Are Facebook Ads Worth It? Yes

Are Facebook ada worth it?

Yes I believe they are worth it, because they’re easy to set up and the targeting is really good. Facebook ads can target by gender, age, location, interests and then you can have the ad running on Facebook or on Instagram or on Facebook Messenger which are all owned by Facebook. You can choose your ad to be a video or an image, you can choose to place it in Instagram stories or Facebook stories, or just in the timeline of people. And because of the way the ads work, you’re guaranteed they’ll be seen.

Your ad is only seen by people that you’re targeting so you only get charged by the number of people that see it. You can pay a daily budget and close to 400 people 500 people or a few 1000 people could see it. All based on your budget. You can set a lifetime budget, which means that you can keep going for two weeks.

Once it runs out over those two weeks, it stops, once you set that. Those ads can direct people back to a Facebook page, or an Instagram page or you can get them to go to your website. I find the ads that work best are the ones that get people to click on the ad, and it brings them into a website where you’re selling something, or getting people to sign up to something. Video ads are very effective and what you obviously need is some of your own video content, and with video it means it starts playing in someone’s timeline and they start looking at that and if you have text in your video it means people will actually start reading that text, so they’ll pause maybe and start reading, and that gets them engaged.

So that’s a very good thing to do. And if you don’t have video content, you can just supply images and Facebook Instagram can turn those images into like a slideshow or a video or you can have multiple images and you can do a carousel, which means when people see the ad, they can swipe on that ad and see the next image. So, overall, I think it’s worth doing Facebook ads. And what you can do is because you can set your own budget you could actually set a budget to be just a euro for a campaign.

If you get a return on that, increase the budget and play around. I keep on using this phrase, fail fast, fail cheap. That idea actually works on Facebook and Instagram. The demographics on Facebook are probably people that are 40 Plus, which is still a couple of billion people and in Ireland, there’s two and a half million maybe on Facebook. On Instagram in Ireland, you have a couple of million and those people would be mostly under 40. In a way that demographic is ageing as well. The teenagers, they’re on Snapchat, and they’re on, Tik Tok.

So yes, do run ads on Facebook, try them. The Facebook ad system might be slightly complex to start with. If you find that is when you go into it, you could just start off by boosting posts on Facebook. Do a status update on Facebook from your business page and click on boost. From there it’s fairly simple, you put in your daily budget, how long it’s going to run for. You can choose targeting, age, location, gender, and interests. So start there. Start with a small budget, get a return from that. You can measure that return within 15 minutes of that starting to run. So go and enjoy playing around with those ads too.

Is Facebook going to end up buying Clubhouse?

Probably.

A16Z are investors in Clubhouse. Clubhouse gets valued at $100M. The PR and hype cycle begins. A16Z are powerhouses at coverage. Then Clubhouse gets valued at $1 billion.

A16Z invested in Qik. Marc Andreessen was on the board of Skype. Skype buys Qik. This is a common enough thing it seems.

Marc Andreessen is on the board of Facebook too. Zuckerberg comes on to Clubhouse for a chat.

Elon Musk big ups Clubhouse and joins a chat. Millions of more users join.

Then he gets Kanye involved.

Just agree to do Clubhouse with @kanyewest

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 10, 2021

The more users Clubhouse has, the more it can be sold for. It’s at the top of hype lists now. The value will go up as more celebs and tech bros join and the general population flows in. It’s standard for social networks to do that celeb catnip trick. Other tech firms know the Facebook connection too so that might spur them to buy it at an inflated price to block Facebook. This will be fun.

Domains and business ideas

.ie domains for sale or rent

I have far too many domains these days so I want to offload them. I have many of these for years for projects I never got to start/complete. Make me an offer. Or if you want to rent a domain for a year to see if it works for you, let me know. domains@mulley.ie With a few exceptions I’d be looking for €500 ex VAT min for a domain. Transfer fees are €70ish and I’ll cover those. Some of these domains I would want 4-5 figures for. Or you can buy them in bulk from me in 5s, 10s or all.

15% referral fee
15% fee if you intro a successful buyer of a domain to us.

000.ie
Handy short url for emails
0@000.ie

65.ie
This age is used as the start of a demographic. Older people in studies are classed as those over 65 for instance. Could be very handy for a research project.

75.ie
Bought this for myself as it is a very very easy domain and email address to remember.

More two letter domain names
2k.ie
52.ie
4b.ie

Countries
Andorra.ie
Luxembourg.ie
Bahamas.ie
Phillippiines.ie

Cork Domains
Shandon.ie
Mitchelstown.ie

Cities
Barcelona.ie
Edinburgh.ie

Dublin Domains
artane.ie
ashtown.ie
beaumount.ie
cabra.ie
coolock.ie
crumlin.ie
drumcondra.ie
inchicore.ie
santry.ie
terenure.ie
walkinstown.ie

acne.ie

abortionadvice.ie
abortions.ie
abortionservices.ie
abortionsupport.ie
abortioncounselling.ie
One of these blocking purchases. To prevent other orgs with an agenda from using it so spout crap about abortion and what a skewed view of what the bible says. A rogue agency used one of these domains too to ensnare vulnerable people.

Algorithms.ie
A conference in 2023 maybe?

artificialintelligence.ie
A one stop portal on AI/artificial intelligence in Ireland.

arranmore.ie<s/trong>

bears.ie
Gay culture, not forestry stuff.

brewing.ie
IPA fans?

brexit.ie
They got it done didn’t they?

butt.ie

carter.ie
Brand name for a future business. Named after Agent Carter.

Ceoil.ie
I just saw it expire and it’s a great short domain name with lots of potential.

ceos.ie
CEO forum type site. Events for CEOs and specific training courses.

children.ie
One of these blocking purchases. To prevent other orgs with an agenda from using it so spout crap about the family and what a skewed view of what the bible says.

company.ie
Nice and easy to remember. Handy for a portal for something.

conferences.ie
Conference organisers?

contraception.ie
Another one of these blocking purchases. To prevent other orgs with an agenda from using it so spout crap about the family and what a skewed view of what the bible says.

consultant.ie
A perfect domain name for a consultant in any kind of area.

cremations.ie
For those that work in this business.

cyberattack.ie
For IT Security stuff?

daddy.ie
Gay culture or if someone wants to buy it for like new dads or something.

december.ie
Tis the season

drag.ie
And the category is, domain purchasing realness.

entertainmentawards.net
entertainmentawards.tv
Another idea for an awards. Like People’s Choice Awards for the Irish Market. The existing entertainment awards are shite.

expertise.ie
The idea for this was a database of experts that the media could call upon for media/radio/tv interviews. People would put themselves forward and link to their media coverage.

facemasks.ie

FuckyouPayMe.ie
Cos I love the phrase.

gay.ie
Very. Not sure was this a porn site before. Ideally this would be an online resource for the Irish gay community or a historical repository.

grief.ie
I want to specialise in end of life, dying and death and all of these come with grief. Perhaps an online space for writing on this.

hunting.ie
Bought it to redirect it

independents.ie
For a political party grouping, maybe? Or just coverage of them.

kyl.ie
Kylie, this is perfect for you!

leather.ie
Gay culture? Be a good site for a leathersmith and leather products too.

LifeCoach.ie
As the name suggests. Nice and easy to remember domain for a Life Coach.

marriage.ie
After equal marriage came in, thought it would be best to nab this in case of the “not Adam and Steve” lot grabbed it.

maternity.ie
Future business. Will explain in due course. Lack of LGBT maternity options in Ireland, I would like to see that change.

mitchelstown.ie

mna.ie
Just thought it would be a good domain for feminist writings.

moneyAndJobs.ie
That’s what the media want to know, right? Perhaps a space that has media training and guides.

nightclasses.ie
Well there are 10s of 1000s of searches in Ireland for people wanting to know about nightclasses in Ireland. The competition is … not great.

norm.ie
Funny domain

NutritionCoach.ie
Coaching for everything

oncology.ie
Straight up good information and options for those with cancer.

oxford.ie
Bit like carter. For a future business that will grow out of MulleyComms. Simple to remember.

paediatrics.ie
Another health related domain. Could be paired with contraception.ie, pregnant.ie, maternity.ie

pills.ie

politicians.ie and politicians.ie
Many thoughts on this. From a weekly ratings system for Irish pols to an aggregator when they are mentioned in the news. I had something like this for Politics In Ireland.

postgraduate.ie
Portal for postgraduate courses in Ireland would be the original idea. Great domain for a college/university to buy and use as a brand/redirect for their advertising.

preaccelerator.ie
Startups, pre-startup, accelerators, pre-accelerators, even pre-idea seems to be a thing as well. Someone else has nabbed pre.ie. This could be a handy and easy to remember domain for a pre-accelerator or a directory of them.

pregnancy.ie
pregnant.ie
Expired around the same time. I was worried that a fake pregnancy crisis agency would register them and give people bad advice. HSE, buy these!

psychiatrist.ie
Handy and easy to remember

reminiscence.ie
Reminiscence is a very important thing for those ageing or having cognitive decline. Easy to communicate website for reminiscence therapy for example.

RiverLee.ie
Did I mention I’m from Cork? I must have failed to mention it til now. Could be used for lots of things travel, tourism and activities related.

shandon.ie
Another Geo, also surprised it wasn’t taken.

spatial.ie
spatialcomputing.ie

spinning.ie

STEM.ie
Science, Tech, Engineering, Maths. Handy centralised site to focus on this areas.

subs.ie
Uhhh, sports? 😉

sun.ie
This was owned by the former computer company that got bought and wiped out by a database company. Ideally a competitor should buy it.

sweatshirts.ie/

tribune.ie
Former domain of a Sunday newspaper. Amazing backlinks. Idea was to download a full copy of the old site from Archive.org and put it back online.

tyrone.ie

webmail.ie

windfarm.ie and windfarms.ie
For a renewable energy client. And to prevent conspiracy theorists abuse it

Workouts.ie
Nice ideal domain where you allow people to buy various workouts from people. An online store of workouts from sports stars, celebs, bodybuilders.

domains

1916.ie
aran.ie
artificialintelligence.ie
ass.ie
awards.ie
backpain.ie
bears.ie
bloggeracademy.com
blogging.ie
businesscourses.ie

carter.ie
ceos.ie
children.ie
christmas.ie
christmasjumpers.ie
classroom.ie
cloudcomputing.ie
company.ie
contraception.ie
culture.ie

daddy.ie
democracy.ie
drag.ie

easter.ie
ecommerceawards.co.uk
ecommerceawards.eu
ecommerceawards.ie
ecommerceawards.uk
ecommerceweek.eu
ecommerceweek.ie
egypt.ie
elearning.ie
engagement.ie
entertainmentawards.net
entertainmentawards.tv
expertise.ie

foodfight.ie
gay.ie
innovation.ie
iona.ie
joomla.ie
kyl.ie
lads.ie
leather.ie

marriage.ie
measurement.ie
merrychristmas.ie
mna.ie
nightclasses.ie
oxford.ie
parenthood.ie
php.ie
politicians.ie
postgraduate.ie
pregnancy.ie
pregnant.ie

republic.ie
revision.ie
sme.ie
subs.ie
sun.ie
tribune.ie
vaccinations.ie

Social Media and Videos – Text and Graphics are Weapons of Choice

TLDR;
Just copy Viceland. Until everyone copies Viceland. Then copy someone else.

via GIPHY

With so many videos on social media watched with the sound off, the audiotrack is a bonus feature these days and most people won’t bother turning the sound on. For me I’m seeing about 85% have the sound off when watching videos on social media. – Cos they’re at work or in school so shouldn’t be watching. And in the evening they’re probably watching TV at home but also on their phones.

I like the way Viceland and others are creating content at the moment.

via GIPHY

The Trixie and Katya Show is really fun and the multimedia aspects of it reinforce what is happening as you watch it with sound on. It helps commit more of the show to memory too.

Pop-up video

This stuff isn’t new though but it is having a new use. Remember Pop-up Video on Vh1? Course you don’t, you’re not that old. Adding facts via pop up bubbles to music videos. Great idea to keep you engaged with the content.

via GIPHY

Dare you to play the below and not be engaged.

From Pop Up Video: The New Historicism by Gary Burns & Timothy E. Scheurer:

Pop Up Video is a postmodern recapitulation of music video, television, sound film, and silent film, including almost all of the techniques and conventions ever used to combine music with moving images. Moreover, the oval graphics reassert the conventions of silent film intertitling more strongly than at any time since the 1920s.

Blind Dates USA used to add snarky comments or give you information the person wasn’t diclosing, letting the audience in to some gossip.
Social Media Video Guide - Blind Dates USA 1

Social Media and Video - Blind Dates USA 2

The visual manifestation of the director’s commentary. Sometimes telling you exactly what you are seeing, sometimes letting only you into a secret, sometimes changing your perspective.

Asia and TVmojis

These days we ought to look at South Asia to see what is happening with text and image overlays on content. Shows in China, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea add context via text and images that pop up and around. In Deconstructing overhearing viewers: TVmojis as story retellers, Xi Cui gives examples of a few shows that are doing this. Also he introduces us to the term TVmojis. This is kind of like what the Trixie and Katya show are doing.

The author argues that by playing various roles, TVmojis help construct the viewer’s sense of being a bystander while concealing the producers’ manipulations of the media’s interactive roles vis-à-vis the viewers.

via GIPHY

Hit the Diff on Videos

Why do all of this? On social media you start off at 0% interest unless you have a fanbase of super-engaged people. For purposes of this article, we’ll pretend that this is factual. So you are pitching to get interest and retain interest. The fascinating thing with this is: the longer someone watches, the longer they keep watching. This also means that it is very hard to keep people watching even past 1 second but once you get them past 3 seconds, 5 seconds and 10 seconds they want to skip past the video less. Also, as more timelines are watched over by a sometimes benevolent algorithm, those that have their videos watched longer than 10 seconds will be gifted by having their next pieces of content seen too. These pop up texts/emojis/visual elements are ways to get people more engaged with your content and can almost work like bridges if there are lulls in some of your content.

Edit: Update Jan 2019
Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse was released and what a movie it is and a homage to the history of comic books. What I liked was the use of speech/thought bubbles and action lines in the movie and how it was so natural to see and added to the movie too. I think we’ll see more of this.
Spiderman Into the Spider-verse - thought bubbles

via GIPHY

It’s interesting as Disney and Pixar try and make animation as realistic and film-like as possible, Into the Spider-verse shows that there is probably a richer world out there by adding new layers to video.

And with Instagram Stories really blowing up, the use of stickers to accentuate these videos that are watched mostly with the sound off, it will get people used to processing these enhancements of the videos.

Air Corp Sound On

via GIPHY

And that will surely get us ready for all the information we’ll eventually see in our Apple Glasses/Heads up displays.

via GIPHY

Mulley’s 5th Law of Social Media

Once someone gets at least 200 likes on their Instagram workout photos, they will become a personal trainer. #irishfitfam #crushit #copTheFuckOn

29 short lectures on Digital Marketing

January 13th 2015, 2pm, Dublin

To kickstart 2015 I’m going to give a seminar in Dublin, possibly 90 minutes to 120 minutes long. What will it cover? Keep reading. It’s “almost” free to those that are clients or came along to the various Mulley Events in 2014. Spaces are limited. That last line was marketing bullshit making you think a resource is limited so you’ll want it more. They are though.

The seminar is called “29 short lectures on digital marketing” which is a total ripoff of the amazing “28 short lectures” given by Mary Reufle. There won’t be 29 lectures but they will be short.

This seminar is going to be on January 13th in Dublin City Centre (not booked venue yet, usually near Temple Bar) from 2pm to 4pm or a little beyond. Bring your own teas and coffees.

If you want to sign up, you can use this Eventbrite link. It’s €5 to book a place which won’t cover operating costs but ensures you might turn up. In Ireland, free events have a 50% no-show rate. 50% don’t bother turning up or letting you know.

And I’ll talk about:

Various elements on making Facebook work: Edgerank and all that, what updates are best, why if you ignore it for B2C you’re a dope.
Twitter: Growing, automating, lead generation, Twitter cards.
LinkedIn: This is B2B and it works a charm. How to use it to build an amazingly rich address book.
Google+: Haha, just kidding.
Mailchimp: Some quick tips from a non-expert.

Why am I doing this? Testing out new material and to gauge interest in the paid courses I’ll be running in January/February – Lead Generation, Digital Strategy, Advanced Twitter. And because I’m sound.

Barbie joins LinkedIn – Other Barbies on LinkedIn get lots of visits

So it was announced by Mattel that Barbie is going to be “hashtag unapologetic” about being an entrepreneur. iPad, business attire and a LinkedIn profile! You can buy the doll right here now.

Plastic ceilings
From the PR blurb:

This year Barbie is once again breaking through plastic ceilings and inspiring girls to follow their dreams. The 2014 career of the year doll is Entrepreneur Barbie. To celebrate her newest career, Barbie is honoring special women entrepreneurs to help start a conversation for girls everywhere, reminding them that — “If they can dream it, they can be it – anything is possible!

So with that, if you go on to LinkedIn now and look for Barbie, hello Barbie!

BarbieLinkedIn1

LinkedIn.com/in/Barbie

Even when you Google for “Barbie LinkedIn” you get:
BarbieLinkedIn2

This guy is going to be getting a lot of views and I’m sure some weird connection requests too.

Link Roundup – June 16th 2014

So then.

Very interesting case study around mobile networks, Facebook and geofencing. There ads to people on Facebook based on their current location as supplied by their mobile network. It will drive more footfall to your store. And with Apple now doing things to prevent stores from logging your phone‘s hardware address, this becomes even more attractive for retailers.

Pinterest now doing self service ads. Good to see.

Twitter now doing remarketing too. So you can run ads on Twitter to people who came to your website.

AKA Fuck you, pay me. Facebook plainly explaining organic reach and Edgerank. The free ride is over for those that produced shit updates on Facebook. If you have updates that appeal to your subscribers, you have a lot less to worry about.

Social signals. So Google says that they don’t take social into account when ranking pages BUT the pre-ranking/discovery of your content seems very reliant on these social signals. Lots of people sharing/tweeting your link? Seems Google will see this as having importance.

These new changes with iOS 8.0, yeah, Android probably can do this but Apple makes it way better. Apps calling apps inside their own app and showing you just the relevant bits. Great for the usual devices but also tiny screens like, oh, hmm. watches?

Now put your café and restaurant menus on Facebook

Facebook made a nice small change for restaurant and café Pages. Now you can now upload your menus once they’re less than 1Mb in size. These can easily be viewed on desktop or mobile.

On your Page go into Settings > Page Info and there should be a Menu option available. Click on that and upload your Menu.

This is what it looks like on a mobile:

Hat tip to someone on Twitter for this, sorry forgot who.