CitrusKiwi's Phoenix AZ web design log

Is FB advertising dead

  • Last updated: January 21 2025 10:31
  • Created: May 19 2012 07:40
  • 2 min read
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Was it ever alive?  I think we can easily answer, "Yes" to the second question.  But why would I ever even consider it is dead?  Recent changes by FB have annoyed many users (and undoubtedly pleased others) myself included.  I like to think I'm pretty tech savvy, but I just don't get FB's new "timeline" layout.  IMHO, they've taken something good and fixed it to broken.  If users are unhappy, you can bet advertisers are hearing the fallout.

This week, car giant GM pulled $10 million in ads from Facebook.  Just a few days later FB was valued at $106 billion - now $10 mil seems pretty inconsequntial.  However, if one giant has seen fit to do this, you can bet others are looking hard at FB's ad model.  Interestingly, GM issued a statement on it's corporate FB pages that hey are still on FB, "like" alll their fans back, and will increase information via FB over the coming months.

So is advertising on FB really that bad?  Studies have shown the click through rate on ads to be a dismal 0.0051% or about 1 in 2000!  Compare this to a CTR on Google Adwords (no friends of mine BTW) of about 0.7 - 1.5%, and you'll see that the ROI for FB is horrible.

Mark Zuckerberg has said, "Facebook was not originally created to be a company ... We don't build services to make money; we make money to build better services."  Many have foreseen a move by FB to start charging for business pages, which would fit in with Zuckerberg's philosophy.  Facebook advertising in it's current form of clickable ads will likely never truly die, but watch out for the pitch out of left field for those with business fan pages.  Facebook advertising is not dead, just looking for an additional way to make money off you!

Authors

Ian Shere

Ian has been in the web design world since the early 2000s. At that time, he was living in New Zealand and was operating a successful architectural design business that won a number of awards. He was an early adopter of web-based marketing for the business, and after having a local designer unsuccessfully complete a website for him, Ian took it upon himself to learn HTML and launch his own site.

25 years of web designing

The first iteration of the site appeared on April 1, 2001 (and it wasn't an April Fool's joke!), meaning Ian has been designing websites for over 25 years.

Web design in the early 2000s was pretty crude by today's standards. Basic HTML and hard-to-manage layouts made building and managing websites tough going. One positive was that, with the advent of an internet-connected phone in everyone's pocket still a few years away, no allowance had to be made to design for mobile-friendliness. How times change.... And there have been changes aplenty! As mentioned, mobile-friendliness isn't a nice-to-have; it's a critical part of the overall web design process. Back then. SEO didn't exist! With so few companies existing on the web, anyone with a presence, no matter how bad, was front-and-center.

When Ian moved to America in 2009, he'd had a fill of architecture and dealing with city processors and planners, and was looking for a new challenge. He naturally transitioned into website design, having already been in that world for 8 years, and, in early 2010, he and his wife set up CitrusKiwi Web Solutions. The name comes from his wife being a Californian girl (hence the Citrus part), and Ian is from New Zealand, where residents are called Kisis (after the national bird).

CitrusKiwi Web Solutions founded 2010

For over 15 years, CitrusKiwi Web Solutions has been providing cutting-edge web design and hosting solutions to America and around the world!

Since its foundation, CitrusKiwi has delivered quality website design to a range of business industries, from the trades to aviation, to legal and non-profit organisations. When they set up CitrusKiwi, Ian and his wife looked to bring website design to every business, regardless of size, with a particular emphasis on small businesses and non-profits. They were also one of the first design houses to offer a monthly subscription model to enable even more businesses to benefit from fully-managed websites.

As the senior web designer, Ian has personally overseen hundreds of websites, from building and redesigning to hosting, SEO, and more. He has kept pace with the changes in the industry, always learning and reinventing how CitrusKiwi meets the current challenges and opportunities that are available in the marketplace. Whether it's utilizing new technologies like responsive web design or carefully using AI and Large Language Models to enhance client websites, Ian is constantly researching new methods and technology to give their clients the very best in website design.