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Search for Obama on Facebook and You Get Romney

diegobasch.com

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Re: Search for Obama on Facebook and You Get Romney

#2

Post by joelrunyon »

Bidding on competitor terms is nothing new.

Yes, it might be a poor use of their money, but they can decide what to do with their ad money.

As a commenter on the blog noted: Google regulates this somewhat with their quality score algorithm and charges more for people with irrelevant ads & content, but at the ened of the day, if someone wants to bid their way to the top, it's still just an auction system and they can certainly do that if they want.

Re: Search for Obama on Facebook and You Get Romney

#3

Post by drivebyacct2 »

To be fair, it's under a "Sponsored" heading (if you look hard enough).

I completely agree with the article. People complain about the screen real estate on Google results pages without realizing that the other things on the page are either highly relevant ads, or tools to help you search better/efficiently.

In this case, Facebook is doing the opposite. NOTHING about that is good and I don't know why anyone would pay for it. Anyone looking for Obama is not going to NOT NOTICE that they just wound up on Romney's page. They're going to roll their eyes, do the search again and be more diligent.

And Romney will have paid for that click in one way or another. Maybe I'll go do that search a few more times...

Re: Search for Obama on Facebook and You Get Romney

#4

Post by diego »

joelrunyon wrote: post #2

Bidding on competitor terms is nothing new. Yes, it might be a poor use of their money, but they can decide what to do with their ad money. As a commenter on the blog noted: Google regulates this somewhat with their quality score algorithm and charges more for people with irrelevant ads & content, but at the ened of the day, if someone wants to bid their way to the top, it's still just an auction system and they can…

That is true for Google. However, we don't know if this is the case with Facebook. I have no insider knowledge, but I suspect that Romney's campaign must have approached Facebook and worked out a one-off deal. I see Romney as the top sponsored result every time I try the search. Apparently it started several weeks ago. For me it won't stop showing up, even when it's clear that I have no intention of ever clicking on it.

My opinion is that it's a terrible way for Facebook to showcase their entry into the market of paid placement for search results.

Re: Search for Obama on Facebook and You Get Romney

#5

Post by callmeed »

diego wrote: post #4
joelrunyon wrote: post #2

Bidding on competitor terms is nothing new. Yes, it might be a poor use of their money, but they can decide what to do with their ad money. As a commenter on the blog noted: Google regulates this somewhat with their quality score algorithm and charges more for people with irrelevant ads & content, but at the ened of the day, if someone wants to bid their way to the top, it's still just an auction system and they can…

That is true for Google. However, we don't know if this is the case with Facebook. I have no insider knowledge, but I suspect that Romney's campaign must have approached Facebook and worked out a one-off deal. I see Romney as the top sponsored result every time I try the search. Apparently it started several weeks ago. For me it won't stop showing up, even when it's clear that I have no intention of ever clicking on…

I doubt it. It could just as easily be a pro-Romney PAC or Super-Pac. If you look at this tracker, many of the PACs are spending 6-figures at a time on "Internet/Web" ads:

http://projects.propublica.org/pactrack/#committee=C00490045

The PACs aren't allowed to have direct contact with the candidates.

Re: Search for Obama on Facebook and You Get Romney

#7

Post by joelrunyon »

diego wrote: post #4
joelrunyon wrote: post #2

Bidding on competitor terms is nothing new. Yes, it might be a poor use of their money, but they can decide what to do with their ad money. As a commenter on the blog noted: Google regulates this somewhat with their quality score algorithm and charges more for people with irrelevant ads & content, but at the ened of the day, if someone wants to bid their way to the top, it's still just an auction system and they can…

That is true for Google. However, we don't know if this is the case with Facebook. I have no insider knowledge, but I suspect that Romney's campaign must have approached Facebook and worked out a one-off deal. I see Romney as the top sponsored result every time I try the search. Apparently it started several weeks ago. For me it won't stop showing up, even when it's clear that I have no intention of ever clicking on…

>I see Romney as the top sponsored result every time I try the search. Apparently it started several weeks ago. For me it won't stop showing up, even when it's clear that I have no intention of ever clicking on it.

It's most likely designed that way. While it might not work to make YOU click it, most likely neither do paid search ads. Fortunately, 2-3% of searchers do find them useful and those 2-3% of people usually translate into substantial revenue that makes the continued advertisement worthwhile for the advertiser to continue.

Re: Search for Obama on Facebook and You Get Romney

#9

Post by tibbon »

drivebyacct2 wrote: post #3

To be fair, it's under a "Sponsored" heading (if you look hard enough). I completely agree with the article. People complain about the screen real estate on Google results pages without realizing that the other things on the page are either highly relevant ads, or tools to help you search better/efficiently . In this case, Facebook is doing the opposite. NOTHING about that is good and I don't know why anyone would pa…

Actually, when I searched it came up like this:

http://i.imgur.com/VycSD.png

Not sponsored (for me). Just showing the opposite in the search results.

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