Facebook Advertising does NOT work!

I’m truly fed up with facebook advertising, it DOESN’T work!! This is now the THIRD time we organised events through facebook, countless people say they will attend, none actually show! It’s a bloody joke!

Everyone must think its some virtual event they are saying YES too… To give you an example; http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=114830651891975
more than 20 people said they would attend, none did.

OK, I also just discovered that the link for the event is only accessible by me, or maybe when logged in, not sure!?!?

Have a look at the two screen shots below, take note of the URL, pretty much the same in each browser, only difference being is that in one I’m logged in, and the other I’m logged out. Pretty bad usability from facebook, you would expect to be able to copy and paste a URL and send it someone else to share, if they need to be logged in to view that should be the message, not a 404… Facebook sucks…

Facebook event logged in

What I do know is, I’m done wasting my time organising something through facebook unless it’s something people actually don’t have to physically show up for

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Personal Trainer Advertising and Marketing

Just launched a site for personal trainer advertising and marketing, clickfind integration will soon be completed, for now it will allow posting of:

• fitness events
• health and fitness jobs
• discussion of personal training
• free pt ads
• discussion on personal training software

The URL is http://www.personaltraineradvertising.com/forum/

What is utm? utm_

UTM stands for Urchin Traffic Monitor and is originally part of Urchin 4, and was specifically designed to provide the most accurate measurements of unique website visitors. For businesses looking to get a deeper understanding of their online visitor behavior.

http://www.google.com/support/urchin45/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=28710

This extra information appears in the Google Analytics reports under Traffic Sources.

Campaign Source (utm_source)	Required. Use utm_source to identify a search engine, newsletter name or other source. Example: utm_source=google
Campaign Medium (utm_medium)	Required. Use utm_medium to identify a medium such as email or cost-per- click. Example: utm_medium=cpc
Campaign Term (utm_term)	Used for paid search. Use utm_term to note the keywords for this ad. Example: utm_term=running+shoes
Campaign Content (utm_content)	Used for A/B testing and content-targeted ads. Use utm_content to differentiate between ads or links that point to the same URL. Examples: utm_content=logolink or utm_content=textlink
Campaign Name (utm_campaign)	Used for keyword analysis. Use utm_campaign to identify a specific product promotion or strategic campaign. Example: utm_campaign=spring_sale

Following is a ColdFusion CFC to get the values passed in the URM variables.

<cfcomponent
 displayname="UrchinTrafficMonitor"
 hint=""
 output="false"
 author="Taco Fleur (taco.fleur@clickfind.com.au)"
 version="1">

 <!--- Set instance variables --->
 <cfscript>
 variables.instance.referrer = "";
 variables.instance.campaignSource = ""; // referrer: google, citysearch, newsletter4
 variables.instance.campaignMedium = ""; // marketing medium: cpc, banner, email
 variables.instance.campaignTerm = ""; // identify the paid keywords
 variables.instance.campaignContent = ""; // use to differentiate ads
 variables.instance.campaignName = ""; // product, promo code or slogan
 </cfscript>

 <cffunction
 access="public"
 name="init"
 output="false"
 returntype="UrchinTrafficMonitor">

 <cfargument
 name="referrer"
 type="string"
 required="yes">

 <cfscript>
 setReferrer( arguments.referrer );
 doInitialize();
 return this;
 </cfscript>

 </cffunction>

 <cffunction
 access="public"
 name="setReferrer"
 output="false"
 returntype="void">

 <cfargument
 name="referrer"
 required="yes"
 type="string">

 <cfscript>
 variables.instance.referrer = arguments.referrer;
 </cfscript>

 </cffunction>

 <cffunction
 access="public"
 name="getReferrer"
 output="false"
 returntype="string">

 <cfscript>
 return variables.instance.referrer;
 </cfscript>

 </cffunction>

 <cffunction
 access="public"
 name="setCampaignSource"
 output="false"
 returntype="void">

 <cfargument
 name="campaignSource"
 required="yes"
 type="string">

 <cfscript>
 variables.instance.campaignSource = arguments.campaignSource;
 </cfscript>

 </cffunction>

 <cffunction
 access="public"
 name="getCampaignSource"
 output="false"
 returntype="string">

 <cfscript>
 return variables.instance.campaignSource;
 </cfscript>

 </cffunction>

 <cffunction
 access="public"
 name="setCampaignMedium"
 output="false"
 returntype="void">

 <cfargument
 name="campaignMedium"
 required="yes"
 type="string">

 <cfscript>
 variables.instance.campaignMedium = arguments.campaignMedium;
 </cfscript>

 </cffunction>

 <cffunction
 access="public"
 name="getCampaignMedium"
 output="false"
 returntype="string">

 <cfscript>
 return variables.instance.campaignMedium;
 </cfscript>

 </cffunction>

 <cffunction
 access="public"
 name="setCampaignTerm"
 output="false"
 returntype="void">

 <cfargument
 name="campaignTerm"
 required="yes"
 type="string">

 <cfscript>
 variables.instance.campaignTerm = arguments.campaignTerm;
 </cfscript>

 </cffunction>

 <cffunction
 access="public"
 name="getCampaignTerm"
 output="false"
 returntype="string">

 <cfscript>
 return variables.instance.campaignTerm;
 </cfscript>

 </cffunction>

 <cffunction
 access="public"
 name="setCampaignContent"
 output="false"
 returntype="void">

 <cfargument
 name="campaignContent"
 required="yes"
 type="string">

 <cfscript>
 variables.instance.campaignContent = arguments.campaignContent;
 </cfscript>

 </cffunction>

 <cffunction
 access="public"
 name="getCampaignContent"
 output="false"
 returntype="string">

 <cfscript>
 return variables.instance.campaignContent;
 </cfscript>

 </cffunction>

 <cffunction
 access="public"
 name="setCampaignName"
 output="false"
 returntype="void">

 <cfargument
 name="campaignName"
 required="yes"
 type="string">

 <cfscript>
 variables.instance.campaignName = arguments.campaignName;
 </cfscript>

 </cffunction>

 <cffunction
 access="public"
 name="getCampaignName"
 output="false"
 returntype="string">

 <cfscript>
 return variables.instance.campaignName;
 </cfscript>

 </cffunction>

 <cffunction
 access="private"
 name="doInitialize"
 output="false"
 returntype="void">

 <cfscript>
 variables.queryString = listLast( getReferrer(), "?" );
 variables.url = structNew();
 </cfscript>
 <cfloop
 index="item"
 list="#variables.queryString#"
 delimiters="&">
 <cfscript>
 variables.key = listFirst( item, "=" );
 variables.value = listLast( item, "=" );
 if ( not structKeyExists( variables.url, variables.key ) ) {
 structInsert( variables.url, variables.key, urlDecode( variables.value ) );
 }
 else {
 listAppend( variables.url[ variables.key], urlDecode( variables.value ) );
 }
 </cfscript>
 </cfloop>

 <cfscript>
 if ( structKeyExists( variables.url, "utm_source" ) ) {
 setCampaignSource( variables.url[ "utm_source" ] );
 }
 if ( structKeyExists( variables.url, "utm_medium" ) ) {
 setCampaignMedium( variables.url[ "utm_medium" ] );
 }
 if ( structKeyExists( variables.url, "utm_term" ) ) {
 setCampaignTerm( variables.url[ "utm_term" ] );
 }
 if ( structKeyExists( variables.url, "utm_content" ) ) {
 setCampaignContent( variables.url[ "utm_content" ] );
 }
 if ( structKeyExists( variables.url, "utm_campaign" ) ) {
 setCampaignName( variables.url[ "utm_campaign" ] );
 }
 </cfscript>

 </cffunction>

</cfcomponent>

Code to call the CFC.

<cfscript>
 variables.UrchinTrafficMonitor = createObject( "component", "UrchinTrafficMonitor" ).init( referrer = "http://www.clickfind.com.au/?utm_source=clickfind&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=advertising&utm_content=ad1&utm_campaign=online+promo");
</cfscript>
<cfdump var="#variables.UrchinTrafficMonitor.getCampaignMedium()#">
<cfabort>

Source
Every referral to a web site has an origin, or source. Examples of sources are the Google search engine, the AOL search engine, the name of a newsletter, or the name of a referring web site.

Medium
The medium helps to qualify the source; together, the source and medium provide specific information about the origin of a referral. For example, in the case of a Google search engine source, the medium might be “cost-per-click”, indicating a sponsored link for which the advertiser paid, or “organic”, indicating a link in the unpaid search engine results. In the case of a newsletter source, examples of medium include “email” and “print”.

Term
The term or keyword is the word or phrase that a user types into a search engine.

Content
The content dimension describes the version of an advertisement on which a visitor clicked. It is used in content-targeted advertising and Content (A/B) Testing to determine which version of an advertisement is most effective at attracting profitable leads.

Campaign
The campaign dimension differentiates product promotions such as “Spring Ski Sale” or slogan campaigns such as “Get Fit For Summer”.

Truelocal Advertising

I figured I’d try advertising on Truelocal and get some extra traffic. Boy, how hard is it to just get a simple price!? I get phone calls from them non stop, very aggressive sales team, they don’t get the message or don’t want to get the message. I’m a busy person, I don’t want any fluff, just give me a cost on how much to list my business. I’m thinking they don’t have one, they make it up as they go along

Australian Online Search and Directories Advertising Market

Australian Online Search and Directories Advertising Market 2009 -2013 Summary.

This report is a multi-client study produced by Frost & Sullivan’s ICT Practice in Australia during September to November 2009 and published December 2009.

Brisbane SEO

Pacific Fox a Business associated with clickfind and Commerce Engine is entering the SEO arena in Brisbane.

ClixGalore Affiliate Marketing, www.clixgalore.com.au – www.clixgalore.com

If you are thinking about using ClixGalore for your affiliate marketing – don’t! We used ClixGalore Affiliate Marketing both for Advertising and to generate extra revenue.

Facebook advertising

We’ve been advertising online on facebook for a while and have been seriously disappointed with the results so far. Just wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same results?

Taking the web statistics for this month

facebook.com
20 visits
Avg. time on site: 00:00:00
100% new visits
100% bounce rate

Nowhere else in our statistics have we got a bounce rate of 100% or average time on site of zero, and I mean nowhere. It almost feels as if these are automated visits.

Would love to hear from others out there using facebook for advertising?