Is Social Media Advertising more effective than TV ads?

Joshua Porter wrote an very interesting article on social media ads and why they are not working. The point of the article can be summarized in two paragraphs:

The difference, of course, is that when people go to Google, they’re actively looking for something. That something isn’t on Google. They are performing a search activity. Thus their task will be to click on a link that seems to promise what it is they’re looking for. It may be the organic results, or it may be an ad that seems close to what they want.

When people are on MySpace, the activity they’re doing isn’t search. It’s something akin to “hanging out” or “networking”. Their task is almost the opposite of search. They are already on the site they want to be on. They don’t need to click on links to take them where they want to go.

All of that makes total sense. When I am searching for something, I am specifically looking for something in particular; new gift for my wife, a local plumber to repair our leaky faucet, etc. When I am visiting the social site to read what a friend or colleague may be doing, and although I may be in a buying mood, the advertiser and marketer has no idea what I am interested in.

So the effectiveness of social media ads may not be any better than that of TV ads - it’s a total hit or miss. I would actually argue that with TV ads, you can focus more on a particular industry. If you sold refrigerators, you may want to focus your advertising on FoodTV. But selling refrigerators on MySpace or Facebook might turn up worthless.