US company says FB, Twitter ads fail to deliver

NEW YORK: Priceline Group spends feverishly on Google advertisements to grab users searching for a hotel in New York or Paris — and because ads on Facebook and Twitter have failed to deliver results, chief executive officer Darren Huston said.

"For Facebook and Twitter, we have endless amounts of money," Huston said on Monday in an interview at Bloomberg's New York headquarters. "But we haven't found anything there."

The comments by the chief of one of the biggest spenders on online advertising are set to stoke debate over which forms of digital marketing are most effective. Facebook and Twitter have grappled with questions of whether their social media ads provide a substantial return on investment for marketers.

Google’s search ads are based on keywords and often capture consumers looking for a specific vacation or hotel, thus leading to reservations. While Facebook and Twitter social ads can help companies communicate with their fans, they haven't resulted in significant bookings for Norwalk, Connecticut-based Priceline, Huston said.