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Facebook reported fake numbers to advertisers

(news.yahoo.com)
618 points elorant | 3 comments | 19 Feb 21 14:34 UTC | HN request time: 0.224s | source
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sputr ◴[19 Feb 21 15:18 UTC] No.26194057[source]▶
I keep warning small time (ie most) FB page owners who advertise on FB to be very very careful as they are being subjected to a beefed up version of the psychological manipulation that regular users face as they, not the regular users, are the main customers.

Facebooks corporate incentive is to get you to FEEL like your getting good value out of advertising on Facebook and to get you addicted to doing it.

Not to actually deliver results.

So don't trust any metric they show you, because even if its not a total fabrication it's still presented in a way to deceive you to think its better than it is.

Always monitor your ROI and always calculate it using your truly end goal (sales, or in the case of civil society some sort engagement off Facebook that's tightly bound to you mission). Likes, shares, comments and reach should NEVER be the goal. Even if FBs interface is trying to convince you otherwise.

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spideymans ◴[19 Feb 21 15:54 UTC] No.26194413[source]▶
>Facebooks corporate incentive is to get you to FEEL like your getting good value out of advertising on Facebook and to get you addicted to doing it.

Even more reason for us to be doubtful about FB's claims that small businesses would be decimated without FB's invasive tracking.

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cm2012 ◴[19 Feb 21 16:22 UTC] No.26194708[source]▶
If FB was actually completely forbidden from tracking, I'd estimate 85% of small shopify stores would die with it. The winners would be giant marketplaces like Amazon, who would be the only reliable sources left of customer acquisition.
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Red_Leaves_Flyy ◴[19 Feb 21 16:57 UTC] No.26195096[source]▶
What's your basis for this thesis? Likewise, how many of those shops are dropshippers that never touch product?
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jariel ◴[19 Feb 21 17:57 UTC] No.26195826[source]▶
Facebook is one of the only means to do reasonably targeted advertising with a broad reach.

Google is keyword only, and that's limited. Banner network display ads are useless.

The privacy debate is woefully lopsided by people who have never spent a dime marketing. I suggest all the startupy people on HN spend some time trying to get the word out and then they'll realize what the 'hard part' of the business is because it's not code.

Efficient advertising, which is to say getting in front of people who have a legit curiosity for your product with ads that are not distracting, is possible and ideal for everyone, but can only be done with at least some data.

The economy would grow literally by 1% more if we could get people connected with the things they need, when they need them and we'd all be better off.

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forgingahead ◴[19 Feb 21 18:09 UTC] No.26195994[source]▶
Suprised at the downvotes on your comment, but you're right, Facebook provides an advertising targeting engine that doesn't have a parallel. Whether that's good or bad for is separate from whether it's a useful business tool.

@jariel can you share any resource for people looking to understand and dip their feet running their own FB ads?

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jariel ◴[19 Feb 21 18:16 UTC] No.26196073[source]▶
I would but there's actually quite an enormos amount of information out there already.

Also, the pitfalls of FB ads are generally well known as well, we all know their numbers are a little ragged and we all know that 'likes' don't have much value in most scenarios.

Frankly, I would encourage anyone to stick $20 into FB ad platform and just run a few ads to drive some traffic to their own pages. It's a powerful and revelatory experience, advertising is a 'dark art' to too many people but it shouldn't be.

The moment you are in a position of having to market and sell a product, especially coming from another discipline, your world turns upside down and you see everything differently.

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1. forgingahead ◴[19 Feb 21 18:19 UTC] No.26196105[source]▶
I've tinkered with it, and had poor experiences hiring people to run FB ads, so any specific resources you can recommend would be appreciated. Kind of like how I would recommend Michael Hartl's Rails tutorial for someone looking to explore Rails in a productive way.

There is certainly a lot of information out there but much is generic, others are paid, and many are scams.

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2. leesalminen ◴[19 Feb 21 19:37 UTC] No.26197086[source]▶
When it was time for us to start PPC ads for my B2B SaaS product, I took a whack at doing my own FB and AdWords campaigns. I found FB to be much more intuitive than Goog. I uploaded some collateral I threw together and targeted it towards people who were in specific Groups, people who liked specific things and excluded people who already liked our page. I clicked submit and after a day we started seeing an uptick in leads. Real, actionable leads. Meeting people at industry trade shows told me that they saw our FB ad. It worked (and still works) well for us in that small niche of the world with a well defined target demographic. I never felt compelled to hire anyone to manage it. I don’t have any books to recommend for you, but why not do some trial and error with small budgets to see what works for you?
3. mtnGoat ◴[20 Feb 21 01:57 UTC] No.26200720[source]▶
No specific resources, but I’ll give you a tip that has turned around a lot of campaigns and helped a number of clients figure it a profitable FB advertising strategy.

Offer something free, like an ebook, webinar, etc. and gather email addresses to access it.

This gives you a chance to follow up and grow your email lists. So even if they don’t buy, you at least get a lead. When you just buy a click, you always gotta hit a Homer. Figure out it a way to make base hits count.