In my last blog post, I talked about the Facebook marketing strategy via Facebook itself. Since that time, it’s been reported that Facebook has surpassed Yahoo as the “No.1 revenue-generating site.” Companies are spending more than one in five ad dollars to purchase ads on Facebook.
What is it that makes Facebook so appealing to advertisers? Facebook advertising functions on a completely different level than search. It functions more like a combination of managed network placements, with both keywords and control over specific demographic information. Facebook has essentially taken what Google does across the web, and put it in one location for display. Instead of waiting for visitors to go to particular sites, Facebook allows an advertiser to target them based on information they have proactively shared with the Facebook community.
This unique approach to paid search is what is allowing Facebook to quickly become Google’s #1 competitor. As of now, Facebook has captured 21.6% of all US display ad dollars, and will most likely continue its growth.
Social Search, a patent for internet search, allows Facebook to build searches based on the actions of a user. As such, user images, posts, etc., will be Facebook’s largest asset in their push towards competing on the Search Engine market.
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You can see this functionality in action on your drop down menu when searching for a friend. You search for a friend and Facebook intelligently organizes relevant “Chris” items based on your interactions. There are hundreds of potential ways that this can affect their current distribution of ads. One way is to display ads based on the involvement a person has with a particular fan page, phrase in a comment, or item in a photo. The options are almost limitless at this point, but the results are the same…the future of Facebook Advertising is about driving the most highly qualified visitors on the web to your site.
