AdWords vs Facebook Flyers for Advertising

Obviously, I wasn’t looking for Facebook to have the same amount of flexibility as AdWords, but I wanted to see what kind of return people were getting and whether it made sense for me to do any sort of advertising on Facebook.

Payment Method

With Facebok Flyers you pay by impression rather than click. This was actually a big disappointment, obviously I’d have no problem paying more for a click, but they decided to go with the cost-per-impression model. The first thing I would think of when someone chooses the CPM model, is that users really don’t click on a lot of ads, which makes sense to me. When you are using Facebook, you are in the mindset of communicating with friends, updating your profile, and reading about what your friends and family are doing. You are not in any mindset of wanting to click any ads or purchase anything so really, if Facebook went the cost-per-click model (CPC) they’d probably have some really bad click-through-rates (as noted here Facebook Flyers a complete waste).

The cost is $5 for 2500 impressions. Which seems like a great deal at $0.002 per impression. However, from reading what some people are saying online, Facebook doesn’t seem like the best option for your advertising dollars (Why Facebook is not a viable marketing platform, and Facebook Flyers for advertising… does it work?).

Targeting

Facebook allows you to target gender, age, and networks since they actually have that information from every person who logs into Facebook. This is a powerful feature considering Facebook is probably the only place online that can confirm that. MSN offers those options, but they’re just estimates. One thing I thought would be nice is if you could target more than one different age group, or gender combination. It seems like you’ll have to setup multiple flyers.

As well, it would be really great if you could target specific groups, rather than just networks. This would give you the targeted audience that would improve the value in your advertising.

Ad Positioning

The ad placement at Facebook is really bad… on the left below the quick search and menu. I totally understand that they don’t want to detract from the user experience, but that’s because they know users are not going to want to view these ads and click on them. They’re looking for updates on friends and family. Here is where AdWords has a huge advantage. AdWords ads are shown at the top of the page and to the right at the top of the page. They are immediately seen when someone views the page.

Overall Impression of Facebook Flyers

Facebook Flyers seems to show that Facebook is trying to make money, but it just doesn’t seem like it is as relevant as the many other methods of advertising online. Their is no niche, unless you can target specific networks with location specific advertising. The pricing model is Cost-Per-Impression rather than Cost-Per-Click which is a big issue, and the positioning of the ads is really bad. I think it really comes down to the mindset of the person you’re advertising to. On Facebook people aren’t looking to buy anything, they want to interact with people. When you can advertise on search engines you are advertising to people who are potentially actively seeking out what you are selling. It just re-enforces the significant advantage and value in a pay-per-click campaign with google, yahoo, or MSN.