Paid Facebook Ads - anyone using them?

[dgaddis]

(MODS - feel free to move this to the most appropriate forum...I assumed OT was the best place)

Anyone here have experience with using paid ads on Facebook? I have my first one running right now. Quick primer on how FB works for those that don't know.

Things posted by a company/organization/whatever on their Page isn't seen by all of their followers. FB's goal is to provide content their users (people, not businesses) like, that way they keep using FB. So, when a Page posts something, it's only shown to a small percentage of the people who follow the page. Then, depending on how well received the post is (how high the engagement is), FB will show it to more people.

Reach = how many people saw the post.

Engagement = how many people interacted with the post (clicking the link, like, share, or comment)

So, if a company post something that gets a lot of likes/shares/comments it gets shown to more people. If it doesn't get much engagement, it isn't shown. And when I say "shown" I mean put in their news feed - or their friends news feed (like when you see things like "your friend John Doe liked this post"). I believe likes/shares/comments are all given different value (a comment or share is probably worth more than a like), but FB doesn't really reveal exactly how their algorithm works, and I imagine it evolves every so often.

Quick note - if you want to help your friends business/page, like everything they post. That will extend their reach.

If you do a paid ad, you can extend that reach (it'll show up in the news feed of people who don't necessarily like your page), and you can target certain demographics. Gender, age, geography, and interests. You select how much you want to spend, and how long you want the ad to run. You must spend a minimum of $1/day. FB will give you range of predicted reach based on the $'s spent and length of time.

I have my first ad running right now, a post linking to an article on my page about Onyx hubs. I spent $10 and it's running for a week. I limited it to 22-60yr old users, both male and female, and for interests I put everything cycling/MTBing related I could think of.

The ad has been running for ~3.5 days now, so it's about half way done. Southern Wheelworks has a little over 400 likes, and most posts have a reach of 200-250 people, and gets 5-15 likes (typically). The ad has so far reached 1,364 people, and received 45 likes, and I've picked up an extra 10 or so followers.

SO, I'm pretty happy with it at this point. It hasn't necessarily translated into more sales (yet), but it has made more people aware of me, and it was cheap. I'll likely run another one at some point.

Anyone else used the paid ads?

[mmoore]

Ive noticed one of my friends that runs a new business of animal control has been using it. They seem to work pretty well to be honest in terms of getting the word out. not sure if its effective for drumming up business, but I would assume that it does a good job, being that you can tailor it to the market you want- in his case would be within the area he works in.

I will send him a message and see what his thoughts are.

M

[Will Neide]

*Liked

[Matthew Strongin]

I haven't used it first hand, but my wife has for the retail business she runs. The number of followers increased significantly, but the vast majority of them were people outside their target demographic and standard customer base. She hasn't seen a notable increase in sales or foot traffic as a result, either. Since her business isn't online, that likely limits the effectiveness of the expanded reach, so take it for what it's worth. It's also not a terribly expensive way to try to get some more visibility.

One benefit of Facebook (not the paid ads) that she has seen is staying in the forefront of her customer's minds and using it as another channel to keep them up to date on new products or events.

[rmplum]

Some guy with a crazy looking japanese name (suck on it google!) just "liked" your page. Good luck!

[steve garro]

Just cross-post your beta to & from your personal page.

- Garro.

[rec head]

*Liked

+1 Like

[stnphoto]

I have used them myself. Be a little wary of the new followers you get. Click in on the names and look at the profiles. Whenever I run one, a good number of those new followers certainly seem to be bots--lots of unusual names, no pictures or posts on their profiles, etc. YMMV, but I'm just glad the fees are as low as they are, because the positive results you may see on your ads manager may be worth about as much.

[dgaddis]

I have used them myself. Be a little wary of the new followers you get. Click in on the names and look at the profiles. Whenever I run one, a good number of those new followers certainly seem to be bots--lots of unusual names, no pictures or posts on their profiles, etc. YMMV, but I'm just glad the fees are as low as they are, because the positive results you may see on your ads manager may be worth about as much.

Yeah there's really no way to know for sure if the 'reach' # is true or not, you just trust that it is.

But all the reach, likes, shares, comments, etc aren't worth jack if they don't translate to sales. I can't pay my mortgage with Likes.

[alexstar]

I have no experience with paid ads on FB but I too have always wondered if they are worthwhile.

Here's one guy's experience: