Is FB still worth doing? (14)
Used to run FB, until around summer, account bans, and iOS had me move away from it. Since then, I've been in a bit of limbo. Did Native for a bit, but decided recently to move to TikTok. But I do like FB as a source due to my familiarity with it. Is it still worth running ads on their though? And what offers are running well there? Would it be better to continue with FB or would the pivot to TikTok be wise? A few questions there haha, but curious to hear some thoughts.
The best way to find out is probably go test it again with some offers if you are keen to get up and going. If FB keeps shutting you down then you know your answer.
With droves of people starting to move away from FB there might be something to gain, they cant keep being assholes forever. Eventually the desire for money will win... But who knows it is after still Facebook.
Here's what I've heard from people that are still running there:
-A lot of people are still running high volumes there and profitably - other social platforms (even tiktok) doesn't even come close to the volumes available on FB.
-It really helps to be running your own products/services. Affiliate offers are harder - will need to stick to whitehat stuff and run on agency accounts. Or for greyhat stuff (e.g. casino) be prepared to lose accounts regularly. Completely blackhat stuff I don't know of anyone that does it anymore - if anyone is doing it successfully on large scale please enlighten us!
-With audience targeting gone to shit, it would be better to promote stuff that has broader appeal (as opposed to really niche stuff that relies heavily on targeting niche audiences).
-Also, because FB can only rely on first party data now, the only way to tell them what kind of audiences you want FB to show your ads to, is to attract your ideal audience to click on your ads first. i.e. FB will look at all the people that are clicking on your ad, in order to learn what demos are interested in your offer, so they can show your ads to more of the same.
-More creative testing is essential. It always was even before IOS14, but now it has become more crucial than ever to be always testing new creatives.
The following presentations from Ad/Ecom World will shed more light on how to make FB work post IOS14:
https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...irella-Crespi)
https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...(Cody-Iverson)
Having said all that: Tiktok is way less saturated than FB, so would be worth testing. With FB being so unpredictable these days, it really can't hurt to diversify.
Amy
Yeah that's a great point, people leaving does create room for opportunity. I was spying on some lead gen offers on FB and the numbers did look decent on some of the ads, so there are some strong opportunities there still.
Thanks for the detailed response, I appreciate it! And yes you do make some great points there, I've been thinking it would make sense to get an Agency Account for FB if I were to go back to it. But yeah, TikTok does seem to be at that golden point of acceleration FB was at one point, and it makes sense to dive deeper into it as well due to the opportunity that is present there at large.
I think Meta is gonna surprise people, and it will be a valuable player in future for advertising.
Originally Posted by stickupkid
I also noticed that the Facebook interface changed recently, becoming more "Meta".
Originally Posted by stickupkid
On the one hand, I'm hoping they'll get their act together to make it easier to run again like the good old days. But the cynical part of me tells me that the name change may not mean anything - if they don't actually end up making transformative improvements to the algo, or change the way they're banning things seemingly by random.
Amy
Sent from my iPhone using STM Forums
Blackhat is still very much alive and well on FB; you just need an arsenal of farmed ad accounts to keep things running 24/7.
Originally Posted by MJDUB
As has been mentioned, FB is still HUGE and I doubt it will go anywhere, I'm pretty sure they are working hard to improve their performance again.
Based on the info I have, FB can still work but their AI is kind of blind at the moment. Since it used to work so well, people learned to depend on it and they didn't really try to perfect their creatives, optimization and testing ... simply because FB could handle all of this on their own. With the amazing targeting AI, they could make even mediocre creatives work.
These days, it's about going back to the basics... testing a lot more ads than before, optimizing the flow in a more detailed way than before, focusing on retaining the customers (email, sms, push...) and trying to maximize their live time value.
To put it simply, in order to win the FB game these days, you need to treat it as a "dumber" source that doesn't optimize everything for you 
It seems normal to me (running adult) or the numerous POPs and PUSH people to test hundreds of ads, dozens of LPs, tons of offers... but FB people were not used to this and they have to learn how to cope with this change.
Those who give it the time and effort still seem to be doing pretty well.
Originally Posted by twinaxe
You may hate Zuck or whatever, he is a calm and clever guy and the Meta, melting all platforms (whatsapp making an entrance to the party?) into a solid one based on blockchain, sounds good to me. TikTok is more quick consumption so I dont see them as a direct competitor in all honesty.
This transition fase I understand people looking for alternatives. Give it 2-3 years maybe for Meta to claim their spot (back?).
Facebook is a massive traffic source. Even if it shrinks by 5, 10, 15, 25% it will still be a massive traffic source.
The main issue is that before Facebook would pretty much find all your customers for you ... they had and exploited so much personal data, that advertisers really did not have to do much work.
That world is gone. But that does not mean the audiences are no longer there. They are just more difficult to target.
At the end of the day, Facebook ads are run on an auction system. If the ads are no longer effective, then advertisers will no longer be willing to bid up ad prices. And as a result a new equilibrium will set in ... less effective ads but at cheaper prices. For some players, this will work really well (thousands of affiliates have made bank on traffic sources like popups or redirects ... very very ineffective ads but at dirt cheap prices) .... for other it will not.
So is Facebook still worth doing?
Yes.
But you should not be doing ONLY Facebook.
no no, Stay away from FB, it doesn't work
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