This Man's $600,000 Facebook Disaster Is A Warning For All Small Businesses

We had talked about this a little before but here's a huge BIG FAT WARNING.

Perhaps the most shocking passage from the entire article is the following:

Naturally, Brar began disputing his bill with Facebook. He wanted his clicks audited by a third party, to see how many were genuine. Then he discovered that Facebook’s terms of service forbid third-party verification of its clicks. That’s something all advertisers should be aware of before they spend a penny on Facebook.

Facebook is different from the rest of the online ad industry, which follows a standard of allowing click audits by third parties like the IAB, the Media Ratings Council or Ernst & Young.]

This Man's $600,000 Facebook Disaster Is A Warning For All Small Businesses (FB) - SFGate
 
You should have posted this in the website forum. (just nitpicking)

The online marketing community has been abuzz for a while about how FB is ripping businesses off with their ads.

I wouldnt trust them after some of the stories I have read recently.
 
Sounds like that one cannot do what Ronald Reagan suggested: "Trust but Verify".
 
The only people you hear of making money from Facebook ads is Facebook.

I'm sure there are some, but it definitely does seem tilted in Facebook's favor. Also, wildly inaccurate click counts seems to be a reoccurring theme. I like how they try to deflect saying you have to measure the same time period they do. Ok, so if my day starts and stops at a different time than Facebook's, I can see how a day's numbers won't match up, but those clicks should show up in the next day's numbers and an aggregate for a campaign should be fairly close.
 
The only people you hear of making money from Facebook ads is Facebook.

Depends on the vertical. There are agents on here that swear they do well on facebook.

That said, facebook isn't where people go to buy anything, it's where they go to catch up with friends/wast time on the internet.
 
I think the tech and web forums should be combined, thats my nitpicking...

lol. Yeah, but tech goes beyond websites. Websites are a very indepth niche of tech, thus imo making it a valid forum in its own.

Also, the people who do not have websites, and want to discuss smart phones, ipads, gadets, etc. have the tech forum clear of all the website stuff that they dont care about.


But my line of thinking is that you arent going to advertise on FB if you dont have a website.


Semantics aside, the only way I would advertise of FB is if its free. The real life experiences being reported, and what FB is saying do not match up. That is a huge red flag.

I think that FB is worse on fake likes/friends than G+ is. G+ has cracked down recently on all of that, but FB seems to still not care.

I recently saw a brand new company/site, but their FB likes were at 15k..... thats not possible without shady tactics, even if you had a fulltime social medial person, 15k in just a few months is pretty much impossible imo.

I think that is why Google's search algo is starting to focus more on G+ since they can verify the authenticity of that a bit more.

----------

Depends on the vertical. There are agents on here that swear they do well on facebook.

That said, facebook isn't where people go to buy anything, it's where they go to catch up with friends/wast time on the internet.

I think the agents that do well on FB are doing so by networking, not by paid ads on FB.
 
I think the agents that do well on FB are doing so by networking, not by paid ads on FB.

For all we know it's a fish story, but some claim FB ads work for them.

I've personally bought things because I saw them on Facebook. Nothing expensive, but some ads did speak to me and prompt the credit card coming out.

As far as my business goes I've done some pay to promote on posts and it's helped with exposure, but I wouldn't bank on it for sales.
 
I can see how a day's numbers won't match up, but those clicks should show up in the next day's numbers and an aggregate for a campaign should be fairly close.

Exactly, over the course of a month or two, hell, even a few weeks, the numbers should be pretty close.

FB has shot themselves in the foot by doing this. Maybe it was a flaw with the ads... maybe it was shady tactics... either way, they have lost a lot of trust.

I hear about the issue a few months ago, but just a couple of weeks ago even CNBC put out an article about it.

Just wait for a classaction suit with subpoenas for FBs Ad records.... then watch FB stock crash through the floor.
 
Facebook could be good if your doing debt or dating offers, but thats about it, def not for insurance, but for anyone who likes to flush their $$ down the drain, hit me up...
 
Back
Top