Twitter vs. Facebook: Advertisers Weigh In

By The Myers Report Archives
Cover image for  article: Twitter vs. Facebook: Advertisers Weigh In

The decision by Twitter CEO Dick Costolo to resign last week after the company failed to meet Wall St. ad revenue forecasts (among other reasons) generated a wave of comparisons by Wall St. analysts between Facebook and Twitter. Facebook remains a Wall St. darling, and rightfully so as the company has successfully built a strong mobile and video ad business while Twitter has struggled to clearly define its ad offerings. MyersBizNet asked 60 advertiser executives* to compare the two companies on several measures of performance and value (along with 34 other digital companies). Here are the results.

Overall, Facebook is considered 32% more valuable than Twitter by ad execs, based on the performance of both companies in six measures of value and performance as rated by advertisers. The six criteria specifically do NOT include comparisons of video inventory availability, recognizing that digital companies have different technological and user interface strategies.

Facebook vs. Twitter 
 Facebook Advantage
Quality of Sales Organization and Customer Support4%
Quality of Content Justifies Premium Pricing92%
Provides Innovative and Creative Opportunities27%
Assures Advertisers a Safe and Low Fraud Environment25%
Provides Advanced Insights and Market Intelligence 64%
Supports Programmatic and Automated Investments51%
Overall (Based on weighted average)32%
(Based on average percent of client (advertiser) executives rating each company 4/5 on a 5 point scale in six MyersBizNet performance metrics. Respondents are pre-qualified as doing business with each company. Source: MyersBizNet TomorrowToday Survey of Advertising Executives on Digital Media Organizations 2015)
  

Clearly, in a direct comparison among advertisers, Twitter has a way to go to catch up to Facebook. Among media agency executives with digital responsibility, Twitter closes the gap, with Facebook maintaining only a 5% overall perceptual advantage. Twitter's sales organization ranks second among 36 companies behind Facebook for Quality of Sales Organization, and rates above the industry average of 36 companies in all categories except Quality of Content.

It's obviously not only Facebook that Twitter is competing with. Facebook is ranked first and Twitter 8th by advertiser executives (marketers only) among 36 digital media companies, with an average of 65% and 49% respectively rating the companies as market leaders or market achievers (4/5 on a 5 point scale) in the six performance categories. Twitter also has some unlikely competitors in the mix.

 Avg. % Rating Company 4/5 on 5 Point Scale
 In Six Performance Categories
 (based on 60 advertiser respondents)
Facebook65%
Google/YouTube62%
AOL57%
Defy Media51%
Amazon50%
Conde Nast Entertainment49%
Tube Mogul49%
Twitter49%
Pandora48%
Yahoo!48%
Microsoft47%
Hulu47%
Brightroll47%
(Based on the average percentage of 60 client (advertiser) executives rating each company 4/5 on a 5 point scale in the six performance categories evaluated. Respondents are pre-qualified as doing business with each company. Source: MyersBizNet TomorrowToday Survey of Advertising Executives on Digital Media Organizations 2015)
  

For the detailed survey methodology, link here. For full results to the MyersBizNet Survey of 360 agency and advertiser executives contact Bob Flood at bob@myersbiznet.com. All MyersBizNet members will be receiving the proprietary details from the study.

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