Check out our newest Facebook ad. We're just sort of guessing at this point Lingua is all up in the Ghetto by MoxyLava, on Flickr
I've been in the advertising business for 30 years, and I have to tell you, seriously: that's not an ad. There's no message, no promise, no call to action... hell you can't even read the one word of copy! "Lingua?" Is that what it says? It'd be marginally okay if the word was a world-famous logo that needed no explanation, like Coke or Levi's. But nobody has ever heard of you... even if they could read "Lingua," there's no explanation of what that means. If you're going to guess, at least guess along standard advertising lines. Don't try to get all Wieden+Kennedy on it. Also, Facebook advertising? You might as well burn the money. If you were just kidding, then ignore this message.
Hehe we are just trying all kinds of different things. This is not our only ad on FB, and the budget is not high. The call to action is in the text beside the ad in this case. FB clickthroughs are pretty abysmal from what we've seen, which jives with what a lot of people are saying. I think users on FB are so used to seeing ads that they almost become invisible. They certainly have become that way for me. I have never clicked on a FaceBook ad. Our AdMob ads get a lot more clicks, but neither seem to be resulting in any extra sales. We're just getting our feet wet with this whole marketing thing. It's tough for us devs to shift into that kind of mindset. It's a whole different world than programming and requires a completely different set of skills ...
I agree, it is worth any developer at least throwing *something* up on Facebook ads just to see 1st-hand the result. Yes it is a waste of money, but it is worth it to just get a sense of the process (and the reach that it can get you). If you plan to do it "for real," then you better have some serious money on hand - also do a lot of homework about advertising in general, and FB advertising specifically. Simplest way to start is looking at how existing ads are set up (in all manners), particularly ones that look like what you are trying to sell. When I tested, I put up a few "Descriptive ads" that got no clicks. When I simply wrote something like "[x amount] of people play this" I got WAY more clicks. Stuff to keep in mind.
If you're just experimenting, I would do one with an attractive girl too. Not to say the gentleman there isn't a handsome man in that kidrock-sorta-way. =P
That is very interesting. I understand why nobody reads - we are all so inundated with email and texts and all the crap on the 'net we deal with daily. I think it's important to get your point across without much, if any text at all. I like the psychology of this as well - kind of feeds into our impulse for "me too" sort of thinking ...