My friend Andrew sent me “Facebook’s Business Model is a Dead End” on Business Insider. The author complains that many of Facebook’s users are fake accounts, advertisers have generally abandoned Facebook. GM for example, who yanked $10 million cuz Facebook wasn’t working.

Well I’ve got bad news and good news.

First, the bad news:

Facebook has acted irresponsibly to both advertisers and shareholders by building a crappy ad interface with lousy tools. I do not believe that Facebook itself even understands direct response marketing.

If Facebook’s shareholders knew what Tom Meloche and I know, they’d be staging an “Occupy Facebook” protest in Menlo Park California. They’re a $5 billion company that should be $15 billion.

Now the good news:

For people whose www.IsFBforMe.com score is 8 and above, it DOES work – if you know what you’re doing.

My friend Bill called me a few days ago and told me that in the first week of 2013, he got 1700 opt-ins from a new Facebook promotion and paid for all those clicks within 3 days with a well-executed webinar. He collected email addresses from his FB Fan Page. His IsFBforMe.com score is 8.2.

To my knowledge, none of his competitors are using Facebook seriously – so he’s alone in the space!

This is NOT unusual.

When I say that Facebook has done a lousy job of building an ad platform, you have to ask: Relative to WHAT?

Relative to Google AdWords, of course. Everyone knows AdWords works. It’s the Gold Standard in online advertising.

But compared to: renting mailing lists… recruiting affiliates… organizing product launches… placing ads in magazines… doing guest blogs…. just about any other kind of online OR offline advertising, it’s reasonably easy.

IF you do Facebook ads with Right Angle Marketing, the way we teach in our book and courses.

Be realistic and remember – if your business sells escapism, entertainment, art, activism, tribal identity or any kind of emotional experience – you’re probably leaving money on the table by not advertising on Facebook.

Perry Marshall

About the Author

Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.

He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.