1. Intention-Based Search
Intention Based Search (IBS for short) refers to the motivations guiding a searcher's query of a search engine. Conventional advertising wisdom suggests that an ad is intrinsically more effective when it is on the receiving end of a searcher intending to find the type of product being advertised.
This is why, marketers argue, ad campaigns such as Google Adwords are most successful in terms of conversion rate. The searcher was typing words in and specifically looking for products or services in your market when they discovered your ad. Therefore, such intention-based ads are more effective, the argument goes.
An interesting fact about Facebook ads is that they are primarly demographic-based, and not intention-based. In other words, they are not keyword-driven, but rather are driven by factors such as age, educational attainment, geography and the like.
Thus the challenge a site like Facebook presents to search engine marketers is one of justification. A marketing department with a limited budget and under pressure to economize ad spend must be able to see the merits of demographic vs. intention-based advertising.
2. Facebook and Impression-Based Advertising
Ad impressions are often discussed in the context of branding, reputation management, public relations and brand-awareness. This makes sense. Some social psychological studies on the effects of advertising on the mind support the claim that, if a person sees a brand enough times, over a long enough period, that ad will make a lasting "impression" in the subconscious.
Interestingly enough, Facebook offers both impression based and click-based advertising options. What's even more interesting: a site with easily 20 million active users and roughly 80 million total users, Facebook offers impression-Based advertising at a fraction of the cost that Google, Yahoo or MSN do. One almost has to take this into account when discussing the ROI of any prospective ad campaign.
3. Speaking of ROI ...
The Facebook ad platform almost makes me as a marketer say, "Well, what the hey! I can get a million or more impressions for only $300 or $400 bucks!? What have I got to lose!?" While the quantitative ROI of Facebook may be poorer than that of more traditional PPC ad services, the qualitative ROI (and yes, there is a qualitative dimension to it) may actually be better. In short, Facebook motivates me as an Internet marketer to throroughly reexamine the viabilty of the entire philosophy of impression-based advertising.
4. Keyword Driven Marketing
The idea of keyword-driven marketing has come into vogue in the SEM world over the past couple of years. In fact, big name marketing firms like Acronym Media have packaged and service-marked similar phrases to underscore the importance of good industry keyword research to successful Internet marketing.
Facebook's ad system - being much more demographic-based than keyword based, may be seen as lacking in its downplaying of keyword driven advertising. In Facebook, you can select keywords to trigger your ads, but the keywords you have to choose from are significantly more limited when compared to a pedigreed ad platform such as AdWords.
In addition, Facebook's essentially closed community prohibits any really authoritative third-party keyword intelligence reports, such as the kind published by Trellian or the old Overture. Not only does this deficit present the entrepreneuring Web developer with sizzling opportunities for application development, but it acts as a slap in the face to the Internet marketer beholden to the time-honored keyword approach to SEM and SEO.
Combine this with the SEs unrelenting attempts to unhinge rankings from keywords through vehicles like personalized and universal search, and semantic web technologies, and we marketers have got some seriously brain-breaking homework ahead of us!
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CORRECTION: As of the date of publish for this blog post, the number of Facebook users was more or less accurate. As of today (July 25, 2010) that number has skyrocketed. Some reports suggest that FB now has over 500 million registered users, with at least 100 million active, regular users. If true, this would have to amplify FB's power for branding.
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