A few weeks back I blogged about the performance or rather lack of performance from the Facebook Ads we were running. To recap, we had some general ads on there getting people to write a review of their workplace in return for entry in a competition to win an iPod. Results from the ads were below disappointing.

After a bit of experimentation we came up with the idea of running ads targeted at specific workplaces. Facebook allows users to say where they work. With a specific message directed at users from certain workplaces we did see a rise in response. It wasn't great but at least it was something.

Then Facebook changed it's design. The ads now appear at the top right of a page away from the content. As soon as the change went live performance dropped again. The positioning of the ads on Facebooks pages meant that visitors simply weren't noticing them.

The reality is, at least for our product Facebook ads are more effort than they're worth. Response rates are poor and the administration interface and reporting pages are slow and clunky. Customer service is virtually non-existent.

We've not totally given up on Facebook but we have given up on Facebook ads. We're looking at releasing a Facebook application within the next week or so with a little spin that won't make it as dire as the existing job search applications. I'll keep you updated with how that works out.

But this gives rise to a greater question. How does Facebook intend to earn revenue? They have a much smaller team than say the likes of Google and a crazy amount of traffic but it seems like Facebook may be a destination site and it's difficult to convince them to move to advertisers sites.