I’m a single guy with specific taste. I’m only interested in women with the potential to become my intellectual and spiritual partner over the long term.
On any given night, these women may be in bars. Or coffee shops. Or yoga classes. Or laundromats. In the unlikely case that I’m in the same place at the same time, the only filter I’d manage to apply is physical. At first meeting, a woman is like a Facebook profile with her privacy settings too high.
But, interest-based pay-per-click ads remove the privacy shroud and deliver insight into her intellectual and spiritual nature at 75 cents per click. That’s about 10 clicks for the price of a cocktail that may or may not end up splashed in my face!
Facebook marketing for the eligible single
On April 2, I launched a Facebook ad campaign designed to find me a date. As a true marketing dork, I built 9 distinct ad versions for testing purposes – 3 creative variants and 3 interest-based targeting variants.
Demographically, ads targeted single women ages 28 to 34 within 25 miles of Tempe. Interest groupings were:
- Yoga, Bikram Yoga, etc. (max reach: 940 users)
- Buddhism, meditation, metaphysic, etc. (max reach: 580)
- Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle, etc. (max reach: 420)
For a landing experience, I created a Facebook fan page with free contact form and welcome tab apps. (Thanks to Mari Smith’s Big List of Apps!) Yes, it’s ghetto. My html skills are weak and Facebook’s iFrame bug is weaker.
Why not drive to a WordPress page or dating site profile? Well, Facebook grants a lower cost-per-click to advertisers keeping traffic on site.
Plus, users maintain grip on their Facebook security blanket when: A) an ad doesn’t include a fishy third-party URL, and B) the landing page keeps the Facebook URL and header.
Why Facebook instead of Match?
I know what you’re thinking. Why not just use Match, eHarmony, or some other dating site? Three reasons:
- Match is too competitive. The economy of Match favors women. As a man on Match, I’m a buyer in a seller’s market. One female friend received 86 messages in 3 weeks on the site! Personally, I’d rather attract a woman before she hits Match’s meet market.
- Match’s interest-based targeting sucks. On Match, I can filter by any number of physical fetishes from hair color to ethnicity. But filtering by spirituality or intellectualism is relegated to clunky keyword searches. (Sorry, but spiritual not religious is too vague to be meaningful.)
- Match is too labor-intensive. To be effective, Match simply requires too much active attention. Facebook ads are set-and-forget. At this point, I have more money than time … especially at 75 cents per click.
OK, let’s see some ad data
Let’s cut to the chase. In five days, my campaign drove 30 clicks and 5 leads via contact form for $19.39. By comparison, a Match membership costs $34.99 per month (with no guarantee of traffic or leads). The upfront labor costs are roughly the same.
Here’s a breakdown of my Facebook ads by interest:
Interest | Imps | Clicks | Leads | Spent |
Yoga | 8,592 | 5 | ? | $3.75 |
Buddhism | 10,630 | 15 | ? | $9.43 |
New Age | 8,523 | 10 | ? | $6.21 |
TOTAL | 27,745 | 30 | 5 | $19.39 |
x | ||||
Interest | CTR | CPM | CPC | CPL |
Yoga | 0.06% | $0.44 | $0.75 | ? |
Buddhism | 0.14% | $0.89 | $0.63 | ? |
New Age | 0.12% | $0.73 | $0.62 | ? |
TOTAL | 0.11% | $0.70 | $0.65 | $3.88 |
Yes, I’m a tad disappointed that I cannot track leads by interest group. If only Salesforce had a free contact form plug-in …
But Facebook ads are just creepy …
What are the ethical ramifications of the campaign? Is it creepy to target women with PPC ads? Are there privacy implications of interest-based targeting? What about eyes romantically locking from across a crowded room?
I don’t know. Thanks to Match, eHarmony, and others, America has come to accept attraction-based singles marketing. It’s modern day serendipity when your match stumbles across your dating profile.
Promotion-based singles marketing is a whole new ballgame. On Match, there’s no amount of money one can invest in order to boost profile traffic.
(For about $10, you can add a “guarantee” to a six-month commitment that adds a green highlight to your profile in search results.)
The times may be a-changing. Chas McFeely is offering a $10,000 bounty to whoever introduces him to his future wife. My cost structure is more modest, but I’m essentially paying Facebook to set me up.
So, is this campaign weird? Maybe. As one respondent to my ad said, “My opinion: creepy, invasive AND cool!”
What do you think? Let me know in the comments!
As someone who uses match.com, I totally agree with your comments. I try to explain to people how labor intensive it is but people do not understand. I think the ad is brilliant and not at all creepy. Its just like taking out a personal ad and its way more measurable. So – have you had any dates from this yet. I am intrigued.
Ha ha! No dates yet. The most promising lead was actually my ex! Fortunately, I’m only a week into the campaign. Hopefully it’ll work out. 🙂
This is so cool! I completely agree with Lisa that it is basically like taking out a personal ad in the paper. I also think it makes a lot of sense, considering that Facebook is huge and everyone’s on it, but you randomly friending people generally leads to rejection. This is actually not that invasive since the woman is in the driver’s seat the entire time.
I think that it is kind of cool…. this is the new age sort of thing. I believe that your plan may be able to help you find the right one. I mean look at the response you have gotten. I have a friend, 30-something and he has had a terrible time finding a match. Maybe your idea will bring someone closer to you…. let me know…. now if only I could set up my real estate marketing the same way… sorry bud, I’m not the one for you…
Just saw this on Mashable. I’m actually very, very impressed with how clever you are! You could signup for Match.com or spend nearly the same money targeting people via facebook and hit a more laser focused demographic. Good stuff, man.
Mashable tweeted me about you. Forget the naysayers. I wish you much success. Anyone who thinks you are creepy is just upset that they didn’t think of Facebooking For Love Ads. Oneday soon, they will be sending you and your fiancée congratulations. Until then, …
Stay tuned into The Light.
Illuminatingly,
Voncelle Volté
You’re awesome. I’m actually going to be talking about you in the morning on the radio. If anyone seems interested and on your level I’ll send them through!
Hey, Matt.
I learnt about your ad from the blog post on Mashable (bonus marketing :)).
Just dropped in to say that I like the idea. And interesting content on the ad too.
Cheers!
Sudeep (sometimes known as Su-geek)
Good Luck Matt ☺
Having problems in finding our soulmate in real life is a big problem actually. I tried for the last 10 years to find him in internet, but the results are the same. So …. I only can wish you good luck!
hi there.
your idea is really interesting but, wouldn’t be better to approach it in a different way?
how about creating a singles group in your area targeted to single or divorced people?
that’s one thing i would try to do.
Church would Love to grant you the space to gather people, or perhaps some kind of other place?
it would start like a New Single Friends Group…
Everybody is looking to a fresh start, and sometimes are eager to know new people and make new friends.
Night outs, movie nights, gatherings, camp fires… hiking… everything is up.
and there, in the middle of nowhere, you just might find your “perfect” partner…
If you “market” yourself, you would be considered as a forced product, and people does not buy forced products…
Nevertheless… you can not go after love, its love that comes after you.
we do expect to fall in love but… we always fall in love when we least expect, so… focus on happiness and happiness will focus on you 🙂
best regards
Pepper
I’d try eHarmony instead… 2 years and counting with my girlfriend…
Two months after I became single I met my fiance at a volunteer event. Our first few meetings were business related. At the time, I was scared to death of being back on the dating scene. Had I not met such a wonderful person (while NOT looking) I am certain I would have used your method. Although I am quite an extrovert, I don’t know if I would have had the courage to ask anyone out. Thanks for sharing Matt.
Hi Matt! Didn’t know you were single again until reading this (Adam never tells me anything) but as a fellow marketer I find this more cool than creepy, and actually not creepy at all. Smart is more like it, since yes, just about everyone is on Facebook so your “target audience” must be there too.
I had no idea you were so interested in yoga and spirituality, me too! In fact, I just started teaching yoga, and I think you’ll really like my blog Accidental Seeker (soon to become a business). If I wasn’t happily married, I’d date you! (Yeah, just say cougar now). But seriously, I know only from single friends what a nightmare the dating sites are and from what I’ve heard about Match and others, I think Facebook offers a level of trust, authenticity and transparency they don’t, so good for you and good luck.
An amazing comment, Karen! I’ll definitely check out your blog. I try to be a seeker … not so much of married women or cougars, but I appreciate the sentiment nonetheless!!! 😉
This is rediculous. No need to pay to advertise yourself when there are free dating sites like POF.com and okcupid.com. I will agree online dating can be labor intensive at times… But dating in general is more laborous for the guy anyway. We HAVE to make the first move. So go out there and actually MEET women. You will go much further and cost less out in the real world and using a FREE dating site. If you present yourself well you can find a date, in a weeks’ time 🙂
Sounded like a great idea to me. I was hoping to see an update that it worked. 🙂
Hey Matt, good luck with it, and all it takes is one right gal to see it. Let me know how it works as maybe I will have to try it as well.
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