I know I’ve been ragging on Facebook a lot lately…so why stop now?
Let’s examine why, in spite of their ever increasing ad revenue, Facebook ads are just terrible (for users).
For the purposes of this post I’m going to compare Facebook ads to search ads, and let’s just narrow that to talk about Google Adwords.
What are both type of ads trying to accomplish?
Here’s my assumption:
Both Facebook ads and Google (search) Ads are trying to deliver more relevant advertisements to their customers. If you choose to disagree with this assumption, please do so in the comments. I honestly believe that is what both companies (types of ads) strive to do.
More relevant ads = more clickthroughs = more business demand to place ads = more ad revenue.
What is the difference between them?
With Facebook ads, users are served ads in the right-hand sidebar based upon information in their profile, I assume public profile information only. Facebook also looks at the pages that a user “likes” and shows ads based upon that information as well. Users are shown ads as they browse around Facebook commenting on each other’s walls, reading their newsfeed, playing games and looking at photos.
On Google, users enter a search query and along side of the organic search results are paid search advertisements based upon the keywords in the search query.
To summarize, on Facebook users are served ads while browsing, on Google users are served ads relevant to what they are searching for. Why is this important to acknowledge?
The mindset
When I’m on Facebook, I’m not looking for something to buy, I’m not looking for another company’s page to “like.” My newsfeed is cluttered enough and Facebook makes getting to my friend lists a 3-click process. I’m on Facebook to socialize, which is odd given that it’s a “SOCIAL NETWORK.” What that means is that the mindset I’m in is relatively impervious to advertisements. I mentally block them out. Actually now I use the adblock plugin for Google Chrome and just bypass them altogether.
But to illustrate the point, I turned off the plugin. Here’s a few ads I saw today while doing things completely unrelated to the content of these ads:
I was looking at someone’s honeymoon photos. How is this at all relevant?
When I’m on Google, I am actively searching for something. In some cases I’m just looking for information, but in other cases I am looking for information about a business, product or service. The mindset I am in, is more susceptible to making a purchase.
Search ads are far more effective at driving conversions that result in dollars, otherwise known as sales. Facebook ads are better at driving people to “like” another page, which businesses hope will lead to sales once the user becomes a touch-point for the company’s Facebook page.
My Issue
All of the information that Facebook gleans from my “likes” and profile information is used to serve up ads that I don’t want and don’t acknowledge. When I see them, I find them obnoxious and an intrusion on what would be an otherwise clean white space on the page. Facebook needs to make money, all businesses do, but I don’t believe that ads are the way to do it. Given the issues Facebook has had with privacy, I don’t trust them to use my personal information responsibly. I expect that they will sell every ounce of information on me to push ads in my face, in a space where I am not receptive.
So last night, I went from 283 pages “Liked” to 42 and from 190 connected apps to 32. I think Google is a better company to give marketable data, but I’m sure you can guess why, it has something to do with search.
Thoughts? Am I wrong? Do you LOVE Facebook ads?