I've been using Facebook paid advertising for the last week and find it completely useless for what they are charging. I have been promoting one of my website fanpages (thank God I bought a voucher) and the traffic I get to my fanpage is definitely not worth the Facebook voucher amount. Seriously its more cost effective to create a profile and friend request them.
Facebook advertisement sometimes doesn't yield expected results. your idea of creating a profile/fan-page, adding friends and promoting the page is more profitable.
I have not heard too many people saying that they see great results from the paid options on PayPal. I am sure some people see results but I feel as if other methods of marketing and website promotion can bring even higher results.