The Clickable Search Engine Marketing Blog

Hitwise has recently reported that the social networking site Facebook has recently exceeded Google in US traffic for the week ending March 13, 2010, a first for the social networking giant. This is both interesting and exciting for direct response advertisers as Facebook is arguably the first self-service CPC network to come along after AdWords, Yahoo and MSN that has the ability to deliver quality traffic on a comparable volume scale.

Comparing Search Ads and Facebook Ads

The primary difference between sponsored search ads and Facebook is the keyword component of search advertising. Search advertisers select targeted keywords to use to present ads to their audience, while Facebook advertisers basically select their audiences through the many self-reported targeting options available.

Facebook, as well as most search engines, has the option to target by location, age, gender, etc. An important difference to note is that the great majority of Facebook visitors are logged in and targetable using self-reported information on age, gender, location etc., compared to search, where a much smaller fraction of visitors are logged in and can be targeted by age, gender, etc.

Another important difference to note is that Facebook only shows ads on Facebook.com, while AdWords, MSN and Yahoo show their ads on search partner sites as well as publishing partners through their content networks. By limiting ad serving to their own property, publisher click fraud becomes a non-concern and the only type of click fraud that can exist is competitive click fraud, however that could basically increase your avg. position and impression share.

Fellow Clickable Guru Ehren Reilly has outlined more differences and targeting options for Facebook in a recent series dedicated to advertising on social networks.

When you consider that the number of logged in visits on Facebook is comparable to the number of visits to the world’s largest search engine, Google, plus the fact that Facebook is continuing to grow at an aggressive rate, advertising on social networks such as Facebook appears to be a great option for online marketers to promote their products and services - now and for many years to come.

Facebook and Clickable have partnered to help you manage Facebook ads simply alongside your search campaigns. Sign up today at Clickable.com/facebook to receive your $100 Facebook advertising credit.

Andrew Bernero, Clickable SEM Guru
Note: Clickable employees volunteer several hours a week to helping other search marketers succeed. "Clickable Gurus" participate in numerous online search communities to provide straightforward answers to numerous questions, and, each week, one of the gurus posts a search marketing tip to the Clickable Blog.



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