Facebook Ads clicks but no visits

retired_member33 · May 12, 2014

About two hours ago I decided to re-start two of my Facebook campaigns as I have a few interesting offers to promote.

I just checked my stats and both campagins had 7 clicks but when I check Statcounter I did not have any visits from Facebook.

It makes me wonder whether there are bots clicking on ads or that Facebook has became a bit gready and is just randomly making up clicks and taking money from my account.

Anyone every had the same issue?

Blossom · May 13, 2014

Is statcounter's code placed at the bottom of the page or the top?

retired_member33 · May 13, 2014

At the bottom

Blossom · May 15, 2014

It will be people closing the tab before the page has finished loading then, most likely.

retired_member33 · May 15, 2014

Blossom said:
It will be people closing the tab before the page has finished loading then, most likely.

Don't think it is.

When I ran the same campaigns earlier this year all visitors were recorded in my statistics.

I have been in contact with Facebook and they are investigating the issue, will post the outcome

ratboy · May 16, 2014

Loads of blog articles slating FB ads, saying that basically it's a total con and doesn't make any sense - i.e traffic being reported in FB clicks, but nothing coming through to site. Worth a googling around to read.

TinkyWinky · May 29, 2014

We ran a load of ads as a trial - waste of time and money to be honest and we won't bother again unless we're only after eyeballs to see our brand.

It will only be a matter of time before increasing numbers of small businesses realise this and pull budgets. This leaves only large companies with mega budgets that are using FB for brand awareness... and they are very adept at getting cheaper and cheaper deals through their agency purchasing.

Doesn't bode well for their ad income long term that's for sure!

TW

lazarus · May 30, 2014

Add an identifier to the end your your campaign address. ie www.mywebsite.co.uk#fb

Track it through Google analytics's and see how many and who your visitors really are.

Laz

anthony · May 30, 2014

The whole issue of dubious ad clicks charged to advertisers, and unrewarded clicks for publishers is ripe for some form of overview body. Seriously, how can you really be sure you're not getting jammied along the way?

addz123 · Jun 4, 2014

FB includes clicks as actions within Facebook, for example if someone Likes your advert or shares it, that's a click, even though they might not visit your site.

I also agree Facebook seems a complete waste, it doesn't send much traffic and you end up spending 40-60p for random people to like your advert.

retired_member33 · Jun 5, 2014

addz123 said:
FB includes clicks as actions within Facebook, for example if someone Likes your advert or shares it, that's a click, even though they might not visit your site.

I also agree Facebook seems a complete waste, it doesn't send much traffic and you end up spending 40-60p for random people to like your advert.

I did not select this option so no Facebook was shown, it was just the page I was promoting so every click should have gone to the site.

In the meantime I have been in touch with Facebook and after providing them with Screenshots/Statcounter reports and stuff they kept asking for more evidence from my side... In the end I couldn't be bothered anymore and told them to f*ck off as I feel that it is their case to proof that they provide a service which is trustworthy.

After checking the stats of previous campaigns I noticed a discrepancy of up to 20% in clicks and visits... Something fishy seems to be going on with FB ads.

TinkyWinky · Jun 5, 2014

FB will be working on a similar principle as Groupon...

There's enough small and medium businesses worldwide that have no idea what they are doing online, so they will try it out and that's like pin money I would guess.

They may not like what they get and vow to never return, but then FB will have thousands upon thousands of other companies willing to give it go which keeps the small cash coming in.

The ONLY companies that FB need to keep happy are the big brands that want brand awareness and have £1m+ budgets each month. They really couldn't give a monkeys about smaller businesses. End of.

Don't feed the monster!

bu06nne · Jun 10, 2014

Experienced similar issues here with clicks and views to the site not matching up. On the plus side I am paying around 0.02p per click - so the traffic is still cheap.