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You are here: Home / Facebook / How Not To Run A Facebook Ad Campaign – A Lesson From The BBC

How Not To Run A Facebook Ad Campaign – A Lesson From The BBC

July 17, 2012 by Jan Kearney

Facebook ad campaign - fake likes?I’ve been watching with interest the Facebook Ad fake likes story reported over on the BBC online technology channel.

I’d love to know how anyone with obviously no clue how things work can run not one but three stories (so far) on reported fake likes from Facebook ads.

I’m not going to jump in and defend Facebook.

Quite frankly, the platform isn’t perfect and often drives me nuts. Facebook are big enough to defend themselves with whatever corporate shareholder bull they want to come out with.

However, I do want to point out some flaws in this “investigative journalism” fairytale – sorry news.

Contents

  • How not to run a Facebook ad campaign
  • The Facebook ad story continues
  • Facebook ad campaigns – the real issue
  • Related Posts

How not to run a Facebook ad campaign

Let me fill you in with the story so far…

Last week, over on the BBC Online Technology channel came the story, “Facebook ‘likes’ and adverts’ value doubted”.

Concern was raised by social media marketing consultant, Michael Tinmouth that ads he has run on behalf of his small business clients were attracting suspicious clicks. And I quote…

While they had been targeting Facebook users around the world, all their “likes” appeared to be coming from countries such as the Philippines and Egypt.

Bolding is mine – because at this point alarm bells should be ringing for anyone who knows anything about marketing, even if they have no clue about Facebook itself.

But the BBC’s technology consultant was baying for Facebook blood…

Rory Cellan-Jones promptly set up his fake bagel page. He followed up the story with, “Who ‘likes’ my Virtual Bagels?”

He created his Facebook ad and chose where he wanted it to be seen. I quote again…

I chose the United States, the UK, Russia, India, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. I narrowed it down slightly by targeting under 45-year-olds interested in cookery and consumer electronics, but was told that would still give me a potential audience of 112 million customers.

I should say at this point that I am aware he was chasing the fake account and ad click story, so purposely choosing these countries. Once again, please notice the bolding (mine) and start thinking “targeting”

The Facebook ad story continues

Cellan-Jones went on to say he narrowed his country targeting over a few days, with the last day only being the UK.

After spending a total of $60 (£40) VirtualBagel had built an audience in Egypt and India, but was not making an impact in the lucrative UK or US markets

Unfortunately, he doesn’t show us his actual Facebook ad, I’m sure it would have been a great example how not to write one too.

The follow up arrived in the Technology section earlier today, “Of fake customers and virtual ‘likes’” where Cellan-Jones discusses the backlash from the social media marketing industry.

Once again he misses the point…

They pointed out – fairly enough – that my ad for my imaginary business VirtualBagel was poorly targeted. That may be true, although when I targeted it more precisely at the UK, the results proved very disappointing.

Bolding is once again mine – I hope you are remembering the targeting hint a few paragraphs back…

I did love the voice of reason, which he glosses over and doesn’t credit.

“Any marketing director still chasing “‘likes’… shouldn’t be a marketing director.”

The story continued on how brands and our own Government are using Facebook ads for likes.

Quite frankly, just because the large brands and heaven help us, our own Government are targeting their ads incorrectly and aiming for “likes” does not mean that it is the way it should be done. Our Government are notorious money wasters anyway – since when do they work on results?

Facebook ad campaigns – the real issue

The real story here is not that Facebook ads attract likes from Egypt that are possibly from fake profiles. It isn’t that people set up fake profiles on Facebook either. I’m not disputing these claims and we know it can happen.

The question needs to be asked, why someone who through three stories has been called a “marketing consultant”, a “social media marketing consultant” and a “social media consultant” cannot grasp the basics of either marketing or using Facebook ads?

The lessons we need to learn from this Facebook ad fiasco are simply these:

  • Your audience is not everyone and certainly not the whole world
  • Even if you are targeting sectors worldwide, each demographic should have its own ads for tracking and monitoring
  • Know your audience – if you’re targeting people with such varied interests as cookery and consumer electronics in the same ad, it’s time to give up
  • I can’t think of a good reason to use Facebook ads for “likes” – if you can, leave a comment below

Over to you… I’d love to hear your thoughts, both on the fake likes story and using Facebook ads in your business. Did you get results?

How Not To Run A Facebook Ad Campaign - A Lesson From The BBC by Jan Kearney
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Filed Under: Facebook, Social media Tagged With: advertising, facebook, facebook ads, Small Business Marketing, social media for small business

About Jan Kearney

I believe that every business, no matter how small or how local can use the power of the web to gain more customers. I offer no bull coaching and mentoring so small business owners can strategically put the web to work for their business. I've been called a "compass" and a "navigator" and probably a few more names that aren't suitable for a profile!
Connect with me on Google+, Facebook, Pinterest

Comments

  1. Susan says

    July 17, 2012 at 11:33 pm

    Oh, how I loved this, Jan. I’m no marketing expert, but even I know that if you’re targeting cooks and techies with the same ad, then you haven’t grasped Marketing 101 yet!

    • Jan Kearney says

      July 18, 2012 at 6:52 pm

      Hi Susan, if you know not to target techies and cooks in the same ad, then you are more an expert than the people featured in the post – congrats!

  2. Athena Brady says

    July 18, 2012 at 1:00 am

    Good post Jan.

  3. Ashleen Moreen says

    July 18, 2012 at 3:24 am

    Very well said. you got some great points here and I learn so much from this post. Thanks a lot for sharing this and I really appreciate it. I am not so much familiar with Facebook ads and good to know more about it.

    • Jan Kearney says

      July 18, 2012 at 6:50 pm

      Hi Ashleen, thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment 🙂

  4. Lindsey Lawson says

    July 18, 2012 at 11:17 am

    Great post! As already said in an earlier post, I’m no marketing expert but Facebook Ad’s have worked well for my business. Thanks for sharing.

    • Jan Kearney says

      July 18, 2012 at 6:50 pm

      Hi Lindsey, thanks for popping in and your comment 🙂 Good to know FB ads worked for your business too. Would love to know how you used them too!

  5. Alan Miles says

    July 18, 2012 at 4:40 pm

    I’m not sure I can see a good reason to use Facebook ads at all – not just for Likes. I can certainly see the point of using Facebook for marketing to your tribe – but getting people to join the tribe ?? Does anyone actually read – or even notice – Facebook ads – other than spammers of course?

    I’d really like to hear from anyone has used them successfully

    • Jan Kearney says

      July 18, 2012 at 6:46 pm

      Hi Alan, I quite like (excuse the unintentional pun) Facebook ads – they can be super targeted and relatively inexpensive. They’ve been really useful for small budget local marketing.

      Best results have been for pushing back to an email sign up page on a website (or a tab on the FB page) with vouchers/coupon download – the majority get redeemed and then the users are on the database for email marketing too
      Runner up, again pushing back to a specific landing or product page on a website with a call to action.

      Of course when targeting local with specific user interests the reach isn’t in the thousands, but that number is deceptive anyway. Advertising to tens of thousands of people who live nowhere near a local business to use it is pretty pointless 🙂

      I do recommend trying and testing FB ads, although not targeting worldwide all at once…

Meet Jan Kearney

I believe that every business, no matter how small or how local can use the power of the web to gain more customers. I offer no bull coaching and mentoring so small business owners can strategically put the web to work for their business. I've been called a "compass" and a "navigator" and probably a few more names that aren't suitable for a profile!
Connect with me on Google+, Facebook, Pinterest or Discover More About My Local Business Online…

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