An Experiment with Facebook Flyers Pro

It’s been a month since Facebook (somewhat-quietly) launched their Facebook Flyers Pro program, but the blogosphere has just woken up and started asking "is this the new Google Adwords killer"?

Probably not in it’s current state.

Facebook Flyers Pro is significantly different from Facebook Flyers Basic. It allows you to bid on a pay per click basis – as opposed to paying for impressions ($10 per 5000). The old model (impressions) has not been very profitable for advertisers.

The new system – Facebook Flyers Pro allows you to bid per click and micro-target a very specific demographic. Want to reach 18-24 year old women who are into knitting? You can. It even shows you the number of people in the system matching your criteria.

You can choose a combination of:

• country and/or city (especially good if you want to reach an international market)
• sex
• age
• political view
• relationship status
• education status (with the ability to drill down further)
• workplace
• keywords

At first glance it’s a marketer’s dream, assuming you have something good to market.

In an effort to keep their system clean Facebook has forbidden bottom-feeder ads that have become the bread and butter of Myspace – no "shoot the rapping monkey" or "get an iPhone for clicking this button" types of ads are allowed.

Here is a list of things you’re not allowed to advertise (from their TOS):

• ATF (alcohol, tobacco, firearms)
• Gambling
• Ringtones
• Software downloads – freeware, or shareware
• Pharmaceuticals
• Adult friend finders or dating sites with a sexual emphasis
• Web cams or surveillance equipment (No X10 cams)
• Web-based non-accredited colleges that offer degrees (No Phoenix or Devry)
• Politically religious agendas, hate speech, or inflammatory religious content
• Political content that exploits political agendas or uses "hot button" political issues (bad news for FOX News?)

I commend Facebook for filtering out these highly-profitable, yet trust-eroding offers.

Facebook Flyers Pro is currently capped at a budget of $50 per day, which precludes large advertisers from using it. Probably a smart move by Facebook – it’s a decent way to test CPC quietly, without pissing off their ad partner Microsoft.

The big question still remains – "can Facebook monetize its traffic?" Google was built on targeting intent. If someone types in "mountain bike prices", an advertiser can take advantage of that intent – the searcher is probably in a buying state of mind and a good target for ads. On Facebook, however, if a person has "mountain biking" listed as an interest, this does not mean that they are in the market to buy anything.

Facebook Flyers Pro still looks like it would be best suited for a brand push ad strategy – although a much cheaper one since there’s an extra step of clicking the ad – an intent-differentiator that will keep costs under control for the advertiser.

I’ve run a few Facebook flyer ads in the last few days targeting a few different affiliate niches, and the click-through rate has been extremely low. I doubt it’s the "Adwords Killer" that many people have dubbed it. However, keep your eye on Facebook’s evolving ad strategy – Flyers pro is Facebook’s first attempt at CPC and I am sure it will evolve as they gather more market feedback.

For now, I don’t think anyone knows for certain whether or not Facebook will be able to monetize its traffic enough to live up to its astronomic valuation.

Markus Urban is a guest contributor from Sarasota, FL. His AU Interactive blog covers online trends, marketing, and development topics. He’s also involved with photography blog DigitalPhoto, which covers photography tips and techniques.