MANILA, Philippines – How much value does a Facebook ‘like’ add to a business? According to a recent study, hardly anything.
On YouTube, researcher Derek Muller explains how Facebook’s advertising platform is flawed. Muller used his fan page to examine the worth a Facebook ‘Like’, based his resarch on a 2012 experiment by BBC tech journalist Rory Cellan-Jones.
Using the social networking giant’s advertising platform, Muller managed to increase the number of likes on his Veritasium page from 2,000 to a staggering 70,000. However, as the page likes skyrocketed, engagement went downhill.
Facebook defines the engagement rate as “the percentage of people who saw a post that liked, shared, clicked or commented on it.”
According to Muller, an overwhelming number of new, ‘fans’ came from developing countries, including Nepal, Egypt, Indonesia, India and the Philippines.
Cellan-Jones’ study two years ago showed the same results. The BBC correspondent created a fake ‘VirtualBagel’ page and found out that a bulk of his likes came from the same nations after spending $100 on the Facebook ad program. When he targeted only UK-based Facebook users, the likes dwindled.
“I didn’t understand why [fans were less engaged] at the time but I’ve since realized it’s because most of those likes I was getting through Facebook ads were not from people who were genuinely interested in Veritasium,” said Muller.
In a graph shown by Muller, he noted that visitors from western countries such as Germany, Austria, the US and the United Kingdom comprised a smaller percentage of his total likes. They had an engagement rate of 30% to 50%.
A much larger group contained users from Bangladesh, the Philippines, and other developing countries, all of them had an engagement rate close to nothing.
Many of these fake likes came from users with activities resembling third-party ‘click-farms’. The Associated Press defines this new marketing phenomenon as “a business sells clicks for fans, likes, followers, views and more.” The Philippines, as mentioned in Muller’s video, is one of the click-farm hubs of the world.
“Buy 1000 FB Likes, Get 500 Twitter Followers,” said a listing on local classified ads website Sulit.com.ph posted five days ago. For as low as P375, Filipino ‘like’ vendors are cashing in on this virtual merchandise.
Because click-farm accounts like a diverse set of brands and personalities on Facebook, it is harder for Facebook’s algorithm to track fraudulent activity, explained The Next Web.
Ironically, Facebook Security’s fan page is most popular in Dhaka, Bangladesh said Muller. For a country with a per capita income of only $752, Bangladesh is also listed as the most popular city on the pages of Apple and Google.
“Wherever you’re targeting, advertising on Facebook is a waste of money,” said Miller.
Watch the “Facebook Fraud” video by Veritasium below:
– Rappler.com
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