Does Google “Suck” and Is Facebook the Greatest Kept Secret?

By Richard, on March 17th, 2010

Facebook has increasingly been challenging Google in terms of weekly visits and finally, for the week ending March 13, Facebook surpassed Google; Facebook got 7.07% while Google got 7.03% of all visits to websites. Hitwise calls this a milestone.

A look at the chart below will show how one year has brought massive increases in visitors to Facebook.

From Heather Dougherty, Director Research, Hitwise

Is this change enough to warrant believing that Google Adwords “sucks” as Ryan Deiss has said in his promotional video and reason enough to go and do Facebook advertising? Personally, I doubt it.

Disclaimer: I have spent very little on advertising at either site. I have not spent ten years doing Adwords as Deiss has done. If you have not seen the Ryan Deiss promotional video, here is a link — it is not an affiliate link for me.

So who am I to doubt the words of the experienced marketer? Deiss claims that Facebook advertising

Is much bigger than Google
Is less competitive than Google
Offers better targeting, and
Is less expensive than Google.

All of those points are more or less true. Well, I’m not sure about #1. Bigger in what way? Visitors? Well just barely (see above). Page views? Yes, that is probably true since there is some argument about how the “hits” are counted (many people use Google in the browser bar without ‘going’ to Google).

As a novice advertiser, I will say that Facebook is a lot easier to use. There is no doubt that you can “target” certain audiences. For example, I can limit my Facebook advertisement to pages that have certain keywords, words that Facebook users have also used in building their pages. I happened to say something about model railroads in my “interests” and lo! I get model railroading ads on my Facebook page.

However, I am not actively interested in model railroading. I am not looking for advice or products relevant to model railroading.

That brings me to a key difference between the two sites, and a fact that Ryan left out of his interesting promotional video. People who use Google are searching for something. If you have done your ad correctly and Google has done its algorithm correctly, you might say that when your ad pops up, they are looking for you. This is not true on Facebook. No one goes to Facebook to look up information on pet urine cleaner. An ad on Facebook for such a product can be targeted to those who own a particular type of pet, that is true. But that does not mean the person is searching for that information.

In print terms, it is the difference between a yellow pages ad and a display ad in a pet magazine. In the case of the former, I want an immediate solution and resource. In the case of the latter, it is hit or miss.

Of course Adwords allows for a similar placement when they give the advertiser an option to show the ad on “content pages.” I am not convinced how effective that is compared to outright searches. I notice that I have gotten a lot of clicks off content pages, but I don’t think the NEED is there – that the visitor is driven like one who is searching for what I am offering. I recently dropped “content centered pages” from the teeny bit of advertising that I do with Adwords. Frankly, I put most of my time and money into my own content and in content syndication.

I am not saying to forget about Facebook advertising (I have done a tad of Facebook ads myself). I am not even saying to forget about Ryan Deiss’ Facebook Ads training package. He describes some decent value. Only the purchaser will know for sure if it is something they need right now or not.

DOG: “He wants me to go, but what’s the attraction for me?” [NVTOfficeClips]

What I am saying is – Google may be complex and aggravating and expensive, but it can do something that Facebook cannot do. Google (and search engines generally) can put a message in front of someone who is outright asking for the message. For clarity, I distinguish two types of online advertising this way:

Attraction-centered ad campaigns. People come to me because they are looking for me. I already have their attention. This is what happens when I use advertising within search results, such as Adwords.
Targeted ad campaigns. I track down my target because I am looking for them. I try to get their attention, to drag them to the message. This is what happens when I place Adwords in content areas where my target audience frequents or on Facebook pages of people who might have an interest in my message at some point in their lives.

So evaluate Deiss’ message accordingly.

Here’s a view along the lines of my own:

Simply put, people go to Google because they are looking for something – - the inquisitive act of seeking naturally lends itself to advertising. Whereas people go to Facebook to socialize and share with friends and relatives in an environment in which advertising is viewed by many as an intrusion and a distraction. –Sam Gustin at Daily Finance