Have you had success with face book ads?

[nesrinamb]

I know that this has been discussed before but I would like to know if any one has had any success with the service recently.

I have been debating using the service and would like to know how some people tweaked their campaign to improve ROI.

 

[Xander]

None. Zero. Zip.

Used up all the 'intro' credits and then another couple of hundred. Targeted things demographically and everything.

But, then, I figure that if *I* ignore all FB ads....

 

[lan101]

Yeah same here. I did the intro with nothing. I have gotten a few jobs through facebook though. It was already people I knew and got a few referrals to others through there.

I just use it as a networking tool to keep in touch and occasionally offer some advice and suggestions to folks I know in hopes of getting other jobs or referral work from it.

 

[DanF]

Got no jobs. However I have had a lot of traffic to my facebook page. But none turned into business.

 

[Mushin]

Facebook ads alone generate few good resoponses but that is partly becasue of all the crap ads on facebook. However, I have had great success in marketing my business on Facebook by using it as an outlet to share news and information. In the end this has resulted in quite a few customers bringing theg computer into our shop for repair.

So think of facebook as a platform to expose people to you and your business. Use it to stay at the top of their list for when problems happen. The ads work well to keep help people remember you but will usually not lead to immedate "results."

 

[nesrinamb]

I appreciate all the feedback everyone.

up until now i have been thinking of using Facebook to promote my blog articles and thought about the ads but if i get tons of traffic and no sales then theirs really no point to it.

Also I had no idea their where intro credits, if i get some free ad credits I might use it since its their.

 

[PC-Man]

I have tried it as well with no response other than people clicking to view your website

 

[nesrinamb]

Just got a facebook coupon for $25 and so far i seem to be getting a few clicks but no actual people calling.

 

[rsarceno]

... up until now i have been thinking of using Facebook to promote my blog articles ....

If your main objective is to promote your blog which promote your site, then I think the best best is to re-publish your blog on other blog site and add a link to your website. You can't simply cut and paste because search engine will detect duplicate blog and will not re-index both. The trick is to change 20% to 30% (recommend by most SEO) of the words or phrases. There is a program less than $100 that will do this for you.

I think this is more of a sure thing than advertising at facebook. I play mafia wars on face book and use a unwrapped plug-in to remove facebook add.

I also used free facebook book credit and not a single response.

 

[parker.casey]

I know that this has been discussed before but I would like to know if any one has had any success with the service recently.

I have been debating using the service and would like to know how some people tweaked their campaign to improve ROI.

Facebook ads on their own are useless. Ads are useless, if they are just ads. Do you click ads? Nope? Don't expect others to.

That said ... make a facebook page, become genuinely friendly with the people of your local community, make sure they know that you're the guy to go to for computer problems, and make sure they like you on face book ... THEN advertise. Target properly and it'll work. I routinely pay out around $50 for ads and get a measurable $500-$1000 ROI.

 

[cyabro]

Not for our computer business but my wife's horsey/equine business yes.
She is a distributor here in New Zealand for some of the above products so setup a Facebook page.
It got a few likes, maybe about 20 to 30 and no business from it over a few months.
So she bought some facebooks ads. Been about 3 months now and the page has just gone over 300 likes and she's had 3 or 4 retailers around the country wanting to start selling the products.
She has been buying more ads so I think if you're going to do it you need to be consistant.

 

[Dameize]

Dont mean to be a pessimist but if its town specific its very possible your competitors could get friends/family to click your ads and cost you money. Not that I would but if I wanted I could blow someones budget on my own in an hour.

Just like google ads, it can be exploited. Again though dont take the above the wrong way as im not a malicious person I just like to point out the worse that can happen.

 

[PC-Man]

Yes it can happen, even with google ppc, competitors can click on your ads multiple times at intervals on your ads to burn your budget.

 

[16k_zx81]

That said ... make a facebook page, become genuinely friendly with the people of your local community, make sure they know that you're the guy to go to for computer problems, and make sure they like you on face book ...

What? Be nice to people? Friendly? (shudder) Thats a bit extreme isnt it?

Nosirr I dont like it. Dont like it at all. Cant I just click on something?

 

[sct]

I have had 4 so far from it and 2 customers have been awful to work with. Most I deal with from FB wants to trade for work or just give it to them for free. My print ads have have been running for years only 1 or 2 bad customers. Then word of mouth has always been great.

 

[bytebuster]

Somebody suggested I set up a FB PAGE, not buy ads but get a PAGE in my business's name, and post computer tips and special offers and such. This person is a psychic/life coach, and she says that FB has worked wonders for her business, AND she doesn't have to fight other psychics for TV interviews on shows like "CheapTVChannel Good Morning Today".

 

[nesrinamb]

Ok so so far no luck with facebook ads a couple of clicks but nothing really.

I have decided to change my Facebook page so that it helps spread the word about my blog tips.

 

[callthatgirl]

Facebook has generated us revenue, but not from the ads. Mostly from my clients stating how happy they are with our services and then someone seeing it and calling us. That's about it. I did the ads, they sucked. I have a nice fanpage of sorts set up, but no calls. I have stated this before on TN, for us...it's important to use FB for social media, but it's really helping with "social networking"....the people talking is key for us.

As a social media tool, I try to use it daily with the blogs I write and lately we have been recycling old blogs since I know the new people haven't seen them. I get usually a 100 hits a month from FB or so, still no calls...but in the bigger scheme of a social media marketing campaign, it's important to utilize all the free sources together. When someone sees you on FB, they see you....they might call when they see your ad/flyer, etc. It's the 7 times trick for marketing to work.

My fanpage has over 2000+ people, many are from other countries. I'm big in Asia. lol (I feel like the D List actress). I think they assume my CTG girl is a call girl cartoon.

 

[nesrinamb]

Thanks everybody for the feed backs about how Facebook worked out for you.

I'm going to stop the ads and just focus on getting likes and get people to comment on how good a job I did.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

We have not found it useful for bringing in business for our IT.

My wife however, she is in real estate, and it has brought in clients for her and proven to be well worth her time she spends maintaining her real estate FB page. The common one...quite a few people that she knew back in high school 25 years ago...didn't know she does real estate now. So since they reconnected through FB..they see she does that, and reach out to her. She has had a few closings from people that FB brought to her this way.