Even More Facebook Failure
Posted on December 19th, 2008 in Facebook, Retards
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Well, it looks as if Facebook’s anal ad policies are, indeed, biting them in their collective asses. Facebook’s value estimate has dropped almost 90% since last fall to $2 billion. Granted, the estimate last year was inflated due to microsoft’s buy-in, but still, the company is apparently not even profitable yet. The recent ad policy changes certainly aren’t helping them make more money.
Over the last several weeks, the Facebook Ads COPS team have committed to disabling pretty much every ad on the site that advertises a commercial product, especially anything to do with losing weight. They had already long ago banned things like ringtones, dating (well they haven’t banned dating but they’ve put enough draconian restrictions on it to make it not worth spending the money), scholarships, anything that collects a users information, any ads that have the color orange in them, etc… They claim that these changes create a better user experience which will keep more people on the facebook site, and that sites like myspace who have much less restrictive policies are losing users because of the ads. It’s pretty safe to say that pretty much nobody stopped using myspace because of ads.
Anyway, these new policies are losing facebook tons of money, probably millions a week. Where are those unused advertising dollars going? Their competitors.
So what happens? Their company sinks like a stone even though their membership is growing astronomically. This is what happens when you put a bunch of no-skill ivy leaguers in charge of your company. GUESS WHAT GAIZ….YOU’RE NEVER GOING TO BE PROFITABLE TRYING TO GET GARAGE BANDS TO ADVERTISE WITH PPC, SORRY!
They prolly won’t even send cakes a gift basket for the millions he generated them in revenue this year by writing about their ad system. Not that they could afford it anyway, M I RITE?
Keep it real.
December 19th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
It’s a shame Myspace doesn’t have Facebook’s ad platform and interface. If it did, I’d just ditch Facebook entirely.
December 20th, 2008 at 1:44 am
“We don’t need your online monies!”
Apparently, they’ve got some big changes in line for 2009. I’m sure you know already, but my ad manager has said “2009 will be an interesting year for advertisers indeed.”
I’ve heard more streamlined ad creation and approval, whatever the fuck that means.
December 20th, 2008 at 3:45 am
It’s never been so hard for me to give money to some company. They just refuse to take it.
December 20th, 2008 at 7:34 am
What’s funny is they basically turn away the advertisers that can generate revenue for them because they are afraid to expose their users to whatever we are advertising. Then those same advertisers go to tier2 ad networks and target facebook apps so the users are exposed anyway and facebook gets none of the dough.
Unfortunately I predict more and more of this stupidity from a lot of the major traffic sources in the coming year. I know that the big G just cracked down on a lot of things too.
Imagine the newspapers regulated every line of text that a car dealer put in their print ad? There would be no more newspapers.
December 20th, 2008 at 10:42 am
They could be absolutely creaming it too - with such targeted advertising, commercially they should be top of the list - but they are not because of all this anal approving.
its not like we are all advertising land mines
December 20th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
I think Facebook is more interested in brand advertisers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/business/media/14digi.html?_r=1&scp=12&sq=facebook&st=cse
(Ted McConnell, manager of interactive marketing and innovation at P.& G., said, “I really don’t want to buy any more banner ads in Facebook.”) NYTimes
But do brand advertisers want to advertise on Facebook?
December 20th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
no, they really dont. especially with this recession, brand advertisers are dropping like flies.
December 20th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
It seems like they need to strike a better balance between their own principals and the profit the need to stay afloat.
December 20th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
@Justin - You should tell your ad manager that you only give a crap about streamlined process if it includes processing ads that are profitable. Otherwise it just helps you lose money faster.
December 20th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
Nicky, what kind of CPA offer does Facefool still accept?. That is apart from having to submit the ad 10 times.
I just read their policies, fucking long list of “not to do” things, they better list what can be advertised…
December 20th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Maybe they’re not money hungry. I’m sure myspace would accept the ads that facebook denies. Facebook probably doesn’t want the site cluttered with nonsense. Pretty much all weight-loss products suck.
December 20th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
thats fine, but they should state that in their ad guidelines, or at least when the ads get disapproved. as it stands now, you really have no idea what is and isn’t allowed until you go through the grueling trial and error approval process.
December 20th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Fo’ Riz.
December 21st, 2008 at 1:09 am
They’re trying to reach out bigtime recently with more reps to tackle the questions. We’ve got a guy that works with all our pubs and answers their questions right away, and will increase anybodys spend right away.
Your right though dude their in a tough spot to take advantage of the dough that can be made of affiliate marketing and keeping with their principals. Hit it on the head with the big companies not spending money on banners right now. Hmmm media buys…opportunity for affiliates?
Oh yeah Hustler “Imagine the newspapers regulated every line of text that a car dealer put in their print ad? There would be no more newspapers.” They do. Car ads are one of the most regulated ads out there. Maybe FB should come up with a small print too?
December 21st, 2008 at 2:00 am
Everyone has facebook “reps” now but unfortunately they have no control over what gets approved. The ad approvals are the problem not the spend limit.
December 21st, 2008 at 2:42 am
So what’s going to stop people from doing this on Facebook?
Why not just join a forum and leave messages in facebook that links to an outside page?
Regards,
Erwin
http://winning2win.com
December 21st, 2008 at 8:37 am
what the hell are you talking about
December 22nd, 2008 at 7:01 am
WTf is wrong with Assbook. They have all those crappy cpm banner ads on there that are totally ad noise/clutter. no wonder their market cap it tanking.Big brand ads DONT WORK in social media. They need to read the research thats out all over the place.
beside if those ads they blocked perform really well which means users like them…. Duh!!those are the biggest catagories on the net and in a down economy.
December 22nd, 2008 at 7:03 am
Erwin
dont be an idiot social media spammer. thats the crap that screws it up for everyone else who works there asses off to be legit!
and besides that your comment is retarded.
December 26th, 2008 at 4:08 am
Setting restrictions like this in a down economy was the exact opposite of what they should have done. But I don’t think advertising revenue alone will ever lead them to profit because the costs of the site go up every year.
http://valleywag.gawker.com/5070144/the-facebook-layoffs
If they want to make money, they’re actually going to have to sell something that they’ve created themselves. Graphics that people can send to their friends is a nice start, but that won’t be enough. They should make an actual product that people want and can only get from Facebook.
January 7th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Just like everything else in the world, Facebook is exploring what their balancing point is. When bad rep hits an organization, you can either run as far away from it, or choose to embrace it and find a way to benefit from it.
April 13th, 2009 at 10:48 am
April 2009 and this shit still hasn’t gotten any better. One hundred or ads of the most straight forward dating ads I’ve ever typed up sumbitted, none approved.