Search Channels Used During Purchase Process [CHART]

Chart: Search Channels Used During Purchase Process

When Facebook began selling advertising, it did so through an auction-based ad marketplace that used interest- and demographic-based targeting, which was purposely analogous to the keyword-driven auction marketplace that Google and other search engines offer. That similarity helped Facebook build an enormous advertising business by making it easy for companies to streamline the mechanics of social ad buying.

But the close partnership of search and social (at least in advertisers’ minds—Google and Facebook, the primary companies in each of those channels, have never been friends) is about to be tested.

In the past year, Google and Facebook have introduced ad products that borrow from each other’s playbook, and both are making mobile the centerpiece of their ad business. In another corner, Pinterest is targeting search advertisers in a bid to expand its revenue base beyond social media budgets. Read the rest at eMarketer.