Google Bashes Facebook for GM Ad Loss

There's no love lost between these two.

Everybody knows Google's famous internal mantra, "Don't be evil." So, is it evil to kick a competitor when they're down? Less than 24 hours after news that Facebook is losing General Motor's $10 million ad campaign, we were a bit surprised to see one Google executive tweeted a public slam of his employer's social media rival.

And MobilePhonesFan saved a copy for you...

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Obviously, as Google's product leader for display ads you might assume Mr. Bigler is less than objective on this topic. Even so, his comment was far from the worst Twitter criticism aimed at Facebook. The Wall Street Journal’s Dennis Berman used his account to explain that GM pulled the plug for a very simple reason: “the ads didn’t work.”

Oh, snap. Still, 140-character attacks are the least of Facebook's problems.

Industry analysts report that Google ads provide consistently higher click-through rates, a situation which could eventually cost Facebook their top spot among sellers of on-line display ads. And in a recent article (entitled "One Thing Is Clear: Facebook Hasn't Figured It Out Yet". Ouch!), Business Insider explained it in, uh, unflattering terms.:

Google’s perfect online ad product is the search ad. Search ads are perfect because the people paying for the ads know that the people looking at the ads want to see them. Consumers go on to Google and search for products or information about products, and Google shows them ads from the company that makes that product (and ads from its competitors). There is no guesswork in the targeting of Google ads. The same cannot be said for Facebook ads. Facebook ads are targeted the old-fashioned way.

In other words, the choice is simple: advertisers can pay Google for their 'big picture' solution -- a carefully targeted series of ads spread across multiple properties and media (mobile, video, AdSense, etc.) -- or they can pay Facebook for a small, on-site ad that most people never see and which half of Facebook's users won't click.

If this comparison is accurate and Google's ad program really is so far ahead, then these critics are saying there really is no choice...that is, not if the advertiser wants results. This opinion is echoed by WordStream's Larry Kim, whose who summarized his recent, lengthy post in one neat sentence, "Facebook's advertising platform hasn't kept pace."

Here's his evidence...

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via: Twitter; WordStream