Is Facebook Advertising A Scam?

Most everyone who has a Facebook notices those little ads on the right side of the screen and our team at Black Tie Digital Marketing wants you to look into this type of advertising before you start an ad campaign.

Facebook gets paid whenever someone clicks on an ad that advertises an ad client’s page. It’s called pay-per-click advertising. However, TechCrunch reported that a startup company had to end its presence on Facebook because at least 80% of the clicks came from invalid traffic, or clickbots.

Clickbots are not a new phenomenon, but Google’s position on fake clicks is strong. CNET explains that, “Google strongly outlines the harm clickbots do to advertisers and the pay-per-click ecosystem and how allowing the behavior hurts long tail business strategies for everyone involved.” Although Google has taken a stand against clickbots and fake accounts, Facebook has made no comment on the issue that many companies are facing.

On Reddit, playing card retailer Alex Issacs who wrote, “I can confirm this. I used Facebook to advertise my page and went from ~2,000 fans to over 6,000 within several months. Guess what? Bots, hijacked accounts, fake accounts. How do I know? Many of them have NO friends. Then I noticed something really scary…repeats. Actual pictures showing up more then once for new likes. Very, very few of the accounts were from the USA. I ended the ad program recently and the bots stopped.”

If many of the clicks that you are paying for come from clickbots or invalid traffic, then you might as well be throwing your money down the drain. It does no good for your company to spend money on advertising that isn’t reaching real people. However an alternative form of advertising, similar to the ad campaigns on Facebook, that is proven to work is Google AdWords. Google AdWords is a great form of paid advertising that will help increase traffic to your website as well as increase sales.

So do your research before you start an ad campaign and contact us if you need any help with Internet Marketing strategies or web design in Melbourne, Florida.