Some people in our business are using Facebook as their advertising program. Several Bane-Clene operators have e-mailed me about less-than-satisfactory results. A recent BBB bulletin warns, "Before you spend money on this type of advertising you should understand the terms, definitions and conditions before giving them your credit card."
Your ads may appear with several different ads at the same time. Understand ad displays, what they're called, how they work and how they're presented. Policies on how many ads are shown at a time are subject to change. Every time an ad is displayed, Facebook calls it an "impression" or a chance for someone to see it. But that doesn't mean people are actually going to read it.
Facebook describes "reach" as those who meet the criteria selected for people whom you want to see the ad. If a reader clicks on the ad, Facebook reports the number of times as the CTR (the click through rate). This shows how many impressions it takes before a looker actually clicks on the ad. CTR is the number of clicks divided by the impressions.
Facebook also has "bid for clicks." This means you're charged only if a user clicks on the ad. It's too complicated to go into here and you need to study it before taking part. Apparently you're bidding against unknown advertisers and the higher you bid, the more likely it is your ad will be displayed. Be sure to get all of the details and understand them.
Here's something a friend in the publishing business sent me the other day. Click on the link below and think long and hard about the subject:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sThcwmx3rs
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Please e-mail me at wfbane@baneclene.com.
