Ads work best if they catch people when they have purchase intent, the Internet entrepreneur and investor Chris Dixon writes in a blog. That's the magic of Google search ads. If I conduct a search for the word "refrigerator," I'm probably looking to buy a fridge.
But Facebook members aren't there to shop, other than for cows in FarmVille. Hence, Facebook ads are not effective.
Facebook will need to find its own marketing and ad model in order to succeed. The same goes for Twitter. I'm not sure Sponsored Stories are it. They're just another variety of ad. A better approach might be helping companies build brand awareness, like TV and most analog ads do.
Lack of purchase intent also explains Google's difficulty monetizing nonsearch products like Gmail. Android seems promising. When people are out and about, they're often looking to buy things and otherwise spend money.
But AllThingsD's Peter Kafka says branding ads are much tougher to measure than search ads. With search ads, you can measure actions -- "Did someone click on my search ad? Did they buy something or fill out a form once they got to my site?" That's harder to do with TV commercials and brand-awareness ads on Facebook and Twitter.
The Facebook marketing cause certainly wasn't helped by GM quitting advertising there. The automaker's decision was announced in a high-profile Wall Street Journal article a few days before Facebook's initial public offering.
Barbara Krafte - That's very interesting about older demographics on Facebook.
I recall a statement by TV critic James Poniewozik ca. 2000: He said the reason there are so few shows for older viewers is that older viewers don't respond to advertising compared with the 18-34 demographic. They've already figured out what beer and toothpaste they want.
Mitch, the fact there's a fair number of older demographic groups on FB isn't surprising. But for marketers they're not in play.
Many accounts were set either by their kids or themselves for the purpose staying in touch and sharing pictures. Recent studies show they are not actively involved in the FB communities, don't often frequent brand pages, and show little, if any, interest in clicking on ads.
Reason I ask is that older people are surprisingly active on Facebook. This often surprises younger marketers, but it makes sense if you think about it. The longer you live, the more time you've had to move around and therefore the more friends and family you have in faraway places. And you'll want to keep up with those faraway friends and family on Facebook.
I guess it's a little bit of both. I didn't expect them to get into the ad game so I found it easy to block it out as other useless content they put on my screen.
FYI: I excluded 0-14 and 65-100+ in order to have a more aligned comparison with the graph on Facebook.
I'm getting a bit cross-eyed comparing the two graphs but from what I see, there is an overrepresentation, but only a little. Of course, to a population of 7 billion, 1% means 70 million.
Daily use is highest among the 18-29 and 30-49 age groups (60%)...
- Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project 2012 study on search engine usage
And:
As you can see, the same age groups are active on both search and Facebook. And even then, age per se is not the independent variable here, since the 18-25/29 group trumps the below 18 group. I'd say that it's more a "life stage" thing—it's when you're a young adult that you have more dispensable for gadgets, "me time" and need to socialize outside of your family. Thus, you spend more time online, whether it be on web browsing or on social networking. Before and after that, there's less online activity in general. Or it could just be a Millenial thing.
The difference still is behavior. Search involves seeking behavior, while Facebook use is more fun and reactive.
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