Advertising on Facebook Just Got a Lot Easier — But Should You Do It?

Hey, Facebook marketing geniuses: Already sick of the constant online badgering to advertise on Facebook? Then you’d better brace themselves. The social media megasite is now offering all sorts of advertising innovations and incentives to make putting your brand on the planet’s biggest social network a whole lot easier. But the question remains: Should you do it?

Paid advertising on Facebook is one of those online marketing techniques that has fiercely divided folks in our industry. Facebook advertising fans are steadfast in believing that paying for ad space on Facebook can only bring good things when considering how many people visit the site daily. On the other hand, social media marketing conservatives are apt to prefer a “wait and see” approach when it comes to paid Facebook advertising. Now the company is hoping to unite both sides of the discussion with a variety of new advertising products. Mobile is the first place where Facebook promises to take ads where they’ve never been before. In previous apps of the network, ads have been tiny or non-existent. Facebook has now tweaked the mobile version and apps to accommodate brand messaging from companies, big and small.

Still, critics of the program say Facebook has missed a major mobile marketing opportunity.

“There is a huge opportunity for someone with Facebook’s size, reach and mobile expertise to develop a killer mobile advertising strategy,” GigaOm.com says. “Unfortunately, what Facebook rolled out Wednesday falls short of that goal.”

So should the increased mobile visibility finally make you take the leap into Facebook advertisements? We remain members of Camp Cautious. Great Facebook page campaigns don’t need to cost a thing, regardless of how many times the company tries to make them colder and less easy to use. Another new version of Pages is coming, too, which is said to come complete with that Timeline look so many love to hate. As far as that goes, we think smaller companies would be just fine if they hung onto their current grassroots Facebook efforts until advertising on the site is even more easy, more affordable and more cutting edge.