How much do you spend on ads? Where?

[Karl00]

Thoughts on Yelp and radio?

Want to try radio for a month or two and maybe stop it. Tried Facebook and Yelp for the first 30 days at the beginning, and they seemed like a waste, but that was at the beginning. Will never give Facebook any more money, because they keep locking me out of my account for "suspicious activity" whatever that means. Yelp had free 30 days advertising, but it didn't bring a single customer. Got several messages always asking for prices but nobody ever came. Yelp finally changed to a month-to-month basis. I might give them a brief try or might not.

The Internet, referrals from another business, and drive by traffic are equally the biggest three for me. Next is word of mouth. Then, I get a little bit from Craigslist and eBay. I get like one customer per month on Thumbtack, not very effective there. Tried Groupon and it seemed like a waste. Got only one customer in half a year probably because they're shopping by lowest price there.

 

[Tech bud]

From the looks of it, just depends on your area. Try it and if it works, put some more money in it. I just went to repost my ad on craigslist and it is now charging to post? That means I will not be posting there any longer, or maybe I should as the competition might not now.

 

[frase]

We have a local phone book called PocketBook, I get heaps of work from this. Also word of mouth from clientele, facebook not much cant stand it anyway. More tyrekickers via fb as they just ask about prices. I always say I will need to look at system before I quote. Lots of hits on google via website as well.

 

[Bryce W]

I have to admit, I am a little amazed seeing some of the dollar amounts being used on Adwords.

If you had a machine where you put $1 in and got $5 out of it, you'd start putting more and more $1 coins/notes into it.
People who regularly have high spends have usually found their $1-to-$5 machine and are just scaling it up.
$5000 is a lot to spend on Adwords, but if thats getting them $25,000 of work consistantly, its totally worth it. Its all relative.

 

[300DDR]

I find facebook works well (better than adwords) for re-marketing (make an audience of people that visited your site). And adwords better for general advertising. I also use Yelp advertising, but just the minimum option (I've found increasing this does not increase conversions). I spend ~$200/day on adwords, ~$35/week on facebook, and $275/month on yelp.

 

[Diggs]

Business is a bit slow right now so I put $250 into Facebook in a very small area (8 mile radius) for 2 weeks. You couldn't be on Facebook without seeing my ad in this area. I even heard from some of my customers that saw it. It's my perfect target audience. Unfortunately it brought absolutely no new business. I'm sure there is some residuals left in people's minds but nothing quantifiable. Background noise to be avoided by most.

 

[Velvis]

How does Facebook generate audiences? Like if I want to focus on managed services for small offices. Who and how does Facebook determine would be a good fit? Does Facebook work well for B2B?


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[Bryce W]

Business is a bit slow right now so I put $250 into Facebook in a very small area (8 mile radius) for 2 weeks. You couldn't be on Facebook without seeing my ad in this area. I even heard from some of my customers that saw it. It's my perfect target audience. Unfortunately it brought absolutely no new business. I'm sure there is some residuals left in people's minds but nothing quantifiable. Background noise to be avoided by most.

Generally Facebook ads dont just exist on their own. The message might not land on point, no call to action, site that doesnt convert once they are there etc.. I'd love to see the ad and the page it pointed to if you are willing to throw it up. Might be able to help.

 

[Your PCMD]

I have to admit, I am a little amazed seeing some of the dollar amounts being used on Adwords.

Google is getting paid.

As far as my advertising, no Facebook (horrid way to advertise), no adwords, no TV or radio either. I am in the phone book only because it comes with the number, otherwise, I wouldnt do that either.

Only 2 things work for me. Thats #1 word of mouth - no amount of money spent on advertising can come close to it (where I am) and #2 I dont use the local newspaper, but instead I use the weekly advertiser paper - every Wednesday and reaches 12k+ homes and businesses - and I pay $90 for 4 weeks for a small coupon ad (1.5" x 3"). But I stagger it for every other week making it last 8 weeks. I make my money back on that 10 times over during the course of the run. I just switch the coupon up every so often.

Also, I've got a few clients from the local Chamber of Commerce from referrals. I could get a lot more, but I'm not paying $250/yr for a CoC membership only because a couple CoC board members are on the city council and they are douchebags.

 

[labtech]

Just to throw in a comment as far as what to expect happen: there is a significant problem with click fraud with Croogle A*words.
Most people advertising with A*words don't pay attention to their stats and traffic, so they don't realize some of the click waste. But it happens more often than one can expect. And yes, Croogle will deny it and their customer support in India (yep, it moved there about two years ago) is a complete frustration. Those reps aren't trained well, as they can't answer any common sense questions. They keep telling you "Oh, we cannot provide this information, it is internal only!" There is little transparency nowadays.
They really don't value you as a customer, especially when you are spending a significant amount a month.

 

[JustinNickerson]

Google Adwords is where it's at. I've received a lot more impressions and clicks to my site, then from facebook ads any day.