Facebook "Boost"

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Facebook "Boost"

Posted by TomFulp - May 1st, 2014

Despite having seen this video:

We were curious to see just what would happen if we boosted a Facebook post. We decided to boost this Newgrounds game teaser post from Pico Day because it already had over 200 likes and spreads visibility of NG characters. I selected the option to promote this post to our fans and their friends (disclaimer: we never do any weird stuff like buying traffic / Facebook fans, so presumably our existing Facebook fans are legit people). After submitting payment info, it informed me that our post would be promoted to the United States, United Kingdom and the Philippines... The Philippines? According to Google Analytics, the Philippines accounted for just 2% of NG's total traffic this past year, and we suspect many of them are the same people who spam our blogs every night with links to counterfeit goods.

I dug around Facebook analytics and our Facebook fans indeed consist of a surprising number of people from the Philippines.

The Philippines account for 6% of our 185k Facebook fans. I assume a lot of them are made-up people, but in a perfect world only 6% of our ad spend would go their way.

So we started yesterday afternoon with a budget of $200, got approved, and waited as our budget just sat there. It wasn't until the middle of the night that our budget started getting eaten away, ya know, when people from the Philippines are online. Today, our budget has been used up. Guess where almost 90% of it went?

PH - The Philippines! Just like the video warned, we likely gained a bunch of fake fans who will eat into our real fan distribution when we make future posts.

We were featured on almost 400k feeds for $200, that is roughly a $0.50cpm - $0.50 per 1000 views. That's a much higher cpm than a lot of the ads on NG and a considerable % of what NG made in revenue yesterday. Facebook is making a fortune because advertisers go there for "targeted advertising" but as far as I can tell, the target is straight into the toilet!

No disrespect intended to actual human fans in the Philippines, let me know if you're one of them!

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AliceMako 2014-05-01 17:54:44

So, how's it feel funding a sweatshop, cool beans no?

mickthepenguin 2014-05-01 18:03:12

Yeah just waste your money on facebook fucking shitty website for likes omfg

EctiBot 2014-05-01 18:07:39

Meh. Who needs facebook when u can chat with loads of fellow maniacs on newgrounds :D.

MSGhero 2014-05-01 18:19:17

Do it again but earlier in the US/EU day. Well...don't do it again, but if you could without wasting money.

Mockery 2014-05-01 18:33:26

Same reason why Facebook no longer shows page owners who recently liked their page. There used to be a little module for that on the pages, but now it's gone. If it were there, you'd be able to quickly see that the likes you paid for were fake users from click farms. It's really a shame how FB has screwed up the simple act of communicating with the audience you've already built up so badly.

TomFulp 2014-05-01 18:33:26

Really is frustrating that we've been sending front page traffic to Facebook for years now, only to have our fans held hostage behind a pay wall. I'll always question whether any of those social media links have been worth the front page space.

shadegrey 2014-05-01 18:40:54

I live in the Philippines but I don't use facebook.

Yep. There are a lot of people here making money working for chinese businesses through targeted advertising (spam). Far as I know they're called the "chinese water army." The number of offline job opportunities are basically nil. So many people work online as I do. Don't worry, I'm a content developer. I know someone who's a "water soldier" though, s'why I know about these things.

TomFulp 2014-05-01 18:40:54

Oh wow, I never heard that term before but if you search on it you get lots of articles on the subject. How much is your friend paid per week to be a water soldier? How does that compare to other jobs in the Philippines?

LoboF 2014-05-01 19:03:37

If you be able to prove you were a victim of Click fraud, you can get indemnified for it.

ToonCastleTV 2014-05-01 19:11:48

We paid to Promote "The Unexpected visitor" on the flashcartoons.org facebook page. The ad itself had 36,000 views, but just 50 video clicks. The post got 20 likes & every single outside "like" came from Mexico.

Gianni 2014-05-01 19:17:17

Ah good, I was just looking for a reason to keep drinking.

Kwing 2014-05-01 19:22:06

Oh daaaaamn

PsychoGoldfish 2014-05-01 19:35:36

Pfft, Tom's been running a sweatshop for years. We all get paid in counterfeit Nikes and expired tortillas.

steampianist 2014-05-01 20:06:34

Yeah.... im ashamed of my country.....

TomFulp 2014-05-01 20:06:34

It can happen in any country where the economics work, we get tons of spam from India and China too. Just unfortunate that people can sustain a business doing this sort of thing.

zerolink10 2014-05-01 20:17:49

its a good thing to know...
also, im rooting for u!!!
i shared the video on my FB page =D

BenTibbetts 2014-05-01 20:36:39

Disappointed!

AdachiShinobu 2014-05-01 21:14:24

What in grim's name is wrong with the net people from my country?!?!

IkuGames 2014-05-01 21:25:59

PinoyToons is in the Phillippines

squeakytoad 2014-05-01 21:49:42

Next time around, restrict your geotargeting to the US, UK, and any other nations where you know you have a substantial number of fans, restrict your language to English, and maybe even slap an age range on it that captures your demo. You'll still likely pay for some farm accounts but will likely reach far more real fans with your promoted post.

TomFulp 2014-05-01 21:49:42

You get specific controls like that when you select the option to "Choose people by targeting" but I had selected the option to promote to "People who like your page and their friends." As far as I could tell I was never given the option to remove the Philippines. The targeted option reaches about 1/3rd the number of people for the same price if you remove the Philippines, but still probably worth it compared to 90% Philippines.

Buko-Studios 2014-05-01 22:14:16

You surely do have plenty of real fans in the Philippines! Nonetheless a very interesting highlight and video link. Thanks for sharing!

We recently put up our facebook.com/BukoStudios ^_^
could be marginally more interesting than virtual cats.

TomFulp 2014-05-01 22:14:16

It's cool seeing all the real people from the Philippines responding. :)

Aprime 2014-05-01 22:39:27

Oh dear... at least next time [if you do it again] you could leave out Philippines :P

YoutubeIsawesome 2014-05-01 22:55:13

I didn't see it

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