Are MySpace and Facebook AdWords Worth the Money?

Foster Web Marketing is a full service web development company that helps attorneys all over the United States gain a real and practical web presence for their firms. We offer website design, content writing and management and search engine optimization. A website should be more than just a high priced electronic business card. It should be a crucial part of how you market your services to the public. If you feel that your website and your law firm needs more of a prominent presence on the internet, contact Foster Web Marketing for a free legal consultation today.

It seems that every search engine and every social networking site is offering a version of click to pay advertising ads. A lot of them are offered to small businesses with small budgets. But there seem to be some problems with the pay to click ads that exist on any of the websites.

One major problem with MySpace ads in general is that social networkers never click on the ads. People go on MySpace and chat and leave messages for their friends, or leave comments about the new pictures that they put up. What they rarely do is go to MySpace to look for a lawyer or plumber or carpenter for that matter.

Banner ads aren’t really much of an investment either, simply because we as computer users have become so used to them that despite whatever flashes, bells and whistles that are put on them, surfers don’t even notice them anymore. Banner click rates in the past ten years have dropped to about one tenth of one percent. That doesn’t seem to be a very wise investment. Nor does advertising on Facebook. According to one source, Facebook’s advertising click rate is a very paltry .04%. While there is certainly nothing wrong with setting up a profile on MySpace or Facebook that is all about you and your practice, working the banner or click to pay ad on those social sites doesn’t seem to be a good way to get a return on your investment.

Another problem with taking ads out on social networks is the layout of MySpace, Facebook and the like is, to put it mildly, atrocious. A good website has lots of white spaces, or with the layout organized in such a way that everything is easy to find. The layout on Facebook makes things extraordinarily difficult to find, while the layout on MySpace gives you the exact opposite problem. On MySpace it is difficult to find the advertising amidst all the razzle dazzle.

Another thing to consider is who your advertisement is targeting. With Google, Ask, Yahoo and other search engines, your pay to click ads will show be targeted to categories that the Google algorithms. So if someone types in “injury lawyer” or “plumber” or anything that is related to your business, then your ad will show up in a special, easily visible section on at the top of the results. With MySpace, there isn’t much targeting involved. Your ad might show up at the top of a gangster rapper, a bikini model, or some random thirteen year old in Arkansas. Can you see that particular advertising strategy benefiting your business?

The pricing also starts at twenty five cents a click, which is pretty high when you consider the lack of targeting, the low click rate, and the poor layout. Google AdWords is a much better advertising buy for the price. The layout makes sense and makes your ads easy to find, the click rate is astronomically higher, the targeting is both efficient and automatic, and most importantly, when people are using Google, they are in a mindset that involves searching. Someone who is on MySpace or Facebook or any other social networking site is probably not there to find a service. But when people want an attorney or a doctor or a dentist, they go to Google.

The mindset that “more is better” when it comes to advertising does not necessarily apply to the internet. You have plenty of opportunities to advertise on the internet, but advertising smart is both more effective and less expensive than advertising wherever and whenever you can.

At Foster Web Marketing, we bring another aspect to search engine advertising. We work on getting your website in a high position on Google in without spending your advertising dollars on AdWords. If you are interested in expanding the web presence of your law firm, contact Foster Web Marketing for a free consultation today.

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