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Alternatives to Facebook for Lead Gen? (9)

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Hi guys,

I would like to know what traffic sources other than Facebook work well for lead gen offers.

Earlier this year, I purchased Charles Ngo's Lead Gen Engine course, which focuses on running lead gen offers on Facebook. Unfortunately, my experience with FB's customer service has been difficult, to say the least.

Often, whenever I'm working on a campaign, I'll get locked out of my account for "suspicious activity", even though everything I'm doing is innocuous (like editing ads). To make matters worse, it takes several days for FB to let me back into my account, meaning I am completely unable to work on my campaigns for extended periods of time with no one at FB to contact for support.

As if this isn't bad enough, FB recently disabled my account after (I guess) too many of these lockouts. I don't know when or even if they're going to let me back into my account.

I'm trying to make Facebook work, but I've become increasingly frustrated with their overly sensitive security algorithm and complete lack of customer support. I would not tolerate this kind of behavior from an employee or a business partner, and I see no point in tolerating it from a traffic source.

I also have concerns for the long term. What if I get to the point where I'm spending $5,000 a day on a campaign and I get locked out for three days just when the campaign stops making profits? I would be out $15,000 on a campaign that I tried to pause 3 days earlier. I've already had a situation like this, where I got locked out while trying to pause an adset. I ended up losing three days of time and ad spend on this poorly-performing adset. I'm worried it will happen again sometime in the future when I'm spending a lot more on ads.

Because of these concerns, I am seriously considering pivoting to another traffic source, which is why I would like to know what sources, in your experience, work well for lead-gen offers. I am open to anything that's not Facebook or Facebook-owned.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to answer my question.

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FB is a pain and a lot of users face the same annoying issues that you described. Unfortunately that is just the way the platform operates for the most part. You just have to have multiple accounts at your disposal, running concurrently, so that when one is down, others are running well.

Alternatively and to answer your question, Native is a good source of traffic for leadgen. Native platforms like Taboola or RevC are good traffic sources to try out. Just bear in mind that they are a lot more difficult to master and get profitable.

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I think Native's too expensive for my budget (about $500-$700 a month). Are there any cheaper traffic sources that work well for leadgen, or should I consider another vertical? I'm not married to leadgen, and I'll consider other verticals if there's a better chance of me succeeding.

Which is exactly why I'm trying to replace it. Some people might be okay with putting up with their bullshit in exchange for the financial rewards, but not me. Like I said in my original post to this thread, if my employee were to treat me like FB has, I would fire them without thinking twice. Why should I treat FB any differently? Sure, there's money to be made on it, but there's money to made in other places as well. Why should I put up with a traffic source that has literally zero customer service when there are so many other options available? Their targeting and volume might not be as good as FB's, but at least some of them try to provide decent customer service.

I bought the Lead Gen Engine course with the understanding that it was a white-hat strategy, and that running white-hat campaigns would minimize my conflicts with FB. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case. While almost all of my ads and campaigns get approved, their dumber-than-owl-shit security algo continues to boot me off my account for activity that any reasonable person would consider perfectly normal. I'm at my whit's end with them. It's become very clear that me and FB are not a mutual fit. It's time to find a better fit.

Thank you very much for answering my question.

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The best solution for this problem is to add another Facebook user you trust as an admin to each of your Business Managers (in Business Settings, lefthand menu, choose Users-> People then +Add). It could be a spouse, close friend, family member, whoever. Ideally someone who has been on Facebook for awhile. Make sure when they are accepting the invitation, they do it on their own computer (you can do it for them, but on their computer). Note that they can disable Notifications so they don't have to get unwanted email. The point of this? If you get locked out, you can have them login to FB and go to your BM to stop/pause your running ads. Doesn't solve you being locked out, but at least you can manage your ads through their account if you have to.

I agree it's completely ridiculous. I discovered the hard way that FB has zero customer support for personal profiles. You can get onto business chat for ad account concerns... but not if you are blocked from logging in to FB entirely! I was locked out for 3 weeks -- while existing ads continued to spend, no way to turn them off -- because FB wanted to send me a verification text to prove my identity, but my phone number was old and I didn't have it any more (and it was actually a landline... don't ask). The only ... and I mean ONLY option ... after trying every possible avenue (and finding out FB support for profiles is 100% automated, no possible human interaction, even if you are spending in a Business Manager) ... was to get my old phone number back from my old telephone company and then have it ported to a mobile device so I could get the text. It was a small miracle, but I got that freaking text code and was able to get back in.

So ... I hear you about different traffic sources. Unfortunately I think FB really is the best ad platform out there in terms of ease, targeting, and massive traffic (assuming you can navigate shutdowns and lockouts...). And filled with so many campaign opportunities I think we just can't get anywhere else. So, I'm glad I'm back in and will use FB carefully. But man, I despise how FB is run. I hate dealing with a robot who makes mistakes all the time and is inconsistent. I think Facebook is a huge mess. I would love to see something else replace it.

For me, here are my top two alternatives I have looked at seriously, purchased courses, etc:
- Native ads
- Push ads

And some others I keep hearing great things about:
- Snapchat
- Pinterest
- Twitter

I don't have personal experience with any of those. So I should just stop here.

But from what I've read/studied, natives have huge traffic and can be extremely profitable (to rival FB) and would be my top choice if it weren't for the apparently high budget needed to test campaigns. Check out the STM form here on natives. Also the iStack native ads masterclass.

STM also has a thread going for beginners about using Push with sweepstakes, and plenty of STMers are suggesting that as a great one to start with.

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Thanks for the tip! Is there a limit as to how many people I can add? I'd like to add 2-3 family people for maximum redundancy.

This is why I'm really on the fence about pivoting. I really want to fire them like the incompetents they are, but I also don't want to miss out on the opportunities that advertising on FB provides. But then again, there are people making millions of dollars a year in other places. It's definitely a trade-off, which is why I'm trying to evaluate the pros and cons of each option.

I just can't believe that a company as large as FB can get away with shit like this. I guess when they have big brands throwing billions of dollars a year at they can be assholes to their smaller advertisers without having to worry about losing money. To me, this is the biggest problem with FB. They're the digital advertising equivalent of a spoiled celebrity who treats everyone like shit because they're rich and famous and people will still hire them because they're rich and famous. Basically, no one's holding them accountable.

It really makes you wonder what would happen if the government did break up FB. Granted, the reduced network effect would weaken its targeting abilities, but maybe it would give them the incentive to actually treat their advertisers like business partners and not like worthless pawns who can be replaced at a moment's notice.

Alternately, maybe FB's shitty customer service will be its own downfall. They're one of the most hated companies in the world right now, and it seems like they're starting to lose their edge in the social media marketplace. All the young people are moving to places like Snapchat, Tik Tok, YouTube, and Instagram (yes, I know FB owns Insta, but they'll probably be one of the first targets if the government breaks them up). There's still a huge audience on FB, but it might be starting to erode. Hopefully the trend will continue and we'll see more people moving to competing services. And it seems like people have more variety in their choice of social media these days, which might mean more competition and therefore more effort by these services to retain advertisers.

Thanks. I'll look into these. Like I already said, Native's out of my budget, but I could definitely do Push (even if there's probably not much of a long-term future in it).

Snapchat, Pinterest, and Twitter seem a little more niche to me, but that might translate to better customer service. I've also heard people talk about Reddit, which might offer a bit of a targeting edge (being able to target different subreddits based on interests). It might not be as good as FB's targeting, but it might be something to look into. Then again, Reddit's users tend to be more tech-savvy than FB's, so it might be harder to sell to them. But that could also mean less competition if I can figure out how to sell to them.

Thanks. I'll take a look at it. I think Push might be my best bet here, at least for getting my feet wet and getting some money in the bank that I can reinvest into more long-term strategies.

Thanks again!

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I'm not aware of a limit; I'm guessing there isn't one but I've only added one other person myself. Keep in mind any admin can always add other admins, so if one goes down, the existing admin can add another one so that you always have 2 there at a time. Sure, more redundancy is better but for me I'm not worrying about it since it's unlikely two will go down at once in my opinion. Especially if the other admin isn't the one actually managing ads and is just a regular FB user sitting there as a backup.

Yes, I've heard these other sources all have better customer service and you actually get a rep to talk to about any problems.

I don't think you should write off Snapchat -- from what I've read, it is has targeting capabilities like FB (heck, maybe even more targeting because they haven't been under govt scrutiny like FB...yet). And it has huge traffic. I heard from one source (Robby Blanchard) that it's not all youngsters; it has ~87 million aged 35+ ... and traffic costs are 60% less than FB. There are guys making $5k/day there. Seems to have a bright future. So that's why I'm looking.

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Really? It almost sounds like the new Facebook! Great targeting and audience but with decent customer service, plus cheaper costs! I'll have to check it out. Do you know if STM has a guide to Snapchat yet? Or if there are any good threads on Snapchat I should check out? If what you're saying is true, I'd like to get into Snapchat before they become too big and start treating their customers the way Facebook does.

Thanks!

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Keep in mind I'm still in reading/research mode, no personal experience with Snapchat. Reality could be different. I haven't seen any tutorials or guides here on STM. I saw a "Snapvertising" course by Matt somebody for $2k (it's also on James Van Elswyck's site, purpleknowledgelab.com) but nothing else yet. Others may know more. I figure I'll just have to do some experimenting and go from there.

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Native Ads but you need a larger budget

Snapchat is good for lead gen too

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