Facebook Advertising Has Been ‘Unliked’ By Forrester

Image via Flickr/ Sean MacEntee

If you’re spending money on advertisements on Facebook, you may be wasting it. According to a report, Facebook is one of the least effective advertising methods.

Facebook Ads Ineffective

According to Nate Elliot, the vice president and chief analyst of Forrester, “Facebook hasn’t delivered on its promise, and in fact has become quietly reliant on the traditional advertising models it once lampooned.”

The report, released by Elliot and Forrester on Monday, says that Facebook has completely failed to revolutionize advertising the way Mark Zuckerberg has promised. The social media giant has been proven to be largely ineffective when it comes to connecting brands with consumers.

Although the site does allow businesses to design their own branded pages to help promote products and services to their consumers, there has been very little improvement on the tools used to post these pages. The marketers are limited in their resources for managing and tracking the pages. Elliot also said that he does not think Facebook can or will make the changes to the marketing platform that are necessary to get the marketers to come back. He feels that the top brass at the social network is completely blind to the needs of businesses.

Survey Says:

Forrester surveyed 395 advertisers from the United States, Canada, and the U.K. while researching its report. When asked about 13 different marketing sites and tools, Facebook consistently tanked in the survey. Twitter, Google Plus, and YouTube all outranked the huge social network. Only 51 percent of the participants indicated any satisfaction with Facebook marketing, while Google, LinkedIn, and Yahoo all fared much better.

According to the report, Facebook is failing to reach the masses with the advertisements posted on the site. Elliott’s letter to Mark Zuckerberg said “Everyone who clicks the ‘like’ button on a brand’s Facebook page volunteers to receive that brand’s messages — but on average, (Facebook) only shows each brand’s posts to 16 percent of its fans.” This means that 84 percent of the people who said they were interested in what you had to say, will never see your posts.

Facebook Fights Back

After the report was released, Facebook said that some of the claims in the report were completely “illogical.” According to CNBC, a spokesperson for the social networking giant said “The reality is that Facebook advertising works. That’s why we have more than a million active advertisers, … and countless studies have demonstrated the significant return on investment marketers see from Facebook. Our promise is to continue to deliver positive results for marketers.”

Is Facebook Worth Advertising On?

You tell us what you think. Does your company spend money on Facebook advertising, and more importantly, does that advertising convert? Post your comments below.