Facebook’s growth may be bad news for Google down the road.

A new poll shows Facebook’s appeal is growing rapidly amongst smaller mom and pop advertisers. The number one reason why these smaller advertisers are fleeing Pay-per-click (PPC) is the rising cost of securing a top spot on popular keywords. “I can’t compete with XYZ corporation who’s paying $20 per click on Google, I must find other ways of getting traffic on the net”, says a small cyber retailer.

Facebook’s growth is impressive to say the least. According to a fact sheet on their own website, they boast over 250 million members of which 120 million log on once per day. The fastest growing age group opening new accounts are 35 and older.

These smaller and stranded advertisers need a place to spend their smaller budgets. Facebook is increasingly becoming their new home.

Also riding the coattails of Facebook’s rapid growth are new innovative companies trying to take advantage of this sea change. One start-up out of Brooklyn, New York has a large database of Facebook members willing to rent space on their Facebook wall directly to advertisers. They act as a middle man between advertisers wanting to buy ad space (see www.SocialButterflyAds.com), and Facebook members wanting to rent their wall space to making a quick buck (see www.Sellyourwall.com). “Our service offers a higher click thru rate because the advertisers’ ads are blended in with the [Facebook] members’ messages to their own friends and families”, says the start-ups founder. The start-up is in its growth phase, seeing large volumes of members signing up to sell ad space, while speaking with large advertisers, hoping to strike a deal.

How this will affect Google in the long run remains to be seen. Google would need to be more creative in developing solutions for smaller advertisers in order to stop this slow drip which could one day become a wide open spigot.