Facebook ads seem to work

Shin Ryoku · Dec 21, 2015

I recently bought another Facebook ad to see if I could increase traffic and registrations. I tweaked the ad a few times with resulting effects on traffic.

Screen Shot 2015-12-21 at 8.10.15 AM.png

The change I made yesterday morning seemed to result in a big jump in registrations.

The specific changes I made were adding the line "Join our friendly Sony Alpha forum" (previously just said "Sony Alpha E-Mount Group") and changing from a picture of a camera to that of hands holding a camera (looks less less an ad to sell a camera). Here's what the ad looks like now:

Screen Shot 2015-12-21 at 8.00.47 AM.png

The current ad is giving me about 1 site visit per $0.20 spent and roughly 2-3 new member registrations per $10 spent. I'm happy with those results.

torquewrench · Dec 21, 2015

Shin Ryoku said:
I recently bought another Facebook ad to see if I could increase traffic and registrations. I tweaked the ad a few times with resulting effects on traffic.

View attachment 39402

View attachment 39407

The change I made yesterday morning seemed to result in a big jump in registrations.

View attachment 39404

The specific changes I made were adding the line "Join our friendly Sony Alpha forum" (previously just said "Sony Alpha E-Mount Group") and changing from a picture of a camera to that of hands holding a camera (looks less ad-like). Here's what the ad looks like now:

View attachment 39403

The current ad is giving me about 1 site visit per $0.20 spent and roughly 2-3 new member registrations per $10 spent. I'm happy with those results.

Those are solid. I'm anxious to start a campaign.

Shin Ryoku · Dec 21, 2015

torquewrench said:
Those are solid. I'm anxious to start a campaign.

There are two types of campaigns. One type is to promote your Facebook page, and the other type is to promote your non-Facebook webpage. I am using the latter. More info here: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/307394886084491

torquewrench · Dec 21, 2015

Shin Ryoku said:
There are two types of campaigns. One type is to promote your Facebook page, and the other type is to promote your non-Facebook webpage. I am using the latter. More info here: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/307394886084491

Thanks for the info. I'm looking at buying a digital SLR, so that's even more helpful!

eva2000 · Dec 21, 2015

guess timing is just right too with xmas and people buying or being gifted with dslr/photography gear

Shin Ryoku · Dec 23, 2015

I was averaging about 2 new registrations a day before the ad. Now seeing 16-20 registrations per day for the past 3 days since changing the ad to say "Join our forum!".

I've gone through the registrations, and these are real people from Facebook, not spammers. It's not cheap, but I'm very happy with the ad performance right now.

Tecca · Dec 23, 2015

Great, the call to action and your other changes most certainly looked like they helped! I've used FB to advertise before with success, and I plan on doing that with my new site. This is interesting stuff, thanks for posting it!

JulieVA · Dec 30, 2015

Are they posting in the Forum?

WebMonkey · Jan 1, 2016

Shin Ryoku said:
I was averaging about 2 new registrations a day before the ad. Now seeing 16-20 registrations per day for the past 3 days since changing the ad to say "Join our forum!".

I've gone through the registrations, and these are real people from Facebook, not spammers. It's not cheap, but I'm very happy with the ad performance right now.

View attachment 39460

Shin, Did you buy facebook advertising templates? Or just do it on your own? And are the members actually posting on your forum? What about e-mail signups for non registering members are those numbers going up as well?

Shin Ryoku · Jan 2, 2016

JulieVA said:
Are they posting in the Forum?

WebMonkey said:
Shin, Did you buy facebook advertising templates? Or just do it on your own? And are the members actually posting on your forum? What about e-mail signups for non registering members are those numbers going up as well?

They are posting in the forum. I am doing these ads for three of my forums, and I see increased registrations, member introduction threads, and overall activity / posts. It definitely works. Not cheap though.

I didn't use any template - just did it on my own. I don't have e-mail signups for non-registering members, so can't comment on that.

kabbs · Feb 5, 2016

Great insight.
I also facebook ads, and the results are outstanding !

Oldsmoboi · Feb 5, 2016

I should probably sign up for your forum. I just bought a Sony A6000 a few months ago.

geeksonrepair · Feb 6, 2016

Facebook ads are important to promote your business. I am using it to promote my business.

Optic · Feb 6, 2016

Shin Ryoku that does look promising. Nice and simple call to action.

May I ask what options you chose for these on Facebook?

They seem to have three ad delivery optimisations: link clicks, impressions and daily unique reach:

And on top of that, charging method (CPC link clicks vs CPM impressions):

Not sure which options would give the best bang for buck for advertising forums on Facebook.

Oldsmoboi · Feb 6, 2016

Do you have a way of tracking how many sign-ups you get through your ads?

Tecca · Feb 6, 2016

Oldsmoboi said:
Do you have a way of tracking how many sign-ups you get through your ads?

The Facebook Pixel allows that. It's some JS you put where you want to track certain things, or put it in globally similar to Google Analytics.

dojo · Feb 6, 2016

Really cool insights. I'm looking into trying Facebook ads again (tried twice with no success - fortunately not too much money invested either), but this time I want to make it work. Thanks for sharing this data and keep us posted with the progress.

maksim · Feb 22, 2016

Congrats, on this.... can I ask you a question...

If you are spending $2 or $3 per new member.... how much are you generating per member on your site to make up for it?

Empire · Feb 22, 2016

maksim said:
If you are spending $2 or $3 per new member.... how much are you generating per member on your site to make up for it?

Yes that is the million dollar question

Triangulum · Mar 9, 2017

I'd just like to report that I tried Facebook ads multiple times and I haven't gotten ANY results at all with them.

My ads were highly targeted to a specific audience. I even had an elaborate video ad which got plenty of likes, but that was it. The description clearly stated that my site was a free discussion forum and the call to action was for users to join my online discussion community.

It averaged out to be around $1.00 per click and after around 30 clicks over a 3 day period, I had absolutely no sign-ups and none of Facebook ad traffic even explored any other page of my site beyond the one they landed on from the ad.

Facebook ads seem to work

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