Introduction
Running an online advertising campaign is the ideal way to reach prospective customers and is the easiest strategy to extend your reach. The most popular solutions for online advertising are Google and Facebook Ads, and it’s easy to see why.
Google has 4.3 billion users, and processes over 99,000 search queries every second. Facebook has 2.96 billion monthly active users; 79% are active daily and 1.6 billion people worldwide are connected to a small business on Facebook
Before embarking on an advertising campaign, you need to be clear as to what your objectives are. For example, are you wanting to increase your sales, brand awareness, lead generation, or direct more traffic to your site? Your objective will determine how you position your campaign and which platform to use.
Google Ads versus Facebook Ads – the key differences
One of the key benefits of using GoogleAds is that when people use Google, they are looking for something specific, especially when researching products or services. In other words, they have already made the purchasing decision and are now looking for the best place to buy!
If you are in any doubt as to whether or not GoogleAds is effective, just look at the numbers. 95% of Google’s annual revenue ($60 billion) is generated through GoogleAds, which goes to show how much is being spent on advertising.
It may be easier to think of GoogleAds as a marketplace where businesses pay to be at the top of search engine results. Paid ads are the best solution to help smaller companies feature on the search engine result pages (SERP) as the results are almost immediate versus waiting for months based on your SEO.
On the other hand, Facebook is a social media platform, and users aren’t actively searching to buy a product or service. Their main objective is to interact with friends and have fun; if we’re honest, your advert is probably interrupting their experience.
Another fundamental difference between Google Ads and Facebook Ads is that Facebook is a visual platform; therefore, your ads must be visually appealing. You won’t gain any traction with a post that only contains text. Facebook users are drawn to quality images and then the copy. It’s important to remember that you are trying to draw their attention away from their initial reason for logging in to Facebook – you only have a few seconds to capture their interest.
This is not the platform if you are looking to make a quick sale. Facebook is ideal for creating brand awareness and interest around your product or service. It can often be the first step to building a relationship with a potential customer.
Facebook Ads are an important revenue generator, and 97.5% of the $118 billion generated in 2021 came from ads; in other words, businesses are definitely incorporating Facebook Ads into their marketing strategies.
At this stage, you may be thinking that Google Ads is the better option, but it all depends on your objective and business model.
Targeting your audience – reaching the right people!
Both Google and Facebook provide you with the ability to run targeted campaigns. This means that you can target a specific audience more likely to be interested in your products or services while excluding customers looking for something completely different.
Google Ads has 2 options regarding how your ads are displayed – Google Search Network, which refers to search result pages, and Google Display Network, which refers to websites that display ads.
Google Ads allows you to customise your campaigns using a variety of metrics to target your specific audience. These include the following:
- Keywords – targeting your audience through keywords or phrases relevant to your busines.
- Ad location – where your ads appear on Google search results pages and websites which form part of the Google Search and Display Networks.
- Age, location, and language
- Days, times, and frequency
- Devices – you can define what type of devices your ads can appear on
Google Ad’s targeting functionality pales in comparison with FacebookAds. Facebook has an incredible amount of information about each of its users, allowing advertisers to target their audience on a granular level. From an advertising perspective, they have 3 types of advertising audiences.
- Core audiences are where you define your target based on specific criteria:
- Location – this includes countries, cities, and even communities
- Demographics – age, gender, education etc
- Interests – you can include hobbies and interests relevant to your products
- Behaviour – this is based on previous purchases and device usage
- Connections – you have the functionality to include or exclude your current connections.
- Custom audiences allow you to get in touch with people who have previously interacted with your business.
- Lookalike audiences allow you to reach an audience with similar interest to your best customers.
As a result of its targeting functionality, Facebook has 10 million active advertisers.
Managing your budget
GoogleAds works on an auction basis as companies bid for clicks. Your initial reaction may be that this is going to be expensive, but it is important to remember that the highest bid doesn’t always equate to being top of the search results.
Google also includes a quality score; this is because Google’s single objective is to ensure that its users always have a quality experience. As a result, Google goes out of its way to ensure that its users only receive relevant but quality results from their search.
And lastly, Google Ads allows you to control your advertising spend, and a major advantage is that they don’t specify a minimum amount. You are able to define how much you are prepared to spend, and because they work on a PPC basis (Pay per Click) you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.)
Similar to GoogleAds, Facebook also works on an auction basis and allows you to set a budget and bid for each click or impressions your ad receives. Facebook offers several ad options – from promoting your page or posts on your page through to actions customers took.
It is worthwhile spending time understanding how the auction process works for both platforms, which factors come into play and how to maximise your ad campaign.
Campaign Analytics
Running any form of advertising campaign is pointless if you cannot measure its success. These insights will help you formulate a more effective advertising campaign going forward based on credible statistical analysis.
Google Ads Insights
Measuring your success – Google Ads allows you to track if someone clicked on your ad and whether or not this resulted in a positive response, for example, placing an order. This provides invaluable insights as you can identify which ads were successful and which weren’t. As a result, you will be better positioned to adjust future campaigns accordingly.
Cost analysis – When analysing how successful your ad campaign was in terms of conversion rates, Google Ads provides data on how much it costs you, on average, for your advertising to lead to actual purchases.
Customer insights – Additional functionality includes the ability to understand your customer’s purchasing habits. For example, these tools have the capacity to measure how much time a customer will spend researching your product before they hit the buy button.
Facebook Ads Insights
Performance – This chart shows you the number of people who clicked on your ad, as well as the number of people you reached, and finally, the total cost of your ad.
Demographics – This chart reflects how your ad performed across various demographics like age and gender.
Delivery – Here you can view both the predicted and delivered value for each reach, impression, and amount spent.
Google Ads or Facebooks Ads – which one is right for you?
As we mentioned earlier, deciding which platform to use boils down to your objective. Website Planet defines the difference between the two as follows:
Google Ads is a paid search system, which utilizes keywords to drive users to your website or landing page. These keywords (or phrases) determine if your ad shows up based on the terms potential customers may enter into the search box.
Facebook Ads, on the other hand, is a paid social system. It shows ads to users based on their habits, lifestyles, locations, and other factors that help single out your ideal potential customer. You can do this with Facebook’s in-depth audience targeting tools, which we’ll examine closely later.
- Google Ads is an excellent way for you to find new customers.
- Facebook Ads gives you tools to help your ideal customers find you.
Google Ads has higher conversion rates; as mentioned earlier, you are targeting customers who have already made the purchase decision.
Facebook Ads whose sole objective is to make a sale generally fail. Facebook Ads are more effective at increasing brand awareness and are often the first step in building a relationship with your potential customer. Your focus should be on capturing your potential customer’s attention through exciting ads and creating interest in your products or services.
Conclusion
In conclusion, you need to define the objective you are hoping to achieve through your ad campaign as this will identify which platform to use and determine the criteria for your campaign.
It is best to start off small with a fixed budget while you gain a better understanding of which ads work best for your business. This also provides space to familiarise yourself with the platform, its functionality, and its tools.
On a final note, it doesn’t have to be one or the other. Combining both of them as part of your marketing strategy allows you to target customers throughout the sales cycle. Facebook can be used to increase your brand visibility and create interest around your products. At the same time, Google can be used to target customers who have already made that purchasing decision.
