Hey Google! All your base are belong to Facebook...

As a long time Google Ad user, I've been a big fan of the ability to submit ads on Google. It's (relatively) easy and allows you to tailor your ads based on :

• Search term
• Location (Geographically)
• Time

All of this is great, right? Compared to everything out there it was really great and very affordable. But that was close to 2006. Fast forward to 2010 and the rates aren't so affordable anymore. In the space for web development key words, I've seen costs go from as little as $0.50 per click to more than $4.00 per click for top billing for the same keywords. That's 800% of what costs used to be. With that kind of rate, I found I needed to turn down and then turn off Google Ads.

Then just a few months ago I tried setting an ad up on Facebook - and WOW! Instead search term, you get a little more nebulous (but more value) area of interest to choose from. You also get all the geography filtering that Google gave you and you can also specify:

• Age ranges
• Sex
• Education level (college grad, high school, etc)
• Specific school (!)
• Specific company (!!!)

The interface is easy and not only that, but cost per click is about one quarter of what comparable ads cost of Google ($1 vs. $4). I don't expect advertising costs on Facebook to stay lower than Google, but I do expect Facebook to take a HUGE chunk of revenue away from Google. Someone has entered the holy sanctum of Google's primary money maker - online advertising - and done one better. If I were Google, I'd definitely be worried because Facebook is about to set them up the bomb.

In case anybody doesn't get the reference in the title or the bomb reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base_are_belong_to_us