Facebook Advertising: What I love & What I Hate

So, here it is 10:41 am on a Wednesday morning. I have a client who is doing Facebook advertising, and like many clients, is a) spending quite a bit of money, and b) very keen to know if the ads are working - reaching the right folks, running at the right time, and generating the results anticipated.
Facebook advertising, like Google advertising, is complex. It is "powerful," in that you can do many amazing things with Facebook advertising.

Why I love Facebook Advertising

Here are a few reasons why I love Facebook advertising - 

• Targeting, targeting, targeting. Facebook knows a lot about its users, so you can target women vs. men, Bay Area people vs. folks in Tulsa, Oklahoma, lovers of the Oakland A's vs. lovers of the St. Louis cardinals, folks who like Whole Foods vs. folks who like Costco, etc., etc.
• Employee / Competitor targeting - you can even target people who WORK at a particular company (not to mention of course competitors and their "fans" on Facebook) or folks who LIKE your competitor's Page on Facebook. Steal some employees or customers, anyone?
• Browse, browse, browse - people are in "browse" mode on Facebook, so you can get them when they are not pro-actively looking (vs. on Google), which is great for new products, novel products, etc. Plus they can SHARE your ads, meaning ads can get a share/ viral lift.

Yeah Facebook!  It's advertising system is great!!!!!!

Why I Hate Facebook Tech Support

However, Facebook - a multi-BILLION dollar company - founded on ADVERTISING treats its advertisers like proverbial poop. How so? Here are some reasons why I hate Facebook tech support:

• No phone number. Zero, zilch, nada. You can NOT call into Facebook and talk with a real person (or at least not easily). I mean really Facebook - you are too CHEAP to hire people to answer the phone and help your CUSTOMERS??????????
• Not the brightest bulbs in the box. Those that work in the "chat" department do not seem to be very smart, or at least not very well informed on how Facebook ads work, so their "help" is worth little more than the really pathetic Facebook advertising help files.
• Time, time, time.  I am literally writing this WHILE CHATTING with a Facebook advertising tech support rep.  He / she is sooooooooo slow to respond that can a) write a blog post, b) update myself on news around the world, c) cut my toenails, d) watch my tomatoes grow, e) play with my dog outside, check the chat message, go outside, play with my dog again, check the chat message. (A 10 minute phone call becomes a 50 minute chat session).

So, in conclusion, Facebook ads are very powerful, and can do many, many wonderful things for your marketing. But Facebook in its no good, horrible, what's totally wrong with American corporations these days way has clearly "outsourced" their tech support to fill-in-the-blank Third World country, and is too cheap to actually hire people to actually answer the phone and help you.

Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads: Score One for Facebook

Google did this for a while, too, and then finally wised up to the fact that even a quasi-monopoly like Google or Facebook could do a lot better than to treat their CUSTOMERS like poo-poo. Get a phone Facebook get a phone!

(Oh and yes, I am getting an image, posting this to LinkedIn Pulse, cross-posting to my blog, and sharing on Social Media... all while STILL chatting with a very very very very very very sloooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww rep at Facebook tech support).