Money+makers?+Google+vs+social+media

Money Makers? Google vs Social Media

www.searchenginejournal.com/digg-facebook-and-youtube-show-us-the-money/5639/ Here’s a striking number for you – Google generates about 60% of its revenue from just three broad categories – retail, travel and financial services. Google is worth over $160 Billion for one simple reason – clicks on AdWords lead to real (and often immediate) purchases, more often than not in one of these three categories. People type in “hotel in Tampa,” they click on an Orbitz ad, and then they book a room. That’s where the money comes from. What about the social networking sites? Let’s start with facebook. I’m looking at my own profile page now and see one 120×600 tower ad on the left side of the page. I refresh a few times. I’m clearly seeing a lot of cheap run-of-network ads. In four impressions, I get two job sites, one for AOL Search and a public service message from the Ad Council. You know you’re raking in big bucks when you’re pumping out ads for the Ad Council. Average CPM? My guess is ten cents/1000 at the most. Keep in mind that even a 10 cent CPM gets you just $100,000 for every billion impressions. What about Digg? Let’s see, they have an audience of angry teenagers. That makes for pretty tough sledding in travel and financial services. Oh, and did I mention that the audience seems to hate advertising? So, maybe Digg’s not the best place to launch your new product. Thus we see mostly text-based AdSense ads on the front page. And, it’s a news site, which unlike Google search, is not exactly a place where transactions are initiated. Then there’s YouTube. I know I’m far from the first person to question the monetization there, but I include them to help illuminate the pattern. I’m sorry, Google, but network television is worth something because it’s edited. There’s someone to sue if the live program you’re sponsoring lets a [|naughty word] or a [|wardrobe malfunction] tarnish your brand. What major brand advertiser in their right mind would expose themselves to content that is far edgier than that on a daily basis? Let me check. Two refreshes, two impressions: one ad for Get Zwinky and one for Webfetti. And, finally, there’s twitter. I don’t even know where to begin with that one.