Google and
Facebook are great places for brands to start advertising. Both platforms have self-service ad
interfaces that are easy to use and manage in-house. Google search accounts for 66.5% of search
share, out of 20 billion searches a month (McGee, 2013). Using Google Adwords is a quick and easy way
to start showing up in desired search results.
Facebook is also a great place to advertise. As of the end of 2012, the average time spent
on Facebook a month was 6.75 hours (Fox, 2012).
With consumers spending so much time on Facebook, it is a perfect place
for marketers to reach consumers.
Both
platforms offer easy self-service interfaces and have no minimum spend
requirements. Additionally, both
Facebook and Google ads work because they are native ads. “Native advertising
is advertising unique to a particular site or platform” (Macdonald, 2013, para.
2). This is why Google and Facebook ads
are successful. The ad format is similar
to the design of the content on the page or platform. This type of ad is unobtrusive is more likely
to be viewed than an ad that would disrupt the content and look out of
place. For example, if you Google “landscaping”,
the paid ads look similar to the organic results that populate. On Facebook, the ads that appear in the newsfeed
are formatted to look similar to ordinary posts.
When
using Facebook to advertise, it is important to keep in mind how Facebook ranks
its content. Facebook uses their
algorithm, called Edgerank, to rank posts featured in the newsfeed. Edgerank is based on three primary factors:
affinity, weight, and time decay (Al-Greene, 2013). Affinity measures the relationship between
the user and the content creator. The
more a user interacts with that person, the higher the score. Weight is based on the type of content
posted. Facebook gives more weight to
photo and video posts than plain text updates.
Finally, the time content is posted is factored into the equation. As a post ages, it loses value, so the
newsfeed focuses on the most recent information.
Due
to Edgerank, only 16% of fans will see a post on average (Al-Greene, 2013). This is an extremely low percentage of fans
that will see organic posts. Facebook
ads allow brands to target fans, friends of fans, or users based on other
specific interests. With this targeting,
ads are able to reach a larger percentage of users. Without Facebook ads, most brand organic
posts will never be seen.
Facebook
is not the only platform to use an algorithm.
Google uses a unique algorithm to rank search results, for both organic
and paid. Google’s ad rank is based on
two factors: quality score and bid. Bid
is the maximum cost-per-click a brand is willing to pay. Quality score is a measurement of how
relevant ads, keywords, and landing page are to a person seeing an ad (Google,
2013). A higher quality score can lead
to lower prices and higher ad positions.
For example, even if Brand A has a higher bid, but Brand B has a higher
quality score, Brand B’s ad will win the auction and secure a higher position
for a lower cost.
Overall,
both Facebook and Google are great places to implement targeted, relevant ads
that reach consumers in a non-obtrusive way.
With the easy-to-use interface and no minimum spend requirements, any
business, small or large, can immediately take advantage of these advertising
opportunities.
References
Al-Greene, B. (2013, May 7). What is Facebook
Edgerank and why does it matter?. Mashable. Retrieved on June 9, 2013 from http://mashable.com/2013/05/07/facebook-edgerank-infographic/
Fox, Z. (2012, November 28). This is how much time
you spend on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr. Mashable. Retrieved on June 9, 2013
from http://mashable.com/2012/11/28/social-media-time/
Google. (2013). Adwords support. Retrieved on June
9, 2013 from https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/140351?hl=en&ref_topic=24937
Macdonald, R. (2013, January 2). Why native ads
matter. Digiday. Retrieved on June 9, 2013 from http://www.digiday.com/publishers/why-native-ads-matter/
McGee, M. (2013, May 15). Bing rises above 17%
search market share as Google slips [comScore]. SearchEngineLand.com. Retrieved
on June 9, 2013 from http://searchengineland.com/bing-rises-above-17-search-market-share-as-google-slips-comscore-159746
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