The question remains: Is Facebook advertising effective?
Let's take a look at a few Facebook advertisements. The image below depicts several examples of Facebook sidebar advertisements.
Do these ads look appealing to you? In my mind, they all look like scams. In my opinion, this "scam effect" is what limits the value of Facebook sidebar advertising in its present form. Every firm, from Apple to Joe Schmo's Hardware Shack, receives an identical ad placement and configuration. Because every firm is granted an identical thumbnail-and-two-sentences format, consumers who briefly glance over ads fail to differentiate between them.
To put this principle in perspective, consider the following example. Imagine that you are paging through everyone's favorite street paper, The Onion. You flip to the back page, where you are hit with a barrage of advertisements for dive bars, fortune-telling hotlines, rummage sales and garage-rock concerts. You miss it on first glance, but upon closer inspection you notice that, nestled inside this circus-like collage of absurdity is an advertisement for the Capital Grille. The ad simply state's that on Friday night, the restaurant will be serving food prepared by world-famous chef Mario Batali. Despite its wonderful, authentic message, doesn't it seem like such an ad placed in such a setting fails to effectively convey its message?
The same effect is visible in Facebook advertising. The very first time users notice the sidebar advertisements, their interest is piqued. They read each one, hoping to find exciting offers perfectly tailored to their individual tastes. After 2 or 3 times, however, users soon realize that most of the ads on their screen are irrelevant, untrustworthy, or both. Soon, they subconsciously develop the habit of ignoring ALL the side ads and focusing solely on their profiles and time lines. This leads to low click-through volume and even lower sales per click, which may have ultimately led GM to retract its Facebook advertising investment.
So I ask you, fellow classmates and aspiring marketers. Is Facebook advertising and effective use of Advertising dollars?
I look forward to reading your comments and discussing this further.
2 comments:
James, I'm glad you mentioned having approached this topic from the firm's point of view. I hadn't looked into anything like this, and it's interesting that a few companies, specifically GM, are actually pulling all advertising from Facebook completely. I'm sure Facebook imagined that selling advertisements would be a smashing success, as they should. But like we both mentioned, many of us find the advertising to be more of a nuisance than a benefit. Interesting perspective in this post, and I'm glad we're on the same page.
Very provocative commentary Jon.
Post a Comment