Nathan Greenberg

Nathan Greenberg

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Nathan Greenberg
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Tag Archives: automotive

facebook advertising experiment
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Facebook Advertising Test Results

facebook advertising experimentFacebook has been receiving a lot of criticism lately for their lack of a cohesive mobile advertising strategy. I’ve been a voice in that chorus. Before their IPO, they lost General Motors – one of their largest advertisers and arguably their largest automotive client. But at least 50% of their traffic comes from desktop computer users, so for that and a variety of other reasons, I continued the modest Facebook advertising campaigns Moss Bros. Auto Group was running each month.

Metrics Do Not Measure Up

The results of those campaigns never seemed to add up. We had tried cost-per-click (CPC) campaigns, cost-per-thousand (CPM) campaigns, various geographies, and used broad as well as specific category/keyword targeting. Results were usually disappointing regardless of our parameters, generating click-through rates of less than 0.1%. Bust most importantly, Facebook’s metrics never matched the traffic we received on our website according to Dealer.com (our website provider) or Google Analytics. Here are figures from one particular campaign:

Time frame: 8/29/12 to 9/3/12

Facebook click claim: 85

Dealer.com inbound traffic count from Facebook: 30

Google Analytics inbound traffic count from Facebook: 24

Even the best case comparison has a massive discrepancy of 65%! Keep in mind, I was paying an average of $1.18 per click. That means I could have seen more than double my actual traffic if Facebook wasn’t misrepresenting its figures. It was that discrepancy -that misrepresentation- that lead me to run a test.

I had been wanting to explore the benefits of Facebook advertising for my personal blog. Could it help me capture a new audience? Could it garner some additional attention to this new online endeavor I had been working so hard to grow? This seemed like an ideal moment to test it while simultaneously learning for my employer.

Test Parameters

The setup was simple enough and I hoped to learn a few things.

  1. Determine how Facebook was obtaining their figures
  2. Did Facebook prioritize CPC campaigns over CPM – thereby earning more revenue for themselves with less “work” (server time, clutter for users, etc.)
  3. Facebook’s effectiveness at growing a blog’s audience

Here’s how I setup the test:

  • Create identical campaigns: graphic, headline, copy, geography, category targeting, date range, and budget
  • One variable: payment metric. One campaign was CPC, the other CPM
  • Analyze traffic data according to Facebook and Google Analytics.

I must humbly admit that the campaigns were failures at generating new repeat traffic for my blog. You’ll see in the screen captures below that I generated traffic and maxed out my budgets on both campaigns, but they weren’t engaged readers. Bounce rate was high and traffic has remained flat since the campaigns. Sure, that could be my fault. After all – its my blog. But let’s look at the campaigns themselves.

Facebook Advertising Test Results

Facebook Case StudyThe image to the left (click to expand) shows the results of the campaigns as well as their setup.

Obviously, Facebook did a great job prioritizing the CPC campaign over the CPM. They showed it to fewer people, fewer times, and reached the budget cap. In short – more profit for less work.

And that’s my issue. The ads were identical and so was the targeting. The results should have been the same. The ONLY thing Facebook could have done to skew the results was misrepresent the actual delivery of the ads. There is no way they were shown to the same audience, despite my instruction to do exactly that.

And that is something I want to be very clear about. I had a contract with Facebook. Specific terms were agreed upon. Furthermore, the Facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities and Advertising Guidelines don’t disclose that they may adjust your targeting based on payment method. In today’s digital world, advertisers have become conditioned to simply accept the “secret sauce”. We take for granted that we don’t know exactly how our results are generated, but we expect them nonetheless. This is a huge mistake for our industry and will only weaken our ability to accurately measure ROI, select the best media for our products, and hold that media accountable for a mutually beneficial relationship.

Facebook’s Response

Since this test, I have stopped all advertising on Facebook. The ads they run on the right side of the site are obviously rigged for Facebook’s benefit. That said, I have a second test planned: sponsored stories. These ads appear on desktop and mobile devices so I think its worth another foray.

I really wanted an answer from Facebook and two weeks ago I got it. A fortuitous event occurred when I attended Digital Dealer 13 and one of the keynote speakers was from…you guessed it…Facebook! He was a Client Partner for the automotive industry. In addition to the keynote speaker, another Client Partner was hosting a breakout session about Facebook advertising. After the session, I introduced myself and presented my problem. He was a very nice guy and honest in his response. It came down to two things: “priority” and “assumption”.

You see, Facebook assumes your intention by how you pay for your ads. If you want clicks, they assume you will select CPC billing. If you want to brand something, they assume you will select CPM billing. They prioritize the delivery of CPC ads because the goal is to generate clicks and they aim to provide them. I believe this is a faulty assumption. Logically, because all of their ads must include a link to something (Facebook Page, website, whatever), they should assume ALL campaigns want clicks. If I just wanted to “brand something”, I wouldn’t include a link. My ad would consist of a pretty picture and impactful text. Done.

Toward the end of his explanation, his colleague (who would later deliver the keynote) joined the conversation and concurred with the explanation I just received. Both said that Facebook is constantly tweaking its ad platform and new products will soon be introduced that I may want to look at in addition to the current “True View” system they have for measuring ad metrics. I intend to look into them all.

Conclusion

Facebook is gaming the system. I knew as much after the test. I haven’t advertised since. But is that a good idea? Along with Google, Facebook is an 800lb. gorilla. They have 1 billion users worldwide. Is that an audience that -as General Motors did- I can simply create a Page for and hope they find it? The alternative is that I now know how the Facebook advertising system works and I can probably work more effectively within it.

My jury is still out on whether or not I will use Facebook advertising again for a campaign. Thanksgiving is coming up and we always do a substantial amount of advertising for the holiday season. Facebook may not be included. Either way, I promise to keep you posted.

Your Experience

What has been your experience with Facebook advertising? Will you reconsider running ads there? Do you think I’m nuts and the test proves nothing? Okay. Tell me why in the comments below. I respond to all.

November 5, 2012 Nathan Greenberg 11 Comments
Digital Dealer logo poster
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My Experience at Digital Dealer 13

Most of us know that digital advertising and the social media space are evolving with incredible speed and it can be difficult to stay abreast of the latest marketing opportunities. This is especially true in automotive – a vertical overwhelmed with vendors, each offering the “latest” and “most effective” way to generate more leads and improve sales. I was fortunate to travel to Digital Dealer 13 in Las Vegas to learn about new strategies and gather insights from industry leaders.

Digital Dealer logo posterI traveled to the conference with Casey Moss, a colleague who happened to be seven months pregnant. Despite the obvious limitation this placed on her Vegas-standard activities (sitting in smokey casinos, imbibing large quantities of alcohol, etc.) we both enjoyed the trip and her pregnancy spawned some great conversations.

Unfortunately, we missed the first conference activity I wanted to attend: the Peer Networking Roundtables. But we took a less frantic pace as a result and had some time to unwind from our early morning travels aboard Southwest Airlines. We were staying at the hotel in which the conference was being held –The Mirage Hotel and Casino– and that was very convenient.

First Speaker at Digital Dealer

In my opinion, Digital Dealer was fortunate to kick off with Tori Morandi from AutoTrader.com. She’s an experienced public speaker who offered excellent information to a temporarily standing-room-only crowd. (The back wall had to be removed to fit everyone!)

From there, Casey and I separated and mostly enjoyed the remaining sessions of the day. In the evening, I ventured to the penthouse suites and had a meeting with the great team at String Automotive. I’ve known their Regional Vice President, Steve Botello, for a few years. We had some great discussions along with the company CEO about their product offerings, future development, and the unique competitive advantages they have in a saturated automotive marketplace. The guys were great hosts. On a related note, if you’re ever in Vegas looking for a spectacular steak or seafood meal, enjoy kokomo’s inside The Mirage. Far from inexpensive but it served one of the best steaks I’ve ever had.

Speakers Had Too Much to Cover

I spoke with many of my fellow attendees at various lunches and after breakout sessions. One thing we all seemed to agree on was that most of the speakers seemed incredibly rushed. The quality presentations from experienced speakers could have easily stretched beyond an hour but many speakers seemed to be cramming material into the allotted 50 minutes. One example was Ali Amirrezvani, CEO of DealerOn. He was supposed to get into “Advanced SEO for Dealers” but he must have earned frequent flyer miles because he flew through his presentation. Honestly, I don’t see how he could have done anything else in 50 minutes. Google’s recent algorithmic changes alone could fill an hour and this was intended to be an “advanced” discussion of such things.

Another example was Vickie Gibbs, General Manager of Albright Digital. Her session topic was “The Metrics That Matter”. She began with blatant honesty: Her full presentation was substantially larger but she had to cut it down to fit in 50-minute time limit. Thanks for the warning. She was kind enough to offer the full presentation deck to anyone who asked after the session.

Sadly, there were more than a couple of presenters who were so poorly prepared that 50 minutes were impossible to fill. One such session I attended actually ended in 15 minutes. He was done. No one had questions. No one cared.

Keynotes from Facebook and Google

Google Digital Dealer keynote - Peter Leto and Marianna KerppolaI may have been too optimistic. Perhaps I was just plain jaded. Ultimately, I think I was hoping for more than they actually promised and I was misleading myself.

The first keynote presentation was from Google and given by Peter Leto and Marianna Kerppola. The topic was “Fine-Tuning Your Online Marketing” and it did offer some useful tips as well as resources to assist. When it was all said and done, I didn’t walk away feeling like I got my deepest questions answered. As I discovered through most of the conference, I would leave with a few helpful nuggets of information, but no major breakthroughs. I’m okay with that. If I leave with actionable ideas, the conference is a success in my eyes.

 

 

 

 

Facebook Digital Dealer keynote - Patrick WorkmanWednesday evening offered the Facebook keynote from Patrick Workman. Patrick and I had met briefly earlier in the day while one of his colleagues was attempting to answer some questions I had about a recent advertising experiment I conducted on Facebook. I’ll be doing a separate blog post about this experiment and why I’m still not comfortable with Facebook’s advertising assumptions and metrics. (This is separate from my recent “unlike” of their Chairs commercial.) Like Google’s, the Facebook keynote didn’t go as deep as I would have liked, but the presentation was helpful and I formulated some new ideas for our dealerships as a result.

Lack of Social Media

One of the most surprising aspects to the entire conference was a low usage of social media. I’m speaking of both attendees and speakers. Something in the area of 90% of the speakers I saw failed to promote their own social media channels at the conclusion of their presentations. Only one showed a Twitter handle. No one (including the Google keynote speakers) showed a Google+ URL. (Hey Google – maybe you ought to roll out those vanity URLs a little faster!) A couple had their Facebook profiles. I was one of a small handful of attendees who were live Tweeting throughout the days using the #DD13 hashtag. QR codes were moderately used but only by exhibitors. I expected a heck of a lot more from an event called DIGITAL DEALER. C’mon team – there are some basics!

The Digital Dealer Experience

Overall, the conference was well done and I would like to attend next year if the classes are a bit more in-depth and covering a new set of topics. Because they break sessions into levels of experience (fundamental, intermediate, and advanced) I think they should offer longer amounts of time for those intermediate and advanced sessions that warrant it. The catered food during the day was okay and the vendors who threw evening parties did a great job. I especially enjoyed the more intimate setting of the Albright Digital Scotch Tasting. They had a nice stream of guests with varied backgrounds and the Albright team were great hosts.

To see more of my day-to-day activities during the conference, check out my posts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. I enjoyed my trip and hope to attend next year. If you have any questions about Digital Dealer or want to share your own stories, please do so in the comments.

October 29, 2012 Nathan Greenberg 19 Comments

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