It was reported in the Guardian this week http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/mar/29/facebook-online-advertising-social-media that display advertising in the UK had grown a full 27% in the UK last year. A large percentage of this was attrbuted to Facebook display advertising. The article reported that Facebook UK had made about £100m in ad revenue, whilist the paid for search market had grown by only 8% to £2.35bn
What can we learn from this?
Despite reports to the contrary, Google won’t be panicing too much about the growth of Facebook advertising looking at these figures. Although this was described as companies jumping on the social media bandwagon, this is actually just display advertising - on a social media site.
Why won’t more advertisers move budget from Google to Facebook?
Search Engine Traffic from SEO is highly targeted - If someone is searching for a “House to Let in Cheltenham” then they are already in the purchase funnel and have expressed a fairly clear interest in your product or service (presuming you are a lettings agent and offer homes in the Cheltenham area). You don’t need to influence them towards it – they ARE ALREADY a potential customer.
Search Engine Traffic from SEO is highly measureable. Every click can be measured and analysed through to an on-site conversion point. To clarify – you can prescribe exactly the term which a customer types in to find your business and advertise on it. This is more exacting than prescribing a potential customer by gender, age or location.
Why advertise on Facebook.
You know your target audience extremelty well and can take advantage of Facebooks excellent geo-demographic targeting.
You are brand building and have allocated budget to brand awareness
Its cheaper per click than Google or Bing or Yahoo.
