Comment by Sara Gerardo on May 2, 2018 at 5:03pm

Facebook ads are terrible. Up to 90% of clicks that you're paying for are by bots. We've had better results with LinkedIn.

Comment by Tanya Williams on May 2, 2018 at 5:23pm

Thanks for your comment Sara. Facebook ads can be very effective for finding passive candidates. I don't agree with your bot comment and I'd be interested to see your proof on that. It is a big comment to make. Whether you use Facebook or Linkedin is very dependant on your audience, who you are trying to reach (active or passive) your ad content, imagery and many factors. I often hear stories from recruiters who tried running Facebook ads once and because they didn't get immediate results, said they didn't work. But I am sure that is not your case, otherwise you wouldn't have commented in the way you did. There are many factors that go into running successful ads on any platform which are outlined in my 3 part video series. (this is just part 1). If they are not for you, that is fine. I am justing letting recruiters know that it is a massively untapped platform that CAN be used successfully to reach passive candidates.

Have a great day

Comment by Sara Gerardo on May 2, 2018 at 6:15pm

Hi there! I actually do marketing, not recruiting. Prime Financial Recruiting is one of my clients. Bear with me a bit here...

So we ran an ad on Facebook and got over (roughly) 12,000 hits, according to Facebook. Expensive! However, Google Analytics showed only (roughly) 1,200 came to the website from Facebook. Why the difference? That's a pretty big difference! Advertising on LinkedIn, GoogleAds, and Twitter did not have such a significant difference. Instagram -- owned by Facebook -- ad the same ratio. Different clients, still same ratio. I did some digging and even contacted these platforms for an explanation. Facebook/Instagram declined to comment.

Google is really good at catching bots. If you run a Google ad, it even shows you how many bots it caught. If a bot is identified after you paid for it, it notifies you and you can request a refund. Spiffy! Now, on the ones that come through, you can see where they came from. They spend less than a second on the website, and they all come from the same area, usually a foreign country (even though my ads are targeted to US only). They have no gender, no age, no browser, nothing that can be tracked except location.

When I ran the issue by other marketers, they confirmed it: none of them use Facebook for advertising unless their clients push for it and ignore their advice. I can't post their names without permission (plus, I don't want to advertise for a competitor!) but here's a screenshot.

Notice how there's no language, they're all unique users, only one session each, and they all managed to not be on the page for even a second. The odds of these being real people are slim to none. 

If you do an internet search, you can find a number of people complaining about it. 

While you can use Facebook ads and reach people, I caution against it. That is up to the individual, though.

Comment by Tanya Williams on May 2, 2018 at 6:28pm

thanks for your detailed response Sara :-)

Totally hear you and not denying that was your experience with that campaign at all - very interesting campaign response. Bots can impact any campaign, not just Facebook. Now I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook and LinkedIn. I see the pro's and cons for each as I am sure you do too, however, my overall experience has been different to yours and as mentioned, a lot of factors go into running successful Facebook ad campaigns.

I don't suggest to my clients that they put all their $$ into Facebook ads - far from it - but using them strategically can drive positive results as well as awareness for their brand into new markets. 

Appreciate the conversation and as you say everyone has different experiences. I am not trying to convert you to my way of thinking :-) however my experience is different to yours so I accept what you have experienced but I will disagree that they should not be part of the marketing mix for recruiters. But that is cool and fine we have different opinions right? Many marketers do, based on their own experiences

Have a great day - I am off to a client meeting 

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