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Facebook Ads split testing tool - Beta testers wanted (12)

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When Mr. Green's Facebook Ads Manager for Firefox was killed by a C&D from Facebook a long time ago, I started building my own tool to do the same. I've always kept it for myself, but now I want to see if I can make some money with it It's still far from ready to be sold, so I'm making the current version available as a free beta. It will stay in beta and for free for at least a few months. Any constructive feedback is very much appreciated!

Basically what it does is create a TSV file (+ ZIP file for the images) that you can import into the Power Editor using the Bulk Import feature. It also lets you save and reload a configuration for later use. Below are a few screenshots of the user interface. There's also a short readme file in the download with a list of possible tokens (to use in the ad name, title, body and url). I use it almost daily for all my campaigns.







If you're interested, you can find it here:
http://socialadssplittester.com/
Use access code STM2013

I realize that most people are a bit hesitant to just download and run any executable file on their machine. I would be in the same group if this wasn't my own tool. I hope I can convince you with the VirusTotal scan results.

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Props for the initiative... but I'm trying to decide how much better this is than just using the web interface? FB have made some nice improvements which allow me to split test the way I like, with ease. Power Editor is nice too, and Excel seems to be just as powerful (maybe moreso in some regards) than your application for interfacing with Power Editor...

You could probably create a nice Excel interface (with VBA for interaction) that does what (it looks like) this program does... and that way we can all look at the code etc.

Also, since this just produces files for Power Editor to use... why does it need to connect with account details ("Authentication as ___ successful")? Doesn't look like it needs to pull things from the account. After all this is for ad creation, not management...

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The program is great at creating permutations of different ad and targeting options. Say you have 5 images, 3 ad texts, 2 age groups and 2 countries. With just a few clicks, this program will create 60 ads for you (5 x 3 x 2 x 2). Plus it lets you pass values as sub id's in the url, so you can easily split test and optimize your campaign. I don't see how this kind of mass ad creation is possible with the web interface or the Power Editor, unless you do it all manually, which will take hours.

I could have written it as an Excel VBA macro, yes, but then I wouldn't have the same development features available and I wouldn't have any control over who uses it if I ever decide to make it a paid tool. And it would require the user to have Excel.

Making a website/service of it was another option, but I wouldn't trust my campaign details with any 3rd party, so I opted to build it as a standalone desktop application.

These account details have nothing to do with the Facebook account details. When you download the tool from my site, you get a password with your email address. Those are the authentication details you need to start using this tool. It's a way to control who has access to the tool.

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I would test it if it was available on Mac

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Maybe later

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Thanks for explaining. Users will certainly pay for convenience, if they don't know how to create permutations as you mentioned, or use SUBIDs (both are possible with Excel's concatenate function, and once you have a template there is no going back to any other method IMO).

I like that your program makes the workflow visual and I suppose that is its biggest selling point, especially for those without Excel! Like Mr Green said, if there was a Mac version I would test it out for sure.

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Could you reimplement this as a webapp for cross-platforminess and the guarantee of no viruses? Looks like a neat tool, regardless - I may test it out myself later this month.

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Looks very cool, you'll need a Mac version forsure. I bet half of AM has macs now

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Thanks for the compliments!
Creating a webapp or a Mac version means I have to start all over again. But if this becomes a success, then I'll consider creating it for sure. A Mac version first, because a webapp has the problem that many people don't trust their campaign details with a 3rd party.

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But cygnsux, the very fact that this program can't be blocked by firewall (as it won't be able to authenticate the purchase/subscription) means that affiliates won't be certain their data isn't being sent off somewhere... There has to be a better way.

I think you should simply have a download area, which is password protected (use amember or something), but the program itself does not verify subscription (so we can block it completely with firewall). This way you would get more sales imo.

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I considered that option, but then it could be pirated easily. Just one share and everyone can use it.
I would rather lose a small percentage of the potential customers who don't trust it than have it shared on a forum like BlackHatWorld where thousands can download it. I thought of other copy protections and online authentication is the only one I can think of.

I invite you to use something like WireShark and inspect its TCP/IP communication. Other than the authentication during the launch, there is nothing going on. That way, you can be sure.

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Everytime i download this it tells me the archive is corrupt so I never get to read the text file! Though the app works.

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