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Facebook Advertising Sure Needs Work

Although hardly considering myself the amateur, but surely not the master of all things pay-per-click, I’m going to have to say that the folks at Facebook have to take a long hard look at their platform in order to reign supreme in the online advertising game. After boasting the power of their 50 million-strong user base and allowing both MSN Adcenter and Google the right to display ads, there is little hope for Facebook powered ads until a major player steps in to take over. So what makes Facebook CPC/CPM a nightmare?

To be honest, I’m not sure where to begin on the subject of Facebook’s advertising platform. It’s baffling that the same brilliant developers that came up with the blockbuster social networking phenomenon the web over could not come up with better applications for advertisers.

In terms of sophistication, Facebook is serving hot dogs wrapped in cardboard on a dingy corner several blocks across town from Microsoft’s fast-food burger joint, Yahoo’s full-serve Delicatessen, and Google’s Michelin Star winning Fine-Dining Establishment.

Yes, it’s that bad, and the funny thing is, advertisers are still licking their lips thinking Facebook just might be the best advertising option in town. To their credit, they have a large user base, but it still dwarfs Google’s reach. We’ll come back to that in a second.

Here is a short list of the things Facebook needs to address in their own system:

• Display Ads: At this point, changing ads in Facebook is impossible. You actually have to pause the ad you’re currently running, create a new one (and upload creative again), and launch that ad as a replacement.
• Image sizes: 120×80 pixels doesn’t cut it for most advertisers. And I’m not sure how many designers can really do much with that small of a canvas.
• Metrics: These are embarrassingly weak. If you’re looking for relatively quick reporting on impressions and clicks, you’re looking at the wrong platform.
• Bidding: You’ll have to bid higher than other networks if you want attention on Facebook.
• Sales/Support: There is none. Unless you’re willing to opt into a significant (read serious annual budget) Facebook is not willing to talk to you.

So at this point you’re probably wondering, if Facebook is so bad, why are advertisers still getting on board? The answer is conversion. If you’re advertising a product that appeals to the mass market, and your creative is mature, somewhat viral and refined, you’re likely to do very well. The problem is, there are alternatives to Facebook Advertising that no one talks about.

Enter Google

Google is a viable option for Facebook. Their introduction of Facebook properties within the Content Network went relatively unnoticed. And now that Google has introduced their Placement Targeting campaigns, you can guarantee placement on Facebook through Adwords for significantly less spend. In addition, you get all the cool gadgets that Google’s famous for, including Content Placement reports.

So how many properties are available on Facebook through Adwords? More than you think. I’ll leave the digging up to you, but at last count in my own Placement Targeting experiments, I counted at least 5 subdomains on Facebook that could be targeted directly from within Adwords using both text and image ads.

Food for thought.

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