Huge Drop in Facebook Ad Performance?

We have been running Facebook Ads for years & years – pretty much since the beginning of facebook!

• As a rule, we are very happy with them: the cost is lower than Google ads; the little thumbnail allows you to customise your message; and the volume is always impressive
• Mind you, at times we ‘ve had our doubts about their reporting. Some of the performance numbers have seemed outrageously high – too good to be true almost..

In any case, suddenly, without us having changed anything in our campaign settings, this month, the ad performance inexplicably dropped down to almost.. nothing! Look:

Facebook Ad Clicks for a BRIDE.ca Campaign

How Odd!! And frustrating.. if you advertise on Facebook and depend on it for customers, the impact for you can be huge! (luckily we do not :-) ) Do you? And have you noticed the same? (of course, the impact on Facebook’s revenues must be equally dramatic, since these are pay-per-click ads!)

Why Is This Happening?

In reality.. who knows? Facebook is notorious for changing things without warning or explanation. But, here is a whole bunch of hints for you:

• As of February 29th, Facebook has changed their ad delivery system to the new “Premium Ads”. This seems to be part of the whole “timeline”-related redesign
• In short, with the new style, Facebook wants you to advertise internalcontent (stuff on your FB page) instead of “external” content. i.e. your own web page! So, the new Premium Ads will work like this:
  1. First, make a post on your Page (video, status update, photo, link, question, or event).
  2. Second, promote it as an Ad. Anything you can post on your Page, you can turn into an Ad, and you can use the same targeting options you’ve become used to.
  3. Third, whenever a fan has friends who are also fans of your page, the Ad will be enhanced with social context. For instance, if you and I are both fans of Coca-Cola, when you see the Ad, you’ll also see that I’m a fan of Coca-Cola. That’s what’s known as social context.
  4. Fourth, when fans see the Ad, they’ll see an interface below that lets them like or comment directly on it.
• Facebook is phasing out the Classic Premium Ad formats – premium like, premium event, video comment, and premium poll – starting on the same day as the rollout of the new ads, February 29.

In other words… Facebook would like the users to stay on Facebook, instead of going out, into the rest of the Web. Ideally, they would like to replace your website with your FB fan page altogether.. and there you have it..

Facebook’s own long-term strategies are outside our jurisdiction. But, as an advertiser.. this is very disappointing news. Oh well, long live Google Adwords!! – and your Bridal Network ads, of course :-)