

Facebook news feed ads generate 49 times more clicks at 45% less cost - cpeterso
http://venturebeat.com/2013/06/27/facebook-news-feed-ads-generate-49x-more-clicks-at-45-less-cost-study/

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dschiptsov
Because a stupid user clicks on that crap by mistake.

It is probably should already be obvious, that most of internet audience
developed a habit of ignoring ads, same as TV audience did long ago, so the
times of making money, like it was possible in times of debut of Google's ad-
words are gone.

Almost no one clicks on an ad unless it is decorated as ordinary link, looking
like a part of the site, which is plain cheating.

"Investors" who are waiting that FB will make profit on ads, well, let's say
that they are naive.

~~~
Lusake
I guess people also are making purchases and signing up by mistake after
clicking on ads. Just because you ignore ads, doesn't mean others do same. FB
is already making profit on ads.

~~~
dschiptsov
Clicks and sign-ups, leave alone purchases, are very different things. FB
sells clicks, but a user just hits "back" button. Eventually, there will be no
demand for clicks, because even being very cheap and abundant, they will not
create enough money.

Profit = revenue - cost. So, FB pays all its costs from selling ads? Since
when?)

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nickzarzycki
Ads masquerading as news get more attention? What an enormous surprise!

~~~
pjmlp
I always have to look twice, because sometimes they really look like friend's
updates.

What I have started to do is to mark them as spam.

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cheald
This should be obvious, but click volume is a bad thing if conversion rates
are low. Your KPI is cost-per-conversion, not cost-per-click.

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acchow
What about the quality of the clicks?

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jmcdonald-ut
I read through the article pretty quickly, so forgive me if I missed
something, but what qualifies as a click? Do "Likes" count as a click (for
example)?

~~~
firloop
My somewhat limited knowledge of the world of Facebook advertising (got free
$100 credit, ran campaign) would tell me yes, Likes do count as a click.

~~~
soneca
No, clicks are either click on the ad, directing the user to your site or
click on the name of the ad Publisher (i.e. your Fan page). Likes and shares
are different metrics

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hrish2006
If you guys want to remove those ads from your newsfeeds, check out this
javascript I wrote: [http://programmerhrishi.blogspot.in/2013/05/get-rid-of-
those...](http://programmerhrishi.blogspot.in/2013/05/get-rid-of-those-
suggested-posts-and.html)

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Kiro
I think the reason they cost less is because they are the only type of
Facebook ads that are shown on mobile. I have a web app which doesn't work
very well on phones and the only way to prevent my ads from being shown there
is to disable News Feed ads completely.

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linuxhansl
Hard to believe. The reason why search related ads work well is because the
search engine knows about the intent... You just entered it.

An ad on a news feed on the other hand is almost always something you don't
want. The same goes for most ads on websites, they're likely something you do
not want or something that does not align with your intend.

~~~
sunsu
The new ads are "retargeted". You won't see one unless you've been to the
advertisers website recently. That is where the "intent" comes from.

Seems reasonable to drive user to your site through SEM/SEO, then hammer home
the message with one of these new FB add.

~~~
qnk
I wish those retargeted ads were smarter. They should reset the given "intent"
after an action is taken.

Early this year, I bought a watch for my girlfriend as a surprise gift for our
anniversary. I made the mistake of doing some prior research to find the best
price... on her laptop! I bought the watch online, using the same computer,
but the advertising software was incapable of recognizing this action and kept
showing her exactly the same watch ads all over the Internet. Long story
short, my gift was not a surprise anymore.

That happens to me all the time, I always look the best deal before buying
something online, buy it, but then have to deal with ads that are not of my
interest anymore for about an extra week. I guess is more cost effective for
advertisers to show completely irrelevant ads even if the purchase already
materialized, but it gets so annoying to the point of starting to dislike the
brand a little bit more every time. At least in my case.

~~~
Lusake
>I made the mistake of doing some prior research to find the best price...

Doing research to find the best price is never mistake. It sucks that your
surprise is ruined. I dont know if advertisers can know if action is taken on
other website. I guess you should delete cookies to "reset intent" or do
research in private tab.

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samingrassia
The problem with fb has never been CTR %, but volume. This is why they will
never end up eating into search budgets, specifically with midsize e-commerce
businesses (largest group of retargeting advertisers).

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callmeed
I will admit, I've had good success recently with some promoted posts from our
FB page. It's anywhere from $5-50.

Much better than traditional FB ads, but that's not saying much.

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arpstick
It's too bad a "Facebook Premium, no ads included Edition" will never happen
due to the fact that it wouldn't make as much money as the current model with
invasive ads.

~~~
Lusake
That is not necessarily true. They can easily calculate average worth of FB
user (money that user brings them by clicking on ads) on yearly basis and set
yearly membership fee above that number. Example: If average yearly worth of
user is $5, they can charge $10 fee. Most of people that would sign up for
premium would be users that dont click on ads anyway (their average worth is
lower) so FB could earn more.

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md224
Is the only indication that it's sponsored the little "sponsored" tag in gray
at the bottom? Or does it still say "suggested post" in gray at the top?

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jsemrau
How is this not spam?

~~~
andybak
Not sure what you mean but I'm a fairly typical HN type and I read the article
of my own free will and found it useful.

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badclient
Compared to what? Jesus.

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likpok
Other ads on facebook, presumably.

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onedev
Did you even read the article?

