Analyticisms

These numbers are brutal any way you look at them.  We believe in engagement as the main force behind the generation of WOM (word of mouth) and behavioral change (which is what marketers should be after).  And, again, paid media (in this case social network ads) deliver abysmal results.  Which is not a surprise given our experience with buying and tracking such ads.  We still think they have their place in very specific (and rare) instances where they can deliver good results in terms of engagement and ROI.

As an aside, we are slightly amused (not in a good way) by the focus of the article on the fact that Facebook ads under-perform vs. other social network ads but that there is no mention whatsoever about the incredibly poor engagement performance of these ads in general.

We know, paid media again? Have we jumped the shark? No but this keeps fascinating us (and our clients keep asking about Facebook ads).  Where we ‘re coming out on this is: Facebook ads can be cost -effective and can be efficient when 1) you can target very precisely (you need to be able to identify your target market’s demographics and psychographics/interests AND Facebook has to have that data tracked) and 2) your objective is clear and achievable (for instance, gaining x number of likes would qualify, increasing sales y fold would not).