Avoid Facebook Advertising!

[Mr.RichardBanks]

**Clarification** This post relates to running campaigns for PAGE LIKES, not post boosts. **

Hi all, so I thought I'd give some advice for March 2018 as the click farm epidemic is still rampant on Facebook.
So I spent over 100 in ads budget over the weekend for Facebook likes and to my disgust... fakes.
Upon review of the profiles, they all look the part but there's a twist... they each like 1000+ pages and do not engage in anything I post.
This will clog up your page with 0 user engagement, therefore rendering the posts irrelevant and not appearing in the news feeds of relevant and actual likes.
I have contacted Facebook letting them know of my issue and demanded a refund though I doubt it would happen.
I realize there are other posts of similar nature, this is more of a 'this is still going on in case anyone was wondering' type of post.
Best regards

RB.

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Update: I sent them a message they simply couldn't argue about and ended up giving me 40 Euro in credit which is better than a kick in the teeth I guess.
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UPDATE 2 -

So I did a deep dive into all the accounts that clicked like after a quick 40 quid campaign, I got a total of 34 page likes - 28 of them were click farms and 3 of them were a 'maybe' with 3 others that I'd consider probably real.
40 pounds for 3 likes who probably won't even see my posts because the page is clogged with fakes.

Some signs I got to notice.
They mostly have a thing for cats and Jesus.
Some of them support Manchester United AND Arsenal at the same time... Yea, Right.
2 of them sent me the exact same message saying "hi what's the price of an event" ... mate I do slots bonuses, what you on about?

Typical demographic: average lads and lasses from working class backgrounds like myself so it's easy to recognise.. Except I got some 65+ year old Brits who also seem to like Al Jazeera and other pages in Arabic? and some random pages from Bangladesh... Not the standard behaviour for your typical Darren and Sharon from the pub. (no offence, I'm one of them).
They look real and this is what baffles me. all except for 3 had more than 1 photo, same surnames matched while browsing their friends list.
comments to and from on their posts etc... Look guys I'm not a creepy stalker, I'm just trying to make sure I'm not being ripped off which sadly I am!

Upon review of other posts here, it seems post boosts are somewhat successful but DO NOT invest in page likes, it will damage your brand and minimise your exposure.

https://ibb.co/cUEr2x I took a pic of my list

If anyone has been in a similar situation or is planning on something like this, I hope this post will save you money.

There's a well known video on Youtube that explains exactly what I went through, if only I'd have watched it first.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=oVfHeWTKjag


Best regards,

Richard Banks
www.winthespins.com

[Scampi]

Do you mean lots of fake accounts clicked your ads, using up your budget? I've actually not experienced that before, maybe I'm lucky? I tend to boost posts which does ok, even on a low ad budget.

[Mr.RichardBanks]

ok to clarify, setting ads to get page likes.
I check 1 by 1, the profiles (most of them) even look like real people, your average footie lads that would be into slots etc... this was all well and good until I deep dived and saw that they like a totally unrealistic number of pages, not being funny but some old boy from Durham, UK liking some video rental shop in Bangladesh for example... doesn't seem too legit to me.

[RacingJim]

I guess this is the inevitable end game of the over-commercialisation of the Facebook 'idea'.

[Mr.RichardBanks]

I get that but why fakes? I mean it makes no sense whatsoever unless FB themselves are hiring clickfarms

[JamieG1981]

Got to say we have used Facebooks Ads quite a lot and have had decent results.

However never have run a campaign for page likes. Agree with what you say gettimg any human response from Facebook will be difficult.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

[TimTiro]

maybe check where you're geo-targeting your ads? Could be the issue.

[Mr.RichardBanks]

Update: I sent them a message they simply couldn't argue about and ended up giving me 40 Euro in credit which is better than a kick in the teeth I guess.
You know I find there's something quite incredible about GPWA, we're all 'competitors' yet nobody seems to have a problem assisting the next person.
I've been a silent spectator on here for quite a long time and decided to finally join a month or 2 ago in order to participate and to vent like the rest :P

[universal4]

Fakebook should have been limited to a single account for EVERYONE from the very beginning, but was not. They will likely never be able to fix the problem and it will only continue to worsen.

Rick
Universal4

[Mr.RichardBanks]

Ok I've come across this video and apparently it's quite well known, if only I had watched it sooner. This is EXACTLY what I'm going through.
I should have just posted a link to it lol.
Check out this guy and see what he says, the only difference is that I was targeting UK, Canada, NZ, and the Nordics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=oVfHeWTKjag

I'd be interested in your reply if you get round to watching.

[Renee]

**Clarification** This post relates to running campaigns for PAGE LIKES, not post boosts. **

Hi all, so I thought I'd give some advice for March 2018 as the click farm epidemic is still rampant on Facebook.

So I spent over 100 in ads budget over the weekend for Facebook likes and to my disgust... fakes.

Upon review of the profiles, they all look the part but there's a twist... they each like 1000+ pages and do not engage in anything I post.

This will clog up your page with 0 user engagement, therefore rendering the posts irrelevant and not appearing in the news feeds of relevant and actual likes.

I have contacted Facebook letting them know of my issue and demanded a refund though I doubt it would happen.

I realize there are other posts of similar nature, this is more of a 'this is still going on in case anyone was wondering' type of post.

Best regards

RB.

ok to clarify, setting ads to get page likes.
I check 1 by 1, the profiles (most of them) even look like real people, your average footie lads that would be into slots etc... this was all well and good until I deep dived and saw that they like a totally unrealistic number of pages, not being funny but some old boy from Durham, UK liking some video rental shop in Bangladesh for example... doesn't seem too legit to me.

The people liking your page are getting paid to like it, so that's all they will do. They are not getting boosted ads for what they are interested in or anything. If you go and look at the thread about twitter where instagram is mentioned, it's the same thing - it's how the high profile body builders and fitness personalities look like they have so many followers - because they buy them. Paying for "likes" is not what you should be doing. You should be paying for ads, or boosting your posts or page.

[Mr.RichardBanks]

I get what you mean. I was just so disappointed that I was paying for likes the 'legit' way through Facebook, heck I've seen some pages advertised on the right hand side that I myself have even liked, why would such a big company with such a big crowd base need to pay others to do it, I can't get my head round it. I will follow your advice. Thank you so much!

[Mr.RichardBanks]

UPDATE 2 -

So I did a deep dive into all the accounts that clicked like after a quick 40 Euro campaign, I got a total of 34 page likes - 28 of them were click farms
Some signs I got to notice.
They mostly have a thing for cats and Jesus.
Some of them support Manchester United AND Arsenal at the same time
Typical demographic: average lads and lasses from working class backgrounds like myself so easy to recognize.. Except I got some 65+ year old Brits who also seem to like Al Jazeera and other pages in Arabic? and some random pages from Bangladesh... Not the standard behaviour for your typical Darren and Sharon from the pub. (no offence, I'm one of them).

Upon review of other posts here, it seems post boosts are somewhat successful but DO NOT invest in page likes, it will damage your brand and minimise your exposure.

https://ibb.co/cUEr2x I took a pic of my list