Facebook Ads

[Nathan]

Does anyone here use Facebook ads? I'm trying to decide between those and Adwords.

 

I know with Adwords I would drive them directly to the forum. With Facebook I would use ads to get them to like a Facebook page that I would create for the site. Then post new posts from here on Facebook page to generate interest.

 

If you do what's your process? Could you give me some detailed guidelines?

[Shole]

Well depends on what you really need. Do you need someone to like your site or do you need some members on your site.

I would go with Adwords you might got a coupon from your host if not its fine but you can be sure that it will bring your forum some members if you have a good banner or good text to advertise your site. While on facebook you never know who will like your page and if they will like it .

[bryce12]

With Google Adwords you an target almost any kind of market but with Facebook ads your choice would be restricted to products and offers that appeal to a yonger democgraphic. The great thing about FB ads is that they are a lot cheaper and allow use of pictures in the ads but I have heard that the ROI is not that great.

 

I agree that it makes sense to redirect visitors to your fan page and ask them to Like the page. Another option is to redirect the visitors to an optin page and capture their email address in exchange of a freebie. You can then push your offers and products through Wall updates and emails.

 

Bryce

[ukfan41]

I only have experience with Facebook ads, but yes redirecting them to a page may seem inconvenient, but it really is a solid method of attracting traffic. It is also much cheaper than any other ad site I have heard of.

[Shole]

I only have experience with Facebook ads, but yes redirecting them to a page may seem inconvenient, but it really is a solid method of attracting traffic. It is also much cheaper than any other ad site I have heard of.

Yeah the only thing that is better for Facebook ads is that they are way cheaper then Adsense but they are also less effective.

[Creaky]

I've used both of them, both drive traffic but again very few registrations come from it.

[Pete T]

The problem i see is what Creaky say you get traffic but want turn that into members and active members at that really.

[fakesky]

I am not familiar how this process is done, but if I were in your shoes, I'd go for setting up a facebook page, and getting likes, cause it for a longer period, you can send them updates about the forum and "poke" them to engage into discussion.

[wjack2010]

When I used Facebook Ads, I was extremely dissatisfied, I gained only a couple of members and even those weren't active, so I paid around $100 for a couple of inactive members, if I wanted to do that I'd use one of those paid to click websites. I would not recommend it, I'd stick with Adwords if I was you.

[ChuckTesta]

I use both Facebook ads and Adwords. I agree with Shole, facebook ads are cheaper. However, i have my facebook ads directing them to my site. You don't have to have them directed to your page.

 

What i'm currently torn with is to keep the ad as a CPM, or to use it as a CPC. While they can display it a crap load to use my daily limit, nothing replaces clicks. Clicks drive traffic... so i may switch to a CPC campaign.

 

I know this thread was started a couple weeks ago, but have you given it much thought since?

[Nathan]

Well I decided to go with AdWords, but my account was banned about 6 months ago. I tried creating a new one for this site and they banned it as well. Turns out if you are banned 1 time you are banned for life. Guess I should have read the rules before using trademarked words in my ads

[ChuckTesta]

Ouch! That's not good! What were you using that got you banned?

[Nathan]

I have a site that sells Facebook Fans, Twitter Followers, YouTube Views, ect....

 

So in my ad I named off the services that I provided, they warned me once so I changed up the ad to just say we sell FB Fans, Followers ect.... They said that still wouldn't work and banned me.

[ChuckTesta]

Ouch! That's rough. And the ban is for life? Have you tried writing them to get it lifted?

[Nathan]

Haha, yeah probably 50 emails back and forth. They do not budge at all. I could always make another under my wife's name I guess.

 

I wonder if they would figure it out since it would be the same address?

[ChuckTesta]

I highly doubt you would be able to sneak that by them.

 

On a side note, I used to live 60 miles east of KC on I70! Emma, MO.

[Nathan]

Well here is the thing, just because they banned me doesn't mean they can ban everyone related to me.

 

I would think they have to let her have an account right?

 

Hmm...Emma, that must be on the way to St. Louis.

[ChuckTesta]

Yeah, Emma is just shy of Sedalia.

 

I wouldn't think they would ban your wife. However, i wouldn't put it past them to connect your addresses and ban the household.

 

On a side note, i just reviewed my Facebook ads for the month (first month of doing CPM Vs CPC) and i'm thoroughly impressed!

 

Typically a click would cost roughly .40-.60 on average but i've been getting about a million impressions on pages for about $35 a month! Not too bad considering i limit who i'm targeting.

[Nathan]

You getting that on you Facebook Fan page or on the webpage you are driving to?

[ChuckTesta]

That's for the ad to display. However, the click through rate is less than .1% but hey, that's not bad for getting the name in front of some eyes!

[dojo]

Let's say that the best way to decide is to actually try them both. Set a small budget for them (same money would work great) and keep them running for 30 days. At the end of the month see your stats, conversion rates etc. For some facebook ads work great, others claim Adwords is better, in the end it all falls down to your settings, budgets, personal experience.

[BlackHatClass]

If anyone wants to try FB ads, I have an amazing contest going on where I'm giving away free FB vouchers. Contact me for more info.

 

And to answer Nathan, it really depends what kind of traffic you want. When I tried FB, the traffic didn't convert well for monetization, but for actions. What I mean is, that the page I was promoting got a lot of likes, comments, shares etc, but not so many offers got filled up (CPA).

 

For adwords, you get a variety of traffic, if you chose the right KWs and bid the right price.

[bryce12]

Let's say that the best way to decide is to actually try them both. Set a small budget for them (same money would work great) and keep them running for 30 days. At the end of the month see your stats, conversion rates etc. For some facebook ads work great, others claim Adwords is better, in the end it all falls down to your settings, budgets, personal experience.

 

The problem with this approach is that your Adwords campaign is going to be very expensive. Adwords is a well established platform so there are very few keywords that cost less than 5 cents so you are quickly going to run out of your test budget. Facebook is still new, so you can experiment a lot and use keywords that cost less and convert well.