Use Facebook to advertise on the web? Not necessarily an AdSense killer

Rumor has it that on November 6th Facebook will be announcing some new goodies to the world, specifically the addition of a targeted ad network that extends beyond its own pages.

Nick’s right on the money when he says that this move makes a lot of sense for both Facebook and Microsoft, but calling the death of AdSense may be a bit premature. Here’s why:

Google serves ads on all of its search pages, plus gazillions of individual web sites (now known as the Long Tail).

Microsoft sells ads on all its search pages (which FB will now have access to), and WANTS to have the kind of Long Tail penetration that Google has.

But they can only co-opt that long tail if two things are true about the FB ad system:

1. The site owner makes more money with it (this could be from a higher % of ad money, or a higher CTR, but neither is a given)
2. The UI and visual customization for getting/placing site ads is as good or better than Google’s

It will be interesting to see what happens.

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