Priceline.com CEO Darren Huston is quoted in Bloomberg in saying that spending money on Google ads has been great in increasing sales. But spending “an endless amount of money” on Facebook and Twitter, “there’s nothing there.”
In other words, Google ads lead to increased sales. Facebook and Twitter ads don’t. Why is that?
First off, Facebook and Twitter sell display ads. Banner ads. Google’s search engine is completely different.
When people go to a search engine like Google, they have a need. They are actively looking. When people see a banner ad and click on it, it might mean the clicker is curious, but doesn’t mean they have a need. And then you can’t forget all the accidental clicks banner ads pick up too.
But for some reason, businesses think that Facebook and Twitter is just like Google in getting clicks to increase sales and then they PAY AROUND THE SAME PRICE PER CLICK AS THEY DO WITH GOOGLE.
In the next 1-3 years as people start to realize what the Priceline CEO is finding out, Facebook clicks and Twitter clicks will drop to the same price as the average display ad. And then Facebook and Twitter might become a more viable advertising vehicle.
But banner ads are completely different than search. The bigger value of doing them is like TV advertising where you want to make your brand more well known in your market. If you think the banner ads will immediately boost sales like Google ads do, you’re going to be disappointed.