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Author Topic: Facebook Advertising?  (Read 3610 times)

Frank Czar

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Facebook Advertising?
« on: October 27, 2018, 09:44:49 PM »

Hi All,

I'd like to hear from anyone who has tried Facebook Advertising. What sort of results did you get? Who did you target?
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Frank Czar
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Tim Hite

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Re: Facebook Advertising?
« Reply #1 on: October 28, 2018, 03:06:54 PM »

Im m experience, targeting was useless because it's based on people accurately profiling themselves. It just doesn't get you the eyeballs you are wanting.

Paid adverts have gotten me some local attention but do not translate into paying gigs.

The only useful thing has been the marketplace for selling off used gear. Even then it's of limited use with all the "is this still available?" posts.



Hi All,

I'd like to hear from anyone who has tried Facebook Advertising. What sort of results did you get? Who did you target?
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Riley Casey

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Re: Facebook Advertising?
« Reply #2 on: October 28, 2018, 05:55:44 PM »

What Tim said. My experience with both Google and FB advertising is that it’s based on mass market retail advert models.  Fine if your selling cars or saleable products of any kind. Narrow casting of services to a small population of people who put on special events, concerts or similar niche groups is just not what these services are built around.

Tim Hite

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Re: Facebook Advertising?
« Reply #3 on: October 28, 2018, 06:29:41 PM »

Even in the retail space, the Facebook customers are extremely price sensitive. I listed some of the Sennheiser mic of the month models on Facebook. I tried adding shipping at various amounts, but out of about a dozen leads, nobody would actually make a purchase for van $1 over the special price with free shipping and no tax, and many people even asked for further discount.

It wasn't worth the effort.

It's also my experience that no matter how low your price is, people will still demand a discount, so price accordingly if you're selling something there.


What Tim said. My experience with both Google and FB advertising is that it’s based on mass market retail advert models.  Fine if your selling cars or saleable products of any kind. Narrow casting of services to a small population of people who put on special events, concerts or similar niche groups is just not what these services are built around.
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Taylor Hall

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Re: Facebook Advertising?
« Reply #4 on: October 29, 2018, 09:11:14 AM »

For this industry you're way better off promoting via word of mouth. Like others said, paid ads and whatnot are very hit or miss and don't translate to actual sales. So unless you're trying to really get your name alone in front of a lot of people, that's about the best use you'll have with them.

Having a facebook page by itself is a good exposure avenue, as many people will do a quick google search and facebook pages are usually near the top. So if you don't have a dedicated website, then a business page is the next best thing.

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Steve Litcher

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Re: Facebook Advertising?
« Reply #5 on: October 29, 2018, 11:49:13 AM »

I'd say it depends on the area in which you live. If you're in a smaller community, advertising on FB could help with some general awareness. If you're in a larger community, it's probably less beneficial.

That said, FB "organic reach" has really died lately... we used to get around 1,000-ish views/impressions when we made posts (not advertising). Now it's about half of that. Facebook recently changed their news feed algorithms and has made it harder to reach people without paying for advertising.

A lot of the local bands around our area have been commenting that their organic reach has dropped significantly as a result of the new algorithms as well.

I really dislike Facebook, but it's a necessary evil in our market. When I meet someone new and give them a business card, the majority of the time their response is, "Are you on Facebook?"

So... website, Facebook, Instagram, meet-n-greet, networking... all goes hand-in-hand.

Ray Aberle

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Re: Facebook Advertising?
« Reply #6 on: October 29, 2018, 05:18:49 PM »

Even in the retail space, the Facebook customers are extremely price sensitive. I listed some of the Sennheiser mic of the month models on Facebook. I tried adding shipping at various amounts, but out of about a dozen leads, nobody would actually make a purchase for van $1 over the special price with free shipping and no tax, and many people even asked for further discount.

It wasn't worth the effort.

It's also my experience that no matter how low your price is, people will still demand a discount, so price accordingly if you're selling something there.
"OK, Lemmmme get this straight. The $199.95 e614 that's on sale for $99.95, so already a great deal, and I have to pay for shipping, AND you want a better price?!?" That's why on eBay, for any of the Sennheiser sale mics, I don't have "Best Offer" enabled. Actually, most of the standardized finish goods things (SM58s/SM57s, the whole line of Sennheiser mics, etc), especially on eBay, after 10% eBay/PayPal fees and shipping (for a wired mic, USPS Priority Mail to the middle west/east coast for a 2# package is $10.48) -- I might make $3 to $5 on the sale at the outside.

ALL marketing mediums need to be in the right place, at the right time, reaching the right people. The main reason I avoid Facebook (in general; I don't have an account there) is that it often restricts people's interactions with a company to "oh, like my post" or "follow us." I prefer to build relationships with people in person. Get to know them, they get to know me. It's often said, "People do business with other people they know, like and trust." So, getting to know the "decision-makers" with potential clients. Make sure they see the quality that we deliver, and know that we'll always have their best interests at heart.

So your marketing mediums need to be in the right place-- you need to appear in a manner that your potential client will find you when they need to. Is that Facebook? Maybe Google Ads? Maybe print advertising in your local Chamber of Commerce's monthly magazine.

Your marketing needs to arrive at the time your potential client is looking to make a purchasing decision. In other words, if I get a Holiday Gift Idea! mailer in June, well, that's not timely. But, if your typical client makes a purchasing decision 6-8 months before their show, that's when you want to be showing up on their radar. So, this might mean a targeted blast at a certain time of the year, or it might be a rolling time-frame, knowing that every client has a different buying cycle.

Finally, Your marketing needs to reach the right people. If the secretary at BigTechCompany is the one reading your marketing materials, that's not good. On the other hand, neither is BigVP getting it- (s)he's often not the decision-maker either.

Anyways. I'm a fan of the printed US-Mail-Mailed newsletter. I like it because it's something that's not easily deletable like an email would be, it's not spamming people (since it's not email) and since so many people have turned to email, doing something "old-school" is going to be more memorable. The key factor, though, is being consistent. Those here on the Forums who are getting my newsletters (you know who you are!) know that the issue I just mailed yesterday/today (there's 70 more copies sitting on my printer waiting for me to bring them to the post office) is the first issue that I've sent out since last December. Part of marketing is the subtle message created by timely mailings. Yeah, my recipients might be "Oh, you've been busy!" but they also could be "Hmmmm, why've you been lazy, yo?!?"

Either way. I've been sending these to a) current and past clients I want to keep apprised as to what we're up to, b) companies and organizations I'd be interested in working with in the future, and c) others that I think should know what's up. This includes other companies in the area that I work with on cross-rentals and such. They should always know what new things we've added to our inventory, for example!


For the record, I did try "Google AdWords," and that was a massive waste of money. Doing a good job of SEO-ing your website is more beneficial. I used to brag that searching for "JBL VerTec Rental in Seattle, WA" had my website results in like lines 2-4. It's dropped to only one result of the top 5, but I've also not added any new content to my site since late 2016. Whooopsie.

-Ray
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Luke Geis

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Re: Facebook Advertising?
« Reply #7 on: November 09, 2018, 09:55:46 PM »

I have done FB adverts a couple of times using different approaches. What I found was what I suspected/expected.

I suspected I would somehow get the clicks and views I was paying for, but that it would simply be to people who won't buy the product. My conclusion was that FB initially started showing my company sparsely or very selectively and then about 1 week, or x number of dollars before the campaign was to end, they just started broadsiding the people with my advert to simply acquire the views I paid for, or to get the dollar amount limit reached. I.E. it started naturally and as it came near the end of the campaign FB simply shotgunned it to get my money.

Of the two campaigns I ran, I acquired 0 jobs and perhaps acquired one new subscriber. The click-throughs were abysmal because the people reached were not truly who I was looking for. They looked at the add and once on the page, realized that I was a service, not a product. I spent a total of about $160 between the two campaigns and my only goal was to get 1 phone call. I didn't even get a message via FB. One page like is likely a bot or simply a friend that came across me.

FB ads are a total scam designed to make FB money, not you. They could care less if you ever get so much as a legitimate view, just so long as your add is seen and they can charge you for it.

SEO's and other adword services are also a total scam. It is very simple. If you are looking for your service and you do a google search to find your service without using your company name, you will see very quickly where you stand. Most people don't go further than three pages to find a service. If you search for your service and you are not on the first page, you will never be found online. You can change your keywords and anything else you want to move up the list, but search engines use more than keywords to populate a page.
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Tim Hite

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Re: Facebook Advertising?
« Reply #8 on: November 10, 2018, 01:28:37 AM »

This is exactly why doing good SEO work is important. Backlinks, SSL cert, and keyword optimized content and page titles all play a role in getting your ranking up on google.

If a bunch of us got together and swapped backlinks to each other's sites, it would pull everyone up in the search rankings. This is why you see some sites with huge pages of 'partner' or 'preferred vendor' links. If the partners all reciprocate, good things happen for everyone's site rankings.

OTOH, bad SEO can do more harm than good. If google figures out you're trying to game the system you'll get moved down or out.

The real trick is figuring out what people are searching for when they want your services and then concentrating on that type of content.

If I search for vertec rental in Seattle, Ray is near the top. If I search for sound system rental, Ray is on page two behind 12 other providers. Maybe something to think about there.

You can go on Fiverr.com and get an SEO report on your web site for $20 and the provider will give you a guide of stuff you can do to up your ranking in general and on specific search terms. You spend a couple hours online and you can get pretty satisfactory results. I wouldn't hire any of the SEO optimization plans, but the cheap report was enough to get me to where I wanted to be. I still need to go get an SSL cert for my site and that will fix some other rankings just because that's the way google does things.

. . .If you search for your service and you are not on the first page, you will never be found online. You can change your keywords and anything else you want to move up the list, but search engines use more than keywords to populate a page.
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Re: Facebook Advertising?
« Reply #8 on: November 10, 2018, 01:28:37 AM »


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