Facebook Ads vs Google Adwords

I am the owner of TrueWickless.com and for the past few months, I have been advertising online through Facebook and Google Adwords. Our Facebook Fan Page Facebook.com/TrueWickless currently has 41 fans. We have another fan page that has over 200 fans, but due to a name change, we had to open a new fan page on Facebook.

Now with this being said, since we opened up a fan page on Facebook, we have received only a small handful of clicks through Facebook. We track all views through Google Analytics at this time, and we love it because it is extremely accurate.

We spend no more than $1.00 per click on Facebook and no more than $1.50 on Google Adwords. Why the difference? The difference is because Google Adwords likes to make money, and so they charge an arm and a leg to advertise.

None of the clicks that have come from our Facebook fan page have resulted in a single sale, while just a small percentage of clicks from Google Adwords has resulted in sales.

So is it worth it? At this point, I do not really know. We sell Scentsy Wickless Flameless candles, perfumes and other items. The profit margin for us at this time is only 25% and what we spend on advertising, we usually recoup through sales.

This month has not been the case, however. We have not had a single sale from either Facebook or Google Adwords. Oh, yes. People DO click through on Google Adwords, and people DO become fans of our Facebook page, but no one is buying anything.

I check my analytics and my adwords accounts several times daily to see if I have received any clicks. I can tell you, that in this economy, it is extremely painful to see people click through to your website, take a look at 13 or 14 pages, and just leave.

It is heartbreaking to say the least, because it costs me around a dollar for people to view my website. I also know they are not bookmarking it so they can return later. All I can hope for is that they either remember the site when they are ready to buy (This is never the case), that they bookmarked us (Who goes back to their bookmarks anyway?) or that they see my next ad the next day or a week later, and say "oh yeah! I was going to buy that!", in which case, it just cost me another $1 for them to return.

Breaking even is the name of the game right now. It is what I hope for, and it is what I have been getting. Of course, except this month when I am actually down a huge percentage.

I have found a new respect for people and businesses that are trying to make it online. I have gotten to the point where I do not click their ads, but rather look at their web address on the ad, and type it into the address bar on my own, so I will not cost anyone any money by clicking on something I may not purchase.

I'm not saying stop clicking on the ads either. That's not the point, but if you want to save a business owner (who may just be starting up their business) a dollar or two, just type in their business web address in yourself at the top on the address bar.

Take today for instance. It is 11:51 AM CDT and I have exhausted my Google Adwords budget of $5.00 for the day. Sure, I could lower it to as little as $0.15 per click if I really wanted to. I could go down to 5 cents even. The problem with this, is that Google wants to make money and they will not show your ads because there are always others bidding higher than you. So, they go where the money is. Can you blame them? I don't. They don't make it cheap for advertisers though.

One would think that $1.00 is not much to gain a customer, and truthfully, it's not. The truth is that customers cost a lot more than that. So far, my customers cost me an average of $10 each. When my commissions are barely that per sale, it is heart breaking.

What I am counting on though, is repeat business. I won't have to advertise to my existing customers anymore. Not through Google Adwords anyway. I now have their email address and can market to them direct.

So is it worth it? As I said before, I do not know.... Yet.

I do know that so far, Facebook is not worth it. But maybe it is because of the low volume of fans that we have on our page. Maybe if we had 40,000 fans it would be worth it, but not at a mere 41 fans.

Is Google Adwords worth it? Yes and no. I have not received repeat orders yet. I have to wait a few more months to see if that will work out. Our scented wax lasts forever. It's one of the perks of buying Scentsy products. They last longer than your average run of the mill candle. That's a bit of my downfall as well. My products are too good and last too long. So my formula says that I need tons of customers acquired at different times to make this work.

If you have any ideas or advice for me, it is always welcome. If you are thinking about advertising. Then it is the best idea you have had so far. The biggest mistake most business owners make, when times are tough, is to cut their ad budget. This is usually a killer, but a topic for a different post.