Posted by Justin Dupre on Dec 9, 2008
Facebook Ads Manager Firefox Plugin
This is a post I really don’t want to write, however, I think it is an important tool for anyone using Facebook to advertise, and one that when used properly, will nail some huge profits.
The Firefox Facebook Ads Manager plugin released over at 4HourAffiliate is a tool that will allow you to manage your ads on Facebook in ways you couldn’t without spending hours creating and maintaining campaigns. Creating ads is automated. Deleting ads is automated. Resubmitting declined ads is automated. Automation in most fields of internet marketing equals huge numbers, and in most cases, leads to huge figures.
The plugin allows you to create a multitude of new ads (on top of copy old ads), but it does so by letting you split test a number of factors. Split test ages, sex, headers, ad text, and images all in one click. Click run and let the script do its magic by creating tens, even thousands of ads if you so choose to do so. It even assigns subIDs to your ads so you can easily track what is working and what isn’t.
That’s all fine and dandy, and for the most part, it works wonderfully. I’ve already submitted a couple hundred ads and already, Facebook is disapproving them! Thanks, Facebook! Funny, because a few other marketers are noticing that Facebook is going a little easier on the ad approvals than usual.
There are a few problems with the script though. It’s still a rough copy. It seems if you try to split test to much or split test this and not that but only test this or that age group, it won’t run. You’ll just have to try for yourself. Sohan pointed out that it works a bit smoother on Firefox 2 rather than 3.
So, why do I think this is one of the worst things to be released, ever for Facebook advertisers?
It was released on Wickedfire. Wickedfire is an amazing internet marketing forum, filled with the most inteligent minds of industry (and it’s owned by an equally intelligent, charming, awesome, yet angry jew (and being Jewish has nothing to do with anything other than being Jewish, which is great because I’m Jewish, too, and this in no way implies that all Jews are angry at all…) who called me a douche for advertising this blog on his forum (my bad though… linked it as “even gayer than Wickedfire“…lololol). I feel it’s great that these members will get to use this plugin for the amazing price of free. They’ve been adding to an amazing network with helpful advice and this is somewhat of a treat for them. However, have you seen how many lurkers there are on Wickedfire at any given time?
Nearly 1000 people not giving any thanks or adding a word to the forum. Who’s to say they are bad people, but I can guarantee the reason Acai berry became such a crowded niche is because it was discussed about on Wickedfire and not only did the thousands of members joined to Wickedfire read about it, but the tens of thousands just browsing read about it, too.
Another reason… FREE!? Did my eyes deceive me? The plugin author even says he could sell it for a couple hundred a pop on his blog. I wouldn’t have sold this for 100 or 200 dollars. I’d slap a pricetag of a few to ten-thousand dollars and sell it to 10 people tops. In fact, I’m not even sure I would have released something so powerful.
I’m asking my Facebook Ads manager about the reprocussions of using this tool and it seems that he hasn’t found out about it yet, although I’m sure he’ll understand it completely in a few hours when their ad servers get spammed the hell out of and ad approval processes slow way down.
Facebook even states that you cannot automate ad submission. I’m not sure how this will turn out, at all. However, I’m pretty sure some action will be taken by Facebook to greatly discourage ad creation via this plugin. A few ideas I thought were captchas being implemented in the creation process, limits on how many ads you could create in a day, limits per ads in any given ad group, impression or click limits, or straight up banning of accounts.
If any of those solutions seems to be what Facebook chooses, they are still shooting themselves in the foot, and they’d be losing possible millions in revenue on top of what they are losing because Myspace knows how to click “accept ad”. However, if this script is allowed, Facebook advertisers are going to have a tough battle ahead of them.
Update: This plugin is no longer available free. You can purchase the new plugin from here. It costs $200, and includes any updates made on the plugin for the forseeable future. I will not be giving out the free version of the plugin that was available earlier.
Related posts:
12 Responses to “Facebook Ads Manager Firefox Plugin”
Leave a Reply
Subscribe
Sponsors
Hopefully smart guys can make a whole boatload of money before they catch on.
The tool really rocks.
It’s fine, everything’s fine.
Crap, I should of grabbed it earlier. Looks like it was pulled from the site.
You’re a total douche bag. Why the hell would you tell your ads manager about this. And are you antisemitic? What does Jon being jewish have to do with anything? That’s pretty offensive.
If you weren’t such a useless toolbag then maybe you would not have been flamed on wickedfire. Stop crying about it and move on..
@Ross – I asked because I wanted to know whether or not my account would get banned with further use.
Either way, YES! YOU CAN USE THE SCRIPT! Says my AM.
And, everyone teases Jon about being Jewish. And I have Jewish blood in me. I never cried about it either, did I? I just thought it was funny that I got an IM that said, “Hey douche, take out that link in your signature or you’re getting banned.”
@Geoff – Thanks for catching my slip-up. I admit I wrote the post after downing a few beers and coming home at 3 AM may not have been the best idea.
However, I won’t let a comment through with that link.
[...] Facebook account, and low and behold, they disabled my account. It was most likely because of that new facebook plugin I bought. It’s not my fault you only accept two of my 50 identical ads so I have to resubmit [...]
You advertised your blog as a webmaster community or forum. Its against the rules. I asked you to change it, and you did and apologized. End of story. Why would you feel the need to start up on your blog?
More so, why would you tell your manager about this. Because you’re worried? Justin, you have no balls. Admit it.
Aww. You know I’m not trying to pick a fight. I’ve got respect for you Jon, and it was meant as a stupid joke. You’ve made my first 100, 200, 500, 800, and 1000 dollar days possible.
Anyways, If you want those comments taken out of the post let me know.
And as for balls, last I checked they were still there. I just asked my affiliate manager if I would get disabled for using the plugin, not abusing it. Using is fine, abusing is not or so I’ve found out. Heh.
[...] Facebook Ads Manager – I gave this plugin quite a lashing in my other blog a while ago. Despite me calling it out, I can’t say I don’t absolutely love it. I can set a campaign to create 300 ads up with different headlines and texts, images, age targeting, countries, keywords, and bid prices, then click run, fall asleep and hopefully by the time I wake up they will be all approved and running. This thing does the grunt work of building campaigns, and you can save setups, too, so you can keep resubmitting the same ads over and over again to really piss off those Facebook “interns” (you should know by now they aren’t really interns). It has a high cost of $200, but it has been well worth it for me and should be worth it to anyone else that does a lot of Facebook. It sets up as a Firefox plugin and is controlled in the toolbars. [...]
is the tool still working?
the sellers website looks DEAD….
I would love to buy this tool, if it worked.
Cheers,
Robin
I have this tool and when it was working it was great, but since facebooks most recent update to the ads manager it has stopped working.