[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Glice

Advertising is far, far too clever (or evil, or statistic-dependant, depending on viewpoint) to rely on direct clicks on actual adverts.

sorry, that's wrong-- online advertising isn't measured like ads in the london tube. pay-per-click is the current model. impressions are important, but conversions (purchases) is the actual goal. it's a better way to ensure the client is getting a return on their money ("ROI", return on investment, is the industry jargon). which is why banner ads are mostly pointless and dead these days (except for the targeted ones that track your browser behavior)-- a million people look at them but nobody does anything about them.

unlike the "london tube" where you look at an ad and say "oh, there's such shit for sale" and go on about your day, online there is the potential of seeing, clicking, and purchasing-- the more seamless the transition the more profitable the model. clickable ads, clickable video, impulse buys, etc.

amazon dominates online sales today, so to simplify the problem, the question is what advertiser is better equipped to drive customers to the amazon tills-- facebook or google?

and yes, facebook is a great marketing tool, but it's great for businesses, not for facebook itself-- a way maybe to turn their model to profit would be to start charging business for using the service, like a website or tv channel would-- right now businesses make money and facebook has little to show for it, except for the fame--oh, and billions of dollars of market valuation of course. *but the P/E ratio remains utter shit*, unlike google, which is a real business with fat profits.

anyway, nobody has a crystal ball of course, but realize that online ads aren't the same as traditional street ads. online ads are all about conversion and transactions. e.g., see here a manual of sorts for the industry: http://www.adspeed.com/Knowledges/76..._tracking.html

[note: of course now street ads are starting to catch up with online by providing QR codes for your phone, so you can in theory point, click, and buy from your phone while standing in front of an ad, but that's not a widespread model just yet, at least here in 'merica-- give it a few years though.]