be interested in while interacting with my friends. Ski trips, wii games, etc.
bane 16y ago
I'm always curious where these mysterious "ads" are in Facebook. I have yet to see a single one in my profile (and yes even with adblock turned off). Do people really find their profiles plastered with advertising?
- sorbus 16y ago
  They occasionally show up in one of the columns on the homepage, next to the news feed. They're quite small, and very easily ignorable. Facebook even lets you close them, and after you do so enough times it seems to stop showing them to you.
sdizdar 16y ago
We did some market research using Facebook ads and we were super satisfied. In this particular case, we were interested in a specific customer segment (what they like, location, status, etc.) and Facebook ads did a great job. Google ads and other services were useless. If other words, it is mistake to equate Google AdWords with Facebook Ads platform. They should be used differently.
davidu 16y ago
I've been exceptionally pleased with Facebook advertising -- I find it has had far higher conversions than Google advertising has. So as with most things, your blanket statement doesn't ring true to others; and ymmv.
- qq66 16y ago
  for what type of product/service?
phlux 16y ago
Based on your comment, you might like this article: http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/16/why-twitter-is-massively-undervalued-compared-to-facebook/ http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/16/why-twitter-is-massively-un... There - Don't say I've never curated content for you :)
socialmediaking 16y ago
If you ran ads with 500,000 displays and only 13 or so clicks, you did something horribly wrong. Facebook ads have a value because they can be ultra targeted. There are many ways ways you could have made a mistake, for instance, demographics that were too unspecific, bad images, not enough variations (i use 10+ sometimes), bad copy, etc. I like to look at the comparison of google ads vs facebook ads as such: If you want to provide a service/product to people who are seeking that solution, use Google ads. And if you want to go to the targeted demographic directly and present your solution/product/message, use Facebook. An example would be if you sold wedding services in miami. You could go on facebook and target women 25-35 who are engaged and live in miami. The ads would display only for the targeted demographic and would likely have a good click-through rate. Or you could go into google adwords and buy terms related to wedding services miami or zipcode+wedding service. The differences here are that a woman in the younger demographic is much more likely to be spending hours on facebook and only minutes on a google search. In addition, google also has incredibly high competition for some of the more lucrative keywords and it is getting increasingly more competitive in local search, now requiring a top 7 ranking to really matter in the local listings. Also, never underestimate the cpm (cost per thousand) displays of facebook ads to the targeted demographic. They work great for events like concerts and other events when simple awareness is key. A good image also helps a lot, as I run ads with the same text and different images and see dramatic differences in the number of clicks. It's difficult for me to believe that "nobody cares about Facebook ads and no one clicks on them" because Facebook Ads (and Google Adwords/Adsense) operate as markets, with a bidding system on price. I almost don't want to post this because the more people who know about and use facebook ads, the higher the price rises. Their prices have been steadily rising over the last year as more and more business try them out. They do work, but not for every product and not for every demographic. But people wonder how facebook can have such a high valuation, because they underestimate the amount of direct access and data Facebook has to over 500 million people. The ads do work, but to create a good campaign requires knowledge of the platform, and experience in marketing, advertising, and copywriting. Laypeople assume they don't need marketers and can do buys themselves, and more cheaply, but usually end up spending more. The true gold in online advertising though, comes from what happens after the person clicks.
- tomkarlo 16y ago

swombat 16y ago

I'm sure that's true and they're no doubt aware of it. But just because your revenue model needs work doesn't mean you should leave the door wide open to your largest competitor to steal your customers who are building apps on your very own platform! Facebook's move makes perfect sense. I'm surprised they didn't do it sooner.

AlexC04 16y ago
Maybe they should start making their own adsense then. Allow publishers to put ad units on their own websites out in the wild. The ads would be of various standard banner sizes Placed via iFrame so they were contextually relevant to the page you were on, but also socially tied back to the person doing the viewing - cookie tracking the user. Self management system through facebook gets an option for placement on the "extended network" I bet facebook clickrates would go WAY up because the ads would be everywhere. What's even better is people who get "BANNED FROM ADSENSE" would have a real viable alternative. It's not a small task - but - seems the way to go. Facebook Adsense
- notintokyo 16y ago
  Could this be what Facebook is planning? They have all the like info from users and plenty of more data beyond that, plus tons of business and developer contacts for leads.
- tlack 16y ago
  I think this is what they're planning. I note that they have made very slow progress on their on-site platform bits (and actually hurt them in many ways by reducing virality) but are constantly improving their off-site stuff, like Like stream stories, the share widgets, and the FB Comments widget. This makes me think their medium to long term strategy is to convert the entire web into a sellable FB ad unit, rather then get everyone to spend their time on FB directly. I know the logic is a bit strange here but I can't find any other reasoning for their actions.
esmevane 16y ago
Do you mean, because they have no ability to compete, they should have made a move to eradicate superior platforms before it became obvious that their ad product is a waste of money?
blueben 16y ago
A small correction. These are Google's customers. Facebook is the one trying to steal them away.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

tluyben2 16y ago

Exactly; I click on Adsense ads often and I bought stuff I wanted via those ads. They are often good for my purpose. I made quite a bit of money with Adsense as well. Facebook ads are quite the opposite; I have seriously never clicked on one, because, even though I spend time on Facebook, I never saw even one that looked remotely interesting to me. I hear the same thing from all my friends and read this on most forums/sites I frequent. They have power in numbers, but besides that a lot needs to happen.

jayzee 16y ago
Well isn't it basically because when you are on Google you often have the intent to buy something say plan a trip, rent a car or find a restaurant or whatever. On facebook you are checking out your friends and the adds are not immediately relevant to the reason why you are on facebook. makes a huge difference. Facebook needs to build a search engine and the social graph should be a subset of the results like Google categorizes images, videos, maps etc on the top/left. Once fb builds buys a real search engine (blekko) the game could change very very suddenly
- lallysingh 16y ago
  Nope. I'm often on gmail and am looking at an email from a (non-technical) friend of mine, when a little text ad for a nice little 1U opteron machine shows up top. I click, because I'm interested.
  - esmevane 16y ago
    This is just evidence of the failure of the Facebook ad platform. With the sheer abundance of data that Facebook commands, this should not be the case.
    - lallysingh 16y ago
      I donno. I was looking for opteron serversm (still am, actually). I don't think there's anywhere that facebook would actually know that. I'd ignore any intel boxes, so they'd have to be pretty accurate to get something that I'd click on. If I was facebook, I'd focus on social activities that I'd be interested in while interacting with my friends. Ski trips, wii games, etc.

bane 16y ago

I'm always curious where these mysterious "ads" are in Facebook. I have yet to see a single one in my profile (and yes even with adblock turned off). Do people really find their profiles plastered with advertising?

sorbus 16y ago
They occasionally show up in one of the columns on the homepage, next to the news feed. They're quite small, and very easily ignorable. Facebook even lets you close them, and after you do so enough times it seems to stop showing them to you.

sdizdar 16y ago

We did some market research using Facebook ads and we were super satisfied. In this particular case, we were interested in a specific customer segment (what they like, location, status, etc.) and Facebook ads did a great job. Google ads and other services were useless. If other words, it is mistake to equate Google AdWords with Facebook Ads platform. They should be used differently.

davidu 16y ago

I've been exceptionally pleased with Facebook advertising -- I find it has had far higher conversions than Google advertising has. So as with most things, your blanket statement doesn't ring true to others; and ymmv.

qq66 16y ago
for what type of product/service?

phlux 16y ago

Based on your comment, you might like this article: http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/16/why-twitter-is-massively-undervalued-compared-to-facebook/ http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/16/why-twitter-is-massively-un... There - Don't say I've never curated content for you :)

socialmediaking 16y ago

If you ran ads with 500,000 displays and only 13 or so clicks, you did something horribly wrong. Facebook ads have a value because they can be ultra targeted. There are many ways ways you could have made a mistake, for instance, demographics that were too unspecific, bad images, not enough variations (i use 10+ sometimes), bad copy, etc. I like to look at the comparison of google ads vs facebook ads as such: If you want to provide a service/product to people who are seeking that solution, use Google ads. And if you want to go to the targeted demographic directly and present your solution/product/message, use Facebook. An example would be if you sold wedding services in miami. You could go on facebook and target women 25-35 who are engaged and live in miami. The ads would display only for the targeted demographic and would likely have a good click-through rate. Or you could go into google adwords and buy terms related to wedding services miami or zipcode+wedding service. The differences here are that a woman in the younger demographic is much more likely to be spending hours on facebook and only minutes on a google search. In addition, google also has incredibly high competition for some of the more lucrative keywords and it is getting increasingly more competitive in local search, now requiring a top 7 ranking to really matter in the local listings. Also, never underestimate the cpm (cost per thousand) displays of facebook ads to the targeted demographic. They work great for events like concerts and other events when simple awareness is key. A good image also helps a lot, as I run ads with the same text and different images and see dramatic differences in the number of clicks. It's difficult for me to believe that "nobody cares about Facebook ads and no one clicks on them" because Facebook Ads (and Google Adwords/Adsense) operate as markets, with a bidding system on price. I almost don't want to post this because the more people who know about and use facebook ads, the higher the price rises. Their prices have been steadily rising over the last year as more and more business try them out. They do work, but not for every product and not for every demographic. But people wonder how facebook can have such a high valuation, because they underestimate the amount of direct access and data Facebook has to over 500 million people. The ads do work, but to create a good campaign requires knowledge of the platform, and experience in marketing, advertising, and copywriting. Laypeople assume they don't need marketers and can do buys themselves, and more cheaply, but usually end up spending more. The true gold in online advertising though, comes from what happens after the person clicks.

tomkarlo 16y ago