Good morning Search Marketer, there are now 8 weeks of holiday shopping to go.
Just how important has online commerce advertising become? Facebook's early advertiser growth was spurred by local businesses — it surpassed 1 million active advertisers in 2013. Fast forward 7 years and the company says it now has more than 10 million advertisers — with online commerce representing its largest advertising ad vertical. (See more in the Social Short below.)
"Commerce" or "e-commerce" was mentioned 29 times on Facebook's earning's call. In contrast, it came up just 9 times on Google's earning's call last week; "shopping" was mentioned 8 times. Google continues, of course, to make moves to attract shoppers and commerce ad budgets: free Shopping listings are available in 48 countries; buy on Google has gone commission-free and integrates with Shopify and PayPal, and users can see curbside pickup options and compare and track product pricing, for example.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai also pointed to YouTube (which saw ad revenue jump 32% YoY to $5 billion last quarter) as "an important platform for e-commerce as well." He said it is still early for YouTube and commerce, but the company sees it as a "long-term opportunity."
Focus has long been on a Google vs. Amazon battle for product search and ad budgets. (Amazon ad revenue increased roughly 49% YoY to $5.4 billion for the third quarter.)
But, with the rise of direct-to-consumer brands, in particular, Facebook has become a major commerce channel in its own right.
Ginny Marvin,
Editor-In-Chief