The (Overdue) Collapse of Facebook Ads

If you’re running a small business, you’ve been promised the ultimate shortcut to getting a steady stream of customers, and all it’ll cost you is 5 or 10 bucks a day.

Facebook ads have long been what we think of when we hear the term “paid ads,” because they worked really well for a long time.

But with privacy regulations making them less effective and more large companies advertising driving up the prices, the question isn’t so much “are facebook ads dead?” as much as “Are they still worth it?”

In this video, I’m sharing all the reasons why Facebook and Instagram ads aren’t the slam dunk they used to be, how they'll likely lose you money while burning you out, AND the better strategy you should be using instead.

[SenorJuan]

As a consumer, I LIKE FB ads. What puzzles me are the youtube ads. I"ve watched THOUSANDS of videos the past 4 years and never bought anything from them. Can't see how they are the least bit effective.

[JeffHarrison]

This is so true. What part? All of it. We’ve been doing FB from almost the beginning and the only thing we do now is use it to test content, organically. And then if it proves worthy we will then turn that into a paid ad and create…you guessed it YT videos. Spot on Wes. Thanks for always being the tip of the spear.

[manojmaitydm]

I feel entire digitalmarketing landspace is getting tougher

[mc]

I have wasted so much money on FB ads. It's been fun telling my lamentations to those people calling me to help with FB ads.

[DrGammaMindset]

Great Vid Wes. Ive been using fb ads for 10 years and its got worse every year and especially since the Apple IOS targeting malarkey...

[MichaelSasser]

As someone who built a YouTube channel and sold tons of courses through it and was never able to do better than break even with Facebook ads, I believe nothing will be stronger than building a strong audience on YouTube. But I don’t think it’s less work than the creation and testing of ads like you’re talking about. If anything it’s more work. Consistently coming up with new topics and recording editing and posting new videos weekly can be very draining over time.

[PatriotMindsets]

Great content, and beautiful color grading. In my opinion, Facebook ads are still worth it for mid-to-high price offers, but not low cost goods or services.

[WendyMorrisRealtyTampa]

Nobody can confirm the ads actual views or circulation. I never trusted them, after their political intervention I will never give them a dime.

[gray_mara]

I'm a romance author. I had an ad recently to grow my newsletter list, highly targeted, offering a free book. FB reported a steady ~100 clicks per day. Some days I'd have 20 new subs, some days I'd have 0. You can't tell me that 100 people click on an ad for a free book and then say, Nah, I don't want a free book. Six months ago, it was 0.08 per sub. Now it's $1-$2 per sub. I don't believe they were really showing the ad to anyone.

[GetBizzyLLC]

I wholeheartedly agree with everything on here! Don'e the Facebook ad thing and it's gotten they have become more and more complicated and expensive. YouTube. That is the way to go. That is what has grown my business to 6 figures, without question.

[goodtidingsplumbingheating]

Your have the absolute best looking videos. Not just cinematography wise. The sharpness of the image is truly mind blowing. Well done!

[labella]

A relative recently did a Facebook ad campaign and mainly had to deal with a lot of spam/scammers pretending to be from Facebook posting saying they'd been reported for copyright infringement and trying to get them to click on links.

[jackstaak]

Wes, you make some interesting points, but unless I'm missing the point, you compare facebook ads with youtube organic. Isn't that like comparing apples & oranges? What's your view on FB/IG organic versus YT organic?

[rifter]

We've been dancing around this for the last year and really felt the pain recently with facebook ads. We're ramping up much more marketing now and I think this video has helped sharpen where more time and energy should be placed. Thanks!

[Noosa]

I run events such as webinars and promote those on events websites, which works far far better than Facebook or others.

[miggie]

Use to have huge success with FB ads but in the past 6 months it's been absolutely horrible

[personalwatching]

I was about to jump back in after 3 years
Thanks for this video. They used to be fantastic

[chrisp]

Great content as always Wes! The price of running ads has def become hard to justify lately. Especially when it comes to smaller individuals and companies! 😫
I do have to say seems like more and more of your videos lately are just telling people to become youtubers. Almost like I just watched a 12min ad FOR youtube. Which is kinda at odds of what I hear from older youtube channels and what not.
Well I'm sure you know what you're doing! 👍🏿

[jinkazama]

I had a golden Ad that got Ad fatigue after 5 to 6 months. I even refreshed but no sales, that was a while sgo. So i basically know that i need new products now, and even making a new Ad, gotta refresh every 2 weeks. But im gonna try again with a new Ad.

[powerfuldigitalsolutions]

Amazing content as always Wes! Could you do a video on your thoughts about Google ads?