Google’s +1 button is coming to display ads →
Google’s Inside Adwords blog:
For example, take Elaine, who sees an ad for discount flights. She +1’s the ad, thinking her friends might value similar deals. Now when Elaine’s friends and contacts are logged into Google and see the discount flight ad on any of the millions of GDN partner websites, they’ll see Elaine’s picture across the bottom of the ad with a note saying she +1’d it.
Interesting that ads will show users who have +1′d the specific ad rather than the brand. This causes the social context to kick in only if your connections have seen a specific ad. We know social context (putting the names and photos of your friends who like the brand that’s advertising into their ad units) increases Facebook ad performance tremendously. It’s surprising that Google launched this before brand pages exist on Google+, which would enable them to capture that performance lift through the friends of everyone who has +1′d the brand.
Most Facebook ads on the Facebook homepage are sold on a cost-per-impression basis, but if Google sells these display ads on a cost-per-click basis the social context performance lift could be a tremendous revenue-generator for them. Social context is also a key benefit that only Facebook can offer advertisers right now. If ads with social targeting and social context can be run through Google (across the web), there’s no reason for advertisers to limit their ads to run on only one (albeit high traffic) website.
Hopefully Facebook is enjoying their impressive ad revenue growth this year. It may not last for long.
