Thread: Facebook ads..are they worth it?

Been working on my marketing plan and aside from using free social networks, I feel like I need to advertise in local papers and/or focus my efforts more online via facebook marketing to grab the attention of my demographic.

Problem is I don't know HOW MUCH I need to spend on marketing.

Many of the small local papers can get me an ad the size of a business card ( or smaller) for under 42.00 weekly rate. What I like about this is that I can choose to print bi-weekly or monthly if I choose to, lowering my costs. and I get a nice size reader base.

With facebook I don't have the option of bi-weekly or monthly ads (unless I'm mistaken..)

I created a demo ad to see what the cost would be and it's .42 per CLICK. So if my lifetime budget for the ad for 6 months is 1,008 dollars, at .42 cents per click, I'm only getting 2,400 people, and MAYBE 2% (48 people) will be customers?

I know my budget isn't very high, but is that worth the price?.

Where would I have the better success rate per dollar spent?.. paper or online?

Originally Posted by Stance

Been working on my marketing plan and aside from using free social networks, I feel like I need to advertise in local papers and/or focus my efforts more online via facebook marketing to grab the attention of my demographic.

Problem is I don't know HOW MUCH I need to spend on marketing.

Many of the small local papers can get me an ad the size of a business card ( or smaller) for under 42.00 weekly rate. What I like about this is that I can choose to print bi-weekly or monthly if I choose to, lowering my costs. and I get a nice size reader base.

With facebook I don't have the option of bi-weekly or monthly ads (unless I'm mistaken..)

I created a demo ad to see what the cost would be and it's .42 per CLICK. So if my lifetime budget for the ad for 6 months is 1,008 dollars, at .42 cents per click, I'm only getting 2,400 people, and MAYBE 2% (48 people) will be customers?

I know my budget isn't very high, but is that worth the price?.

Where would I have the better success rate per dollar spent?.. paper or online?

What is your business? If you run an online blog you would be better off advertising on Facebook.
If you are a local plumber having a Facebook ad is not so advantageous.

A rent-to-own business

need more opinions.

To be candid with you, FB Ads are pretty simple and a great way to drive instant traffic .

It's best to be as specific as possible.You can lower your $0.42 bid with better targeting ie targeting users by gender/location/interest/age.
Just a shot in the dark here- if your ad is only displayed to males over 35 in your local area who like "business pages" your CPC bid would plummet significantly..... infact you would...

• Grab more traffic for cheaper clicks
• Get better qualified prospects
• Have instant feedback on your marketing campaign

From there you can split test different call to actions, landing pages, upsells/sale funnels etc

Now on to newspaper advertising, once again this depends solely on where your ad is placed, how good your offer is, what call to action you present etc . Off course the biggest knock on newspaper ads is time - you will have to wait for at least 2-4 weeks to see any results and even longer to make any adjustments in your marketing.

48 people ain't bad if the cost of the widget/service turns a profit.
48 x $50 = $2400 minus advertising cost ($1008) and get $1392 profit.
Double that if you are selling for $100 ($2784) and so on and so forth
Those 48 people can be upsold to a premium service at a higher price point say $500
At least 1-3 will take up that offer. Re-invest to advertise some more . Rinse and repeat


If you need any more information on FB Ads or Newspaper Advertising . Well just shoot me a pm

Just from personal experience I have terrible thoughts about FB advertising. Granted it was my first blog/online venture, but in the end I just wasted $5.00 a day for a month.

Of all the companies I have consulted for, I have never advised one to use facebook ads. There are more creative/ cost effective tactics that can be used to generate traffic. It just takes a little more creativity to do it right.

LTL is right on when it comes to advice with how to utilize facebook ads in the best way possible. As for news paper ads, I would sooner advise you to use the money as toilette paper than burn it away on print media.

There are much better ways to advertise than the traditional CPC/ CPM methods, it just takes a little ingenuity.

Shoot me a PM if you need help.

If the solution is not fb, not cpc/cpm and not printed media..what do you suggest ?

I need a lot more info on your company to even begin to answer that question.

Also, I did not say the answer was not facebook. I said there are much more effective/ cost friendly ways than the the traditional CPC/CPM on FB. There are tons of better ways of using social media and gaining interest for free. Twitter also is a HUGE player that you can use to your advantage.

FB ads can be very beneficial to people, assuming you can pinpoint your audience. I have a friend that runs a wedding photography business and he's had great success with it, because his only shows up to people selected as 'engaged'. That's a winning scenario right there.

I just got $50 free advertisements for FB. I'm going to use that up, and see how it goes. If I see traffic generated, and return then I'll put my own money back into it. Choices are lifetime budget, or per day. IIRC, you used to be able to choose monthly, not sure why they did away with that option.

As far as the newspaper ads go, I would have little to no faith. Do you read the newspaper anymore? Our local paper has made the move to a website, and they only put out a physical paper on Sundays. You may want to look for advertising online, through your local newspapers website. Just a thought. I'd like to see what you come up with though. I'm having a small struggle right now with traffic, and have been brainstorming some ideas.