October 15, 2012

Facebook's Bar Chart From Hell


Facebook has decided that it no longer wants to be in the business of selling clicks. Instead it wants to be in the business of selling reach and frequency, just like the grown-ups.

Of course, this is a cruel joke because reach and frequency mean nothing if the ads are invisible, which they are on Facebook.

This bar chart (to actual scale) does a pretty good job of explaining why they'd rather sell reach and frequency than clicks.

(C) 2012, The Ad Contrarian



For every 10,000 ads they deliver, Facebook gets 5 clicks. What would you want to sell?


Thanks to James Segura for creating the chart

14 comments:

Leon said...

I'm sorry, the data is skewed. I accidentally clicked on a Facebook ad last night. Sorry.

Shanghai61 said...

Awesome chart. I got repetitive strain injury just from scrolling down!

Jeremy said...

Their new native ad system seems to be in line with this "reach/frequency" strategy. Good move Zuck, good move...

Emlyn said...

The elephant in the room here is that Facebook's ads are about as classy and as trustworthy as a dime hooker outside a congressional caucus. Seriously? Has nobody noticed the trailer park trash that passes for advertising on Facebook? Bullshit bait-and-switch come-ons, lame interest profiling masquerading as useful products/services, and fake thumbnails designed only to garner your clicking finger, not your genuine interest.

I've certainly NEVER recommended to my clients to advertise on Facebook.

I'd rather click on my grandma.

Unknown said...

I am wondering what measurement they will change to when this doesn't fool us.

Anonymous said...

Reach and frequency is all very well but so are clouds in the sky and we don't much give a toss about them. Anyway, here's a stonkingly great presentation from W&K's big brain in Amsterdam about it.
http://martinweigel.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/how-to-fail-golden-drum2.pdf

Anonymous said...

that pdf is effing awesome

marklondon said...

I don't mean to be contrarian (!), but the ads FB gives me are actually pretty good. But then I use it constantly, and its definitely 'reading' what I 'like'.
I have clicked on about 3 ads this month, and *gasp* bought something I was happy with off it (a camera rental in LA).
I still think FB is over-valued at anything more than $12 a share, and I watch 100x more TV than I do video on the internet.
No, i'm not an FB stooge.

Anonymous said...

I recommend the new book Social Marketing is Bull$hit by Bj something or other

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

FB will likely use the latest studies that show that it is being seen that counts NOT clicks. A comscore/Pretarget study of a couple hundred million exposures shows much higher conversion for "seen and hover" than for clicks.

Notwithstanding that the ads on FB may be "invisible" - FB will certainly begin using these new studies to bolster its new "display/positioning/hovering/social/media" banner ads.

http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2012/4/For_Display_Ads_Being_Seen_Matters_More_than_Being_Clicked

Anonymous said...

Social Media Is Bullshit by B.J. Mendelson
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1250002958
Release Date: September 4, 2012

A provocative look at social media that dispels the hype and tells you all you need to know about using the Web to expand your business
blah, blah, blah ... More BS from a guy named BJ.
Go figure.

alan herrell said...


Considering your chart "reach and frequency" sound like something you would see on the cover of adult anal adventure DVD's.


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