Forrester VP and principal analyst Nate Elliott has laid down the gauntlet to one of the world’s largest internet companies, saying in his report Why Facebook Is Failing Marketers that the site hasn’t revolutionised marketing and has simply become a Web 1.0 ad seller.

In the report, Facebook ads languish at the bottom of a list of 13 types of marketing activity, which was created from a survey of marketers about the most effective types of ads. It was beaten into last place by more traditional forms, as well as mobile marketing and Twitter.

Facebook hit back with a statement delivered to Business Insider saying the report was both ‘illogical’ and ‘irresponsible’. The company points to its 1m active advertisers, including all of the Ad Age 100, as proof of its ad effectiveness. 

The report did not separately analyse Facebook’s mobile paid placements, so we asked the analyst what he thought about these marketing opportunities, often held up as a true mobile success story.

CTR vs ROI

“Facebook has an advantage on mobile because its ads are virtually full screen – an opportunity that marketers are not finding from many credible mobile advertising sellers,” Elliott told Mobile Marketing. “We hear anecdotally about high click-through-rates on app download ads, but what we also hear from app publishers is that hidden behind that, ROI is more troublesome. Facebook gives out a lot of click-through numbers – but offers fewer on ROI.”

Elliott calls Facebook’s revenue figures its ‘last line of defence’, saying that ‘a lot are spending a lot of money, but few are finding real value.

“Facebook has a lot of work left to do to make its marketing and advertisers more valuable and more successful,” he said. “We need a greater weight of evidence on mobile ads; I’m very interested in these ads being successful, but we need more data from more campaigns over a longer period of time.”

Asked about potential of competing offers launched by Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and Twitter, he said: “All social sites have work to do to offer better advertising opportunities and prove their value. The report shows that overall social marketing floats to the bottom of list.”

Stop copying Google

He says that by copying Google’s ad model – selling self-service ad units based on intent to purchase data – Facebook is missing an opportunity to sell more valuable brand advertising. “This isn’t an attempt to put a nail in the coffin of social – we want to help Facebook see that they need to do better. Its success to date is more about marketers being blinded by revenue, by faith and by fascination as opposed to hard data.

“I want social to be an effective marketing tool,” he added. “But we need to have a conversation about the fact that social marketing is not effective as it could be.”