So the time has come for your business to start advertising online but it's hard to decide if you should use Facebook Ads or Google Ads? Then you are in the right place. In this article we will discuss what the two social marketing giants are and which one would be better for your own business.
So before we can choose we have to understand our options. So let's take a closer look at both platforms.
Google is the world's leading search engine with about 75% of the world's market. There are about 5 billion searches made on Google every day. That's a lot of people spending a lot of time on this platform, which for businesses is ideal, a chance to reach them. Google uses keywords to then drive traffic to your web page. After a search is made, depending on the keyword, results, with ads, are shown.
The search network will show an ad based on keywords used in the search, for example if you search for "car dealership" the top results with the marking "Ad" will be a few advertised web pages of car dealerships before the actual results of the search. The ad has been integrated so well that a lot of people don't even notice that the first few results of their search is an ad.
These ads are different than search network ads. While the search network ads are made of text and a link in the search engine, the ads on the display network can be images, videos or text. Those are video ads on Youtube before the video, pop up banners on the videos or above the recommended videos and banner ads on more than 2 million web pages that are connected with Google. Depending on the keywords in the search you will get different ads.
The more relevant the keyword to your business, the more higher the chance your ad is going to be displayed. Different keywords have different prices, so it is very crucial to choose them wisely. The more common and more used the keyword, the higher the price and larger the competition.
This is determined by how much money you bid on the ad, the expected click through rate at the time of the search, how relevant your ad is and the user experience of your web page.
This would be the overall "score" of your ad, which consists of the relevance of the keyword, your ad's copy, the expected CTR and the quality of your web page. The score's are measured on a scale from 1 to 10 and affects the ads placement and cost directly.
So, in short, the higher the quality of your ad, the ad's copy, the quality and user experience of your landing page and the relevance of the keyword's you've chosen to use, the higher the probability of your ad being displayed on Google and it's platforms.
In addition Google AI technology to make sure that users see the most relevant search results and it ensures that your ads will be displayed for people who are more likely to take action and actually interact with them. Google is more likely to show an ad you would like to see not the one that has paid more to get seen. If the ad is of high quality, well tailored with a good web page, it may have a higher chance of being shown than others, even if they paid more and the service is the same.
Google offers a variety of tools to increase your CTR and conversion rates. These include ad extensions like call buttons, location information, working hours. Build sitelinks under your ad to help people navigate to certain areas of your web page. Google offers detailed demographic targeting, location targeting and even life event targeting (to target people based on important life events such as marriage, going to school, etc.)
The social media platform with over two billion monthly active users. The world's largest social platform. With these vast numbers of active users and Facebook's advanced audience targeting tools it has become one of the most popular online marketing channels.
Instead of using keywords like Google, Facebook uses user data to choose which ads to show them based on how likely they are to interact with this ad. Because of this Facebook ads are gaining popularity very fast and these days have become an essential part of any businesses's marketing campaign. The average conversion rate on facebook is about 9,21% (Google's is 2.17%). This means that the ads are indeed shown to people who are very likely to take action. However, it is kind of creative art to build precise customers profile. For this reason, it is important to find a marketer who has experience within Facebook marketing.
The strength of Facebook Ads lies in its ability to target its users on an unbeaten level. The fact that people share so many aspects of their lives on Facebook, show what they like, helps Facebook analyse the people to an extent no other platform is capable. When trying to identify your ideal audience Facebook will show how many people in a particular niche of interests there are in specific ares. For example if you are looking for people who like cycling in California, Facebook tell you how many people you can potentially reach.
Facebook has implemented a Lookalike Audience feature. You can find new customers by targeting people who have similar characteristics as your customers from the past. By collecting data of your website visitors (using Facebook Pixel) and by using the interests and demographics of your customers Facebook will directly target similar people.
The ads on Facebook are more usually more visual than Google Search Network ads. Either bright pictures or eye catching videos. The ads on Facebook are implemented seamlessly. Either in the news feed as a video or picture, on Messenger, Instagram or Facebook stories, etc.
1. Website conversions: will serve ads to users who are more likely to take action on your page;
2. Daily unique reach: to reach new people daily;
3. Impressions: to serve ads to people as often as possible, to increase awareness;
4. Clicks: to serve ads to people who are going to click on them.
Depending on your chosen objective you will be charged differently. If you choose ads that are focused on visibility like impressions, you will be charged per 1000 impressions, while the ones focused on users taking action are charged per click received.
So which is the right one for you? Maybe you should use both? That would not be a bad idea if you can afford advertising on both platforms at once. Which is not impossible considering the great budgeting options and budget optimizations. Maybe you should use the one that is easier to use? In this matter they both are very similar and easy to use, just need some time to get used to them. But if you have to choose, let's take a look at pros and cons of both platforms.
* Over two trillion searches annually;
* Many great features to improve CTR;
* Strong AI and focus on user experience.
* Many of the ads are text based, which are not so attractive to some users;
* The costs may be higher than competition;
* Not the best performance for some industries (low CTR for Tech, Legal, B2B and few others).
** Considered as more viable industries for Google Ads - Dating and personal services, cars and automotive, nonprofit organizations, travel and hospitality, food, real estate, apps.
* High return on investment, high conversion rate;
* Relatively low cost;
* The best audience targeting tools on the market, allowing specific audience targeting.
* Users may find ads invasive;
* May take time on testing to find the ideal audience;
* Targeting audience so specifically may limit reach.
**Best industries for Facebook Ads are considered: legal, apparel, beauty, fitness, retail, education, B2B, healthcare.
In conclusion, you most definitely would be better off start using both Google and Facebook Ads. To increase your brands awareness and to let people know about you. If you are looking for sales and leads both platforms can benefit in this area. However, we strongly recommend to practice one sales channel until you feel comfortable with it, then you get to the next one. Remember that your marketing budget can be burnt easily if it is handled poorly. We encourage you to keep motivated on testing, optimizing and sustaining your ad campgains until you meet your marketing objectivs.