Do you remember the last time you clicked on a Google Ad? Because I don’t. Call it ad blindness, but my eye instantly scans down below the half-page of ads to get to the content I was searching for.
But I DO find myself clicking on more than a handful of Facebook Ads every day. And, of course, I wasn’t even looking for anything. Not purposefully or consciously, anyway.
Also Read: Busting 4 Myths of Social Media Advertising [Infographic]
Is this just me? I seriously doubt it.
In fact, when I put together my epic research sample of one and my handy social media crystal ball, I’m willing to wager that Facebook will edge out Google as the obvious choice for small business marketers by the end of the year. If it hasn’t already.
The fundamental difference between the Google and Facebook advertising platforms is asking an important philosophical question in a way that will end the debate about it in the form of advertising dollars.
Who is the better judge of what the consumer is really looking for – the consumer or an aggregate of raw behavioral data? My money’s on the latter.
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Google has to wait for my clumsily worded search to deliver an ad to me. It may do me the favor of correcting my spelling, but that’s about the extent of it. In fact, because creating an effective Google search now requires such linguistic expertise, my search is not likely to return any ads at all. Googling well has become a skill that far exceeds the limits of “key” search words.
Facebook, on the other hand, has become uncannily adept at knowing what I’m looking for before I do. In a sense, Facebook is often superseding my Google search by anticipating it. This is a model in which the ads come to me, rather than the other way around.
Most of the time, Facebook is doing a darned good job of it, too. Such that there is little question that making ads incredibly potent is the giant network’s top priority, and has been for quite some time. They are nailing it.
Unless you’re among those who have set down stakes in the privacy alarmist camp, extreme target marketing is a welcome turn in the advertising tide. For the consumer and the advertiser – and each of us is, of course, both.
As a smaller and niche business, it is a dream-come-true to get so beautifully specific about who I’m advertising to. As a consumer, I’m super glad Facebook knew how much I wanted that rad Pi Day tee-shirt. Because I didn’t.
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