Too cheap to spend $150,000 on a sponsored group? For today's savvy ad buyers, Facebook offers the bargain-basement "Flyer.". A mere $5 buys you 2,500 ads, served up to your network of choice. A sweet deal, unless you're a discerning marketer who demands his $5 worth. To know if their online ad dollars are well spent, most people turn to click-through rates. But Facebook, conveniently, doesn't offer such data to Flyer purchasers. "Unfortunately we can't provide you with a click-through-rate for your Flyer. These rates vary drastically from one Flyer to the next because they depend on the interest that is generated by the ad's content." Um. Isn't that the case with all Internet advertising? Anyways, this strengthens the widely held assumption that Facebook has a smug, Mark-Zuckerberg-knows-best attitude — and that Facebook's banner ads are ineffective. Except, perhaps, for tarnishing one's brand.

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