Google trumps Facebook, except on the Google+ front

For decades, businesses relied heavily on newspapers to advertise. Newspapers would (and still do) tout their circulation numbers to woo advertisers who want those readers to become their customers. But just because 500,000 people pick up a paper does not necessarily mean that they read every article and every ad. One person may pick up a paper to read only the sports section, and they entirely miss all the stories and ads in the news section.

The beauty of Google is that not only can they target ads to the people who are searching for a product similar to the thing the advertiser is trying to sell, they can also tell you how many times the ad was delivered as well as how many people clicked through to the advertiser. Google has turned advertising into a science. However, that’s not to say the Google folks are not still artists. They’ve delivered some genius print ads that cleverly demonstrate why digital advertising is so valuable.
But other forms of advertising are not necessarily dead – even print. But now, you can’t just pick one form of advertising. Companies are successfully launching campaigns across platforms, and they’re figuring out the biggest bang for their buck through targeting. Antony Young gives Nike as an example of a company that has figured out how to effectively disburse their advertising funds using a multi-pronged approach. Nike very purposefully creates an experience across media for their customers rather than a single sales pitch (Young, pp. 37-38).

Facebook’s value thus far has been in connecting people with other people as well as products, but not necessarily through paid advertising. Businesses have always attracted new customers in part by word of mouth, and Facebook is the new word of mouth. Instead of asking the ladies in church group about the best beautician in town, you can just put up a quick Facebook post: “Just moved to Birmingham. Where should I get my hair cut?” and sit back and wait for the notifications. It’s not easy for a business to buy their way into this kind of conversation. But they can get close by using Facebook’s ads targeted depending on basic information like gender and location as well as the pages you like. The smartest companies are creating “unpaid armies of customers” through branding to spread the word about their products for them (Antony, p 34).

There is certainly potential for Facebook’s advertising to grow. In fact, Google’s redesign of Gmail may have just helped Facebook become one of fewer options for marketers looking to advertise. Because Gmail now filters “promotional” material to a separate tab in the user’s inbox, email marketing campaigns may take a hit. But Facebook should be able to save the day with its targeted ads by email address.

I think Facebook is and will for a long time be a social giant. Google has shown that despite successes in many other areas, it still hasn’t quite gotten the hang of developing a social network – see the now retired Google Buzz and the still sluggish Google+. But Google has the money-making thing down pat, posting a $14.1 billion revenue for the second quarter of 2013. Facebook did better than expected in 2Q, posting a revenue of $1.81 billion.

Reference:
Young, Antony. (2010). Brand Media Strategy [iBooks for iPad mini]. Retrieved from https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/brand-media-strategy/id425330355?mt=11