Is facebook good for advertisers??

[tonyklaus]

Read some articles saying  that Facebook is  a consistently bad source for advertisers.

Anyone have any thoughts or experience similar to this?

[sam]

The only major advertisements i see there is of universities...And i believe they are generating good publicity...

[chang]

good point Sam..

It wasn't so long ago that Facebook was a closed Social Network for mostly Schools and universities. Thus, this has a more concentrated base that is focused around the 18-25 year old market. Where Myspace was completely opened, and contrary to what most believe - MySpace has a higher "age bracket" of members.

Also, I wonder what kind of advertisers they were. as Sam points out - Universities/Schools/Trade Schools probably would have a higher success rate as members would pay attention to that more. I would think services like Ring Tones and Cell Phone services might do well too.

But home mortgages, loans, financial services like banks and so forth - likely wouldn't benefit from facebook at all. Even clothing retailers wouldn't likely see much benefit from advertising on face book, as this market is more likely to pop into the mall than buy it online.

[keane]

Conventional methods may not work with Facebook. You can not do a blitz or a storm on Facebook. It is about networks, regions, groups, schools, clubs, etc. If you can tailor your advertising to those qualifications, you can actually find excellent conversion rates. People are on Facebook for so many hours of the day - it is almost a way of life for some students. Thus, the lack of advertising bombardment is a breath of fresh air for them. However, in the same breath they might tend to trust advertisers more on Facebook, because it is a closed network (no non-member access). They would be especially interested in advertisers who are relevant to their network, region, group, etc. as mentioned above

[vanguard]

I'm a pretty "heavy" Facebook user at times, and I will be the first to admit that I generally don't click on ads unless they appeal to me. Thinking along the lines of my behavior on Facebook versus other sites, yes, I have clicked on ads. However, it is exactly those "non conventional" ads that I decided to click on.

The Facebook generation is a more technological savvy generation, without a doubt. Granted, the populations of Facebook and MySpace overlap, but I personally know people who prefer the former over the latter, and vice versa. I would say that Facebook is winning out among those tech savvy folks for the very reason that the site is ad-free.

What kinds of links did I click on? Discounted student trips, job opportunities ... these are the things that Facebook students primarily seek out.

One thing I'd also add is that students use Facebook also as a change in scenery. They don't want to see the ads that are all over the Internet on the other sites they find. Facebook is not your MySpace, and students go there for something different.
 
Advertising on Facebook is a challenge, but if you have a product that you know appeals to the college market (and yes, regardless of it being open to all, it's still primarily a social site for the younger demographic), then you will do better and people will click on these links

[ankur4rocks]

good post vanguard...

[dijon]

really good information... I actually have a product for youth... I think facebook would definitely be a good idea...thanks for starting this post tonyklaus...