Click rates have to drop !

[Digmen1]

Hi Guys

I have an online sales site, selling our new product which is a world first.

I have been advertising on Facebook due to the fact that they let me feature a picture on their ads, whereas say Google Adwords do not.

I have set a low budget and have been getting a regular stream of hits just about every day. I have had only one sale and two enquiries.

My point is that although I am pleased with the number of hits I am getting, the campaign is hardly paying for itself.

I have had a guess at what some big name advertsisers are paying for their Google ads and I am sure their campaigns would not stack up on any ROI formula.

What do you think ?

[Green_Grass]

I make my money from Repeat sales. This may partly answer your question.

[dpd1]

I'm just an average small biz guy. I don't claim to be any kind of marketing genius and I probably won't ever be one. But you've probably realized what I and many people have figured out... It's a lot more complicated than just: spend x amount dollars and get back x amount of sales. I quickly realized that click-through marketing would be nothing more than a side thing for me, just to get the word out. I could easily spend tons of money on it and never make that money back. I don't sell the kinds of things where people just go looking for the best price and buy it on the spot. I sell stuff where they probably won't buy it on first sight, because it's very unique. That's good in a way, but I don't think it lends itself to click-through ads. I honestly don't know how companies pay so much for advertising, but there's probably a lot going on that's unknown. Creative accounting with taxes... Maybe the fact that they have no intention of being profitable in the first place, or they just want to build a business to sell to somebody else. Who knows. Unfortunately there's enough of a turnover rate, that you can have hundreds of businesses coming and going constantly and never making a profit, but still keeping prices unreasonably low for everybody else in the process.

In my experience, word of mouth can be the most powerful tool there is. There's lots of things you can do online that don't cost anything at all. It may be more labor, but it can be worth it.

[pbradish]

Prices on Facebook can be pretty ridiculous.

That being said, it's still one hell of a branding tool if done properly. We redirect clicks to our FB fan page instead of straight through to the site (our positive reviews tab) and that seems to work well.

Another thing - just because people aren't clicking doesn't mean they don't notice. I had a friend call me not long after we started to run ads on FB and he said "so how long have you been on the right side of my profile page?". lol. So even if they aren't clicking, they are seeing your image thus seeing your brand.

[jsinger]

Don't ever overlook the role of ego in advertising.

Take those TV demo salesmen. I suspect Vince, The Shamwow Guy is mostly hoping to turn himself into a celeb. Or at least into something of a pitchman "brand name" like Billy Mays. Vince Offer (his sorta real name) had been on the ragged edge of Hollywood for years. You can bet he's going to run those commercials as long as he can, profitable or not.

Years ago every city had an "Insane TV Appliance Guy." Ours filed bankruptcy about four times. But he was more famous than our mayor. And on the occasions I saw him in restaurants, he dated fine looking women 30 years younger than he.