Is Advertising on Facebook Worthwhile?

For the past two weeks I've been running a Facebook ad for one of our clients. The ad has been viewed 370,000 times and clicked on 200 times, all of which has cost $330. Here are the data:


This makes for a poor click-through rate, but research confirms that this is not uncommon on Facebook. As the Unofficial Facebook Blog has documented, “While [Facebook’s] targeting is phenomenal, Facebook users are more engaged by the content within the site rather than the advertisements.” "What's more," Time's Anita Hamilton adds, "Facebook may not be able to keep up the momentum of its rapid-fire growth because social-networking aficionados are notoriously fickle. Remember Friendster?"

Nonetheless, there are good reasons to stick with FB. First, every person who viewed and clicked on the ad was highly targeted, so we’re not paying for anything extraneous.

Second, $1.65 a click is reasonable, especially compared with the rates on big sites.

Finally, unlike traditional ads, the best of which are animated and typically require a professional both to design and to resize according to site-specific dimensions, FB ads are limited to (135?) characters and one tiny picture.

In short, I think advertising on Facebook which is just getting its feet wet in this field, is well-worth your time and resources.