SEARCH is the Next Big Step for Facebook

In the never-ending battle of Google vs Apple vs Amazon vs Facebook/Microsoft, the next wave is coming soon. It’s just a matter of time before Facebook tries to make some sort of major surge toward search.

Why?

It’s not just because Google Plus is jumping into the social media game. (Which no doubt bugs them.)  It’s because Facebook’s IPO will demand that they start thinking more and more about money. Search is where money is. Every marketer knows that search referrals convert better than social and therefore, they are willing to pay more money for those clicks.

So let’s follow the money…

According to ComScore, Facebook fielded 336 million search queries in February.  Let’s face it, Facebook search is terrible.  If they made it better (which BusinessWeek recently said said they are currently working on) that number could easily to up to 500 million or even much, much more – very quickly.

Now, just for discussion, let’s say those 500 million ads could have paid ads on them and about 20% of all inquiries clicked on them.  Let’s say they averaged about $1 per click.  That’s an extra $1.2 billion per year revenue.  Obviously, we’re just getting started.  That’s what they could get right now without trying.

Throw in the Microsoft relationship and whatever opportunities that could bring up.  Facebook search as part of Bing?  Bing ads more prominent on Facebook?  Facebook influenced display advertising across the Internet instead of boring AdSense ads?  The list goes on and on.

It’s just a matter of time.  We’ll see this soon.

Marketers and advertisers need to start thinking about this now and how they will use it when it gets turned on overnight someday.