Word from the Hacker News peanut gallery regarding NPR’s somebody bought a Facebook Ad and it didn’t work so hot story.

So there are quite a few things that Pizza Delicious didn’t do right with their Facebook ads.

1. They target people who like Italian food. They don’t target people who like Pizza. 15,440 people in New Orleans have liked Pizza on Facebook. 
2. They don’t target people who like other Pizza Outlets. Or other local restaurants. If a resident likes one local outlet, he is more prone to like other local establishments too. 
3. They disregard targeting friends of people who already like Pizza Delicious. And by doing so - they don’t use the most powerful feature Facebook has to offer: social proof. 
4. That they do any kind of targeting beyond geographic targeting at all is probably erroneous for their type of business. Seriously - if they were running ads offline, would they run an ad in a magazine about Italy? Or would they run it in their daily local newspaper? Pizza is something that has a wide interest. There is no need to restrict based on any kinds of interest. 
5. There is no benefit in Liking Pizza Delicious on Facebook. No special Facebook offers. Or discount coupons. And yet they were expecting people to like their page and come visit their place right away. Their call to action is weak. You can’t expect facebook likes to convert into orders straight away - when you don’t even ask for an order. 
6. Their measurement method is very inaccurate. Asking people where they found out about you has been proven to be very very inaccurate. Instead, give them a coupon and track based on that. 
7. There was a total mismatch with their online and offline metrics. Do you ever like a page on facebook without knowing about that brand from before? Yet, they are tracking the number of Likes online. But asking people how they found out about them offline.