New Chart: Lines Between Display Ads, Search, and Social Blurring Rapidly

Search Marketers Report Their Use of PPC Properties

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As this chart shows, usage of the recently introduced PPC on Facebook is only slightly less than that of Yahoo!’s well established content network. The somewhat sticky question this provokes is why, in a siloed world of search, display and offline media buying, are search marketers buying display ads? If more and more media buying moves to performance-based PPC bid models, does that put the Search Marketer in charge of the larger media buying budget?

To muddy the waters further, PPC ads on Facebook are often designed to drive users to Facebook-markable web pages creating a viral spread effect within the social network. These engaged users posting links on their Facebook pages drive organic traffic-until now the domain of SEO experts. The effect of all this is that more experts have to become generalists, and cross-functional strategies are becoming more common.

Wherever there are consumers clicking, there are search marketers and PPC ad buyers at work. In fact, as more publishers opt to offer a PPC buying option, the universe of PPC ads will continue to increase. Facebook serves as a perfect example. They offer advertisers the choice to buy display ads on a CPM basis or bid for PPC placements in nearly the same way that Google sells text ads on their content network. These big, successful publishers would not be using the model if it didn’t work. The collective web has arrived, and trained search marketers stand to benefit greatly from this shift in the advertising industry.