If, for example, an AdWords advertiser was looking to promote a dog training e-book, then they would advertise using the phrase 'dog training' in their ad headline. The AdWords program would then pick up on this keyword laden headline, and make sure that that advert only appeared on websites that were dog focused. Thus, the people who would visit the website where the ad appeared would be dog lovers. It therefore follows that these site visitors represent the perfect potential customer for the advertisers business. Particularly in the early days, therefore, the AdWords advertising model was stunningly successful. Not only was it the most targeted advertising available but it only cost a few pennies when someone clicked on an ad as well. Hence, Pay Per Click was a huge success for Google (one of the principal reasons, in fact, that they are now so successful), and therefore many competing PPC businesses were spawned.

Now, Facebook have entered the market with their Social Ads campaign. So, let's next look at the new social ads advertising model, and consider what advantages or disadvantages it may have. Chapter 6: Social Ads The Social Graph During the roll out of what Facebook call their 'F8 platform ' in November 2007, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg suggested that the changes represented a completely new way of advertising online through the introduction of Social Ads. This, he suggested, was because the new advertising service would include advertisers in the community 'social graph' in a way that traditional advertising did not. For example, look at the very simple diagram showing the relationship of four Facebook community members: I am in one Facebook group with Mr. B, and another, different, group with Mr. D. The nature of the Facebook community means, therefore, that all of their information will be freely passed to me, and, similarly, my information will be passed back to both of them.

Mr. B. also receives similar information from Ms. C, and inevitably some of that information will then be passed on to me. From there, it is reasonable to assume that the information will reach Mr. D and so on and so forth. This is a very simple example of the 'social graph' that Facebook see as being of fundamental importance to their 'F8 platform', which is effectively the latest version of the Facebook site and system. And, what they are suggesting with the launch of Social Ads is that both the advertiser and the person to whom they are advertising will be part of this same social network. Thus it is that Social Ads will be presented either as a part of a users News Feed in the form of sponsored content or alternatively integrated into the ad space that appears on the left hand side of the site.

Furthermore, the reason that these adverts are called Social Ads in the first place is that instead of random advertiser messages appearing in your News Feed, for example, the way the software behind Social Ads operates means that the ads that appear do so alongside related actions your friends have taken on the site. Because they are presented in this particular way, the idea behind Social Ads is that they will enable your business to become part of peoples daily conversations. This is the reason why your advertising can appear either in the left hand Ad Space, where it will be visible to users as they browse Facebook to try to connect with their friends, or as a constituent part of the News Feed service, where it will be attached to and served in the context of relevant social stories. So, what advantages do Facebook claim that they would have over other similar PPC advertising business models such as Google AdWords?