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I’m not surprised. Google shows me ads for things I’m searching for, but Facebook shows me ads for things I wouldn’t even know to look for. I can definitely see how one or the other would be better depending on the type of product.



On the whole, Google shows me two types of ads: things I don't want, and things that are competing with non-ad links to the same product.

I can understand why Google gets bidding wars over people searching for "vacuum cleaner" or "cheap web hosting", but for most other things I can't quite imagine the use case. I either don't want to buy something, or I know who I'm buying from.

Facebook seems much better placed to show things like "hey, you liked this band and you live in this town, did you know they're coming next month?" On very rare occasions, FB actually manages to achieve the theoretical role of ads as "notifying people about mutually beneficial transactions". And when they don't, I can at least see that the ads are having effects like "making me aware of a consulting firm" that a marketer might value. Meanwhile, I've never seen a Google search ad I valued, and I don't know if I've ever seen an Ad Words ad I valued.

(Actually, I've benefited from Youtube ads occasionally also. But only ever for learning about new-release music, movies, or games.)


Search intent matters and FB + Google ads are shown in different contexts. Of course the FB vs Google comparison in aggregate is useful but performance varies across markets and also depends on the attribution model.




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