Advertising on Facebook is simple enough. It is in Facebook’s interest to make it easy. Whether it is in your interest to advertise on Facebook and to accept their advice might be a different thing.
This book can help in one way or another. It won’t necessarily assist you to determine whether Facebook is an effective advertising platform, despite its size, and there are many people who have contrary views. The authors, however, do agree that you need to really focus on your most profitable audiences on Facebook and seek to show you how to reach them, convert them and get them enthused about your company.
The style and approach of this book just didn’t appeal. It could be one of those Pepsi versus Coke moments. It just felt a bit too noisy, too gimmicky, too much in-your-face and the core message just seemed to get lost. Fortunately the book is not so expensive so if you perceive a need for it, you could probably still get a fair bit out of it even if you ended up skim reading and ignoring the fluff. It only takes one good idea or point taken out…
In its defence, the reader is given a step-by-step, highly illustrated guide to advertising on Facebook so it is literally a point-click-advertise approach. If you persevere and dig through the text you will inevitably learn new strategies, new approaches and a host of companies who can help you achieve your goal. There is a lot of material but it feels a bit of a scattergun approach. Throw enough ideas and information at the reader and hope something sticks. The book failed to really take a hard look at whether Facebook advertising is for you. Maybe that is publishing suicide? Buy this guide to Facebook advertising and we’ll show you you’ve wasted your money. Hmm…
Yet seriously there could have been a bit more of a focussed look at the effectiveness of Facebook advertising, steering the reader to the better parts. The book’s sheer size is a problem too - a case of more is less. Not everything is bad, it is just that not everything is excellent. It is an interesting, above-average book but not stellar. It has potential but it needs a strong refocus, especially if it is to be the “ultimate guide” that it aspires to.
Ultimate Guide to Facebook Advertising, written by Perry Marshall, Keith Krance and Thomas Meloche and published by Entrepreneur Media Inc. ISBN 9781599185460, 268 pages. YYY