Guest Blog, Tom Rent: Facebook Ads, Part 2
May 7, 2011
As promised, Tom Rent at Comical Captions has given us Part 2 of the Facebook Ads video – this time, he talks about his results, which are very interesting. You know, if a group of us advertised on FB, we could raise not only our own profiles, but GCU as well, which could only help sales… if there’s any interest, I’ll do an article on writing effective advertising copy.
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GCU Community 
Thanks so much Tom! I’ve always wondered about these ads because I personally am reluctant to click on these FB ads. I did once and it was a nightmare…LOL!
If I use your Nurses Day example, it cost you $13.24 so wouldn’t you have to sell roughly 22 cards just to pay for that advertising? It does have potential, I’m just curious about how much is it worth compared to how many sales you need to actually make a profit after paying for the advertising. That’s what always made be steer clear of this type of advertising. Great video, thanks so much for sharing your experience!
Right. I did this experiment knowing it was not likely a money maker. I had no idea if it was smarter to go local, state-wide, or national – or if it was goingto go great or be a flop! Now I know. Nothing beats just trying it.
I also targeted nurses … perhaps they are the least likely to buy Nurse’s Day cards?!
I did this mainly to learn . I wanted to be able to converse smartly about it with my regular clients in my technical consulting business. It was a very inexpensive education under that context.
Clearly there needs to be a healthy margin environment to justify using FB ads, so greeting cards would be a big challenge unless there was a very unique situation.
I did like learning how flexible and adaptable it was. Very unique! I think there are ways to apply it.
One other tidbit I picked up: 1 click in 2000 impressions is considered good.
TOM
Absolutely! And I think your Soaring Gifts idea has tremendous potential, something we make more money on the sale of like your shirts. Great job and thanks again for sharing your experiences!
My partner spent many years as an advertising and marketing professional. She tells me that if you’re thinking about advertising on FB, do as Tom did – target specific cards for specific holidays or occasions rather than just plugging your GCU store in general. Tom’s Zazzle store – Soaring Gifts – has niche market appeal, too. That’s what you want to aim for. Now if a group of artists all ran FB ads simultaneously, it would raise GCU’s profile (the more ads running, the more exposure to GCU, and the likelihood of click-throughs increases). For example, I am considering running a FB ad campaign with my greeting cards for cancer patients. Even if I don’t make immediate sales, by raising my profile (my brand awareness) in the consciousness of everyone who sees that ad, I could very well make sales tomorrow, so I’m willing to make a small investment in my future. Thanks to Tom for his diligent research and for sharing!
Facebook is expensive. But several sharing the cost might make it affordable.
Afer watching the video, it appears the cost is not as high as I suspected. I think I need to watch the first video. Missed it somehow and suspect it will answer questions I have since I have never advertised on Facebook.