Facebook® for Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Chapter 15. Facebook: A New Kind of Advertising

In This Chapter

• Understanding the key difference between good and bad advertising

• Touring Facebook's advertising solution

• Improving your return on advertising investment by managing your ads

There are two kinds of people in America: those who watch the Super Bowl and those who watch the Super Bowl commercials. It's odd that, for a few hours every year, most of us actually seek out advertising, while the rest of the year we resent it. We fast-forward commercials, we change radio stations, we chuckle at the occasional billboard (but mostly we complain about how they ruin the skyline). What's the cause for prejudice? Is advertising inherently evil?

If you're someone who runs a business or is responsible for driving customers to a business, you know the answer is No. Advertisers have no malicious intent (usually), and they're not out to annoy, distract, or interrupt us. They simply have a product or service that they believe could improve our lives, if we only knew about it. So they tell us. They tell us three minutes before the end of our favorite TV shows; they tell us with their tee-shirt logos, hood ornaments, and catchy jingles; they stand on the corner with signs that read Lemonade 5 cents. And if one person among us responds well to an advertiser's particular message, that advertiser has no problem yelling across an entire crowded room to make sure that person hears it.

Realizing How Advertising Has Improved

Yelling across a crowded room ...