Facebook Advertising Vs Google Ads: Which One Should You Use?
Think back to your day today. You googled something, didn’t you? And it’s likely you scrolled through Facebook without even thinking twice about it. In 2022, Google and Facebook intertwine with our daily lives.
Yet, your business may not be utilizing these main players correctly for their advertising benefits. Despite their popularity, it’s not always clear where to put your advertising dollars. Choosing the right advertising platform for your small business requires a bit of background knowledge.
In this article, you’ll learn more about Facebook Advertising, Google Advertising, and how you may decide to incorporate them into your advertising goals.
What is Facebook Advertising?
Facebook ads are for paid social campaigns. It’s worthwhile to get in front of this social media platform. An estimated 1.5 billion users follow a small business on Facebook.
You as an advertiser can pinpoint and target your audience by their demographics such as their age, interests, or location. While your ideal audience is scrolling, your ad might be placed in their newsfeed, messenger, or Instagram. If you’re trying to get the message out there about your product or brand, Facebook is a great place to start.
Creating ads is easy and customizable. Select a marketing objective under brand awareness, consideration, or conversions. Set a budget limit so you don’t overspend. Pick the budgeting strategy you’re comfortable with such as daily budgets or a lifetime budget. Once your ad is live, you can measure its performance in Facebook Ads Manager. Observe the click-through rate, conversions, and engagement to make any necessary tweaks.
Facebook Benefits
There are quite a few benefits to using Facebook Advertising such as:
It’s Highly Customizable
The customizability of Facebook makes it an attractive option. Pick hyper-specific audiences like women 35-50 years old in Tallahassee who recently had a baby. You can even create lookalike audiences based on the people you reach in this demographic. Such advanced audience targeting is unique to Facebook.
Cost-Effective
Facebook is known as one of the most cost-effective platforms for ads. Depending on your goal, you have a lot of flexibility with how you spend your money. You can also set a lifetime budget so you don’t spend a dime over your budget limit.
Thanks to the precise targeting, you won’t waste money on demographics that are less likely to be interested in your product. This keeps Facebook affordable and flexible with whatever budget you may have.
Facebook Disadvantages
As with all good things though, there are also some disadvantages to consider:
iOS 14 Updates
Digital privacy is a factor to consider. Since the iOS 14 update in 2021, Apple limited some user tracking abilities. In other words, some users can opt-out of the strikingly good targeting options Facebook has to offer.
This isn’t to say that Facebook is no longer worth the advertising money. It just means you have to be more creative with your strategy. One way to circumvent iOS 14 issues is to hyper-target locations as opposed to just audiences.
What are Google Ads?
Google Ads are primarily for paid search campaigns. It’s no question that Google is ubiquitous. Over 3.5 billion searches are performed on Google every day. Pay-per-click (PPC) ads behave differently than paid social ads. Users often go straight to Google to get answers to their questions. You as the advertiser can bid on keywords related to your company.
As prospective customers type in a related search term to your business, your ad will show on the search engine results page. You only pay for the advertisement if the prospective customer clicks on your ad.
To set up a Google Ads campaign, you will perform keyword research using the keyword planner tool. See what terms and phrases prospective customers are typing into Google. Bid on those keywords and create customized ad groups with engaging ad copy to attract customers. Watch your quality score to ensure your ads are relevant to users.
While there’s a bit more to it all than this, what we’ve just given you is the basic idea.
Benefits
Here are the main benefits of using Google Ads:
Customizable Formats
When you think of Google Ads, the first few listings in the search results marked “Ad” in green typically come to mind first. But depending on the services your business provides, you may want to incorporate other advertising mediums. These additional ad formats make it easier to reach your ideal audience depending on your industry.
· Shopping Ads- Create polished shopping ads with imagery promoting products.
· Display Ads- Use visually engaging banner ads to reach people as they’re browsing the web.
· Video Ads- Video ads use YouTube, Google’s partner, to create skippable video ads for brand awareness or conversions.
Keep in mind, that you can also implement ad extensions that can really help your conversion rates go up.
Capture Users Ready to Convert
Consider your own online habits: when you’re ready to make a purchase, Google is involved in your decision. Having a presence on Google Ads means that you’re in front of customers near the bottom of the funnel.
If users are taking time out of their day to search for relevant keywords to your business, their intent to buy is typically high. The idea here is that Google Ads is another way to drive traffic that wants what you do to your website.
This is also where a few statistics come into play. The more people see your ads, the more likely they are to click on the ad which brings more traffic to your site. The more traffic you drive to your site, the more likely you are to get the business.
Disadvantages
As with anything, there are pros and cons. Here are the cons of Google Ads:
Potentially High Costs Per Click
Your industry matters when using Google Ads. You’ll want to do some extensive keyword research to ensure the ads fit in with your budget. For example, if you run a small law firm, you can expect the search terms “lawyer” or “attorney near me” to be competitive keywords. It’s estimated these are some of the most expensive search terms on Google Ads.
Keep your industry in mind when doing keyword research. You may have to use more long-tail keywords to maintain an affordable budget.
Too Much Data
Google Ads gives you access to some of the most comprehensive data you’ll find in any form of marketing. While most would see this as a good thing, it can be difficult to pinpoint which data points actually matter to what you’re doing. It can get overwhelming and easy to get lost in all the numbers.
How can I compare Facebook Advertising and Google Ads?
Clearly, Facebook advertising and Google Ads are separate platforms with unique properties. Let’s compare the two based on their benefits and disadvantages.
Facebook is ideal for top-of-funnel searches. This platform can help you get brand awareness for a highly targeted group of people. The ability to specifically target your customers is a big benefit for Facebook Ads. This allows you to fine-tune your target customer personas with granular age, gender, zip codes, and interests. Simultaneously, these users are scrolling through their feed and not always actively seeking out a product, so there’s often an “Aha!” moment for people that encounter Facebook Ads.
Google, on the other hand, follows people who are much further down the funnel. They’re looking for solutions to an immediate problem or inquiry. Anyone can hop online and Google your service or product. Therefore, you don’t have nearly as much control over audience targeting when using Google Ads. You may be paying a premium on certain competitive keywords.
So, Which Platform is Best for my Business?
The answer is likely not one or the other, but rather a combination of the two. Google Ads and Facebook Ads can support future customers on their buying journey by working together. Customers may discover you on Facebook, only to convert down the line by clicking on a Google ad.
When adjusting your advertising strategy, it’s vital to consider your business goals. Think about your company’s industry when creating your advertising strategy
Consider Your Objective
Keep your digital marketing goals at the core of your advertising strategy. If your business is just starting out, you may want to start with Facebook Ads to generate brand awareness. Next, follow up with Google Ads to get those users to convert. Whatever your business goal may be, both platforms are customizable to awareness, consideration, and conversions. Use them both to your advantage.
Consider Your Budget
ROI is a legitimate concern with advertising. Both platforms can be run efficiently if you need to keep your budget small. If budgets are tight, you may want to employ the lifetime budget option with Facebook. Even with a small budget, you can get a head start on generating impressions.
In Google, you can keep your keyword list tight to start out. Maybe you’ll only bid on long-tail keywords related to your services. Review the data to get rid of negative keywords (keywords you don’t want your ads to show for) that are not relevant to your company.
In terms of getting a return on your investment (ROI), the thing to keep in mind is how much money your average client is worth. It’s a simple fact that the more money you can afford to spend, the more leads you’re likely to bring in with either platform. So, if your average customer is less than $1000 and your advertising budget on either platform is set for that, you only need one customer from those ads to break even, two to make money, etc. This is a simple way to think about your ROI. Read more about how to determine the ROI of your digital marketing.
Keep Your Ad Strategy Focused
Overall, you want to create a click funnel for your business. Digital advertising will help you support your future customers on their journey. Using the benefits of Facebook ads and Google Ads, you can create a strong digital presence for your company.
