“Marketing on Facebook doesn’t work very well, and marketers can’t count on things improving anytime soon”, says Forrester analyst Nate Elliott.

Writing in a blog post days before Facebook is due to complete its IPO, Elliott praises the social networking giant for its innovation at introducing new features for users but “as good as Facebook has been at evolving to serve consumers, that’s how bad it’s been at serving marketers,” he says.

Over the past five years Facebook has “lurched” from one advertising model to another but is still yet to find one that generates revenue or assists marketers in the delivery of their programs, says Elliott. In fact, the networking site is getting worse at helping marketers succeed, according to one global consumer goods company.

“Facebook just doesn’t pay nearly as much attention to marketing as it does to user experience. (Not surprising, given its founder’s famous loathing for advertisers.) If Facebook did pay much attention to the marketers who handed it billions of dollars last year, and who make the site’s very existence possible, maybe we’d see innovative new marketing solutions every six months rather than every few years.

“Marketing on Facebook doesn’t work very well, and marketers can’t count on things improving anytime soon,” he says.

So what effect has this had on marketers? According to the analyst, businesses are no longer rushing to invest their digital marketing budget in Facebook and doubts the impending IPO will produce a more advertiser-friendly strategy either.

“We doubt Zuckerberg’s going to wake up any day soon having acquired a taste for advertising, or even a proper understanding of it. And so every day more smart marketers are going to wake up and look for other places to dedicate their social resources,” he concludes.