Forget Google/Microsoft, Google/Apple…perhaps the most intriguing battle currently presently brewing is between search and social media or more accurately between Google and Facebook for performance advertising spend. Regular readers of this blog will know that this is something that has been of interest to me for a little while, and it appears that our friends over at NMA are now starting to notice, hence their article on the subject that can be found here.

As noted previously, the sheer volume of Facebook interactions (page/ad impressions, clicks, length of engagement,) and the level of targeting on offer, has meant that the level of interest in Facebook has perhaps run ahead of it’s ability to deliver. The potential withion Facebook is huge, no it will never be as targeted as search, but it could be the way of generating genuine incremental sales, which search surely isn’t.

To me the interesting point is not only have Facebook taken the advertising in house, but that agencies such as TBG are now offer dedicated Facebook advertising optimisation services. To me it seems obvious that social media will become the new frontier for performance marketing, where more users might have to be targeted to get a conversion, but perhaps it’ll be from someone who wasn’t already searching for the product.

Rob, Founder, On-e.