Unless your business is a rare, one of a kind, that sells itself naturally, everyone needs to actively market their business. Whilst there are lots of ways to promote your business, it is more cost effective to do it online. And two of the popular channels through which to conduct Internet Marketing, are Facebook Ads and Google Ads.
If you look around, you will find a lot of articles advocating why one platform is better than the other.
The truth of the matter, is that each has its own strengths and weaknesses, and depending on the nature of your business and your marketing objectives, you may find one being more favourable than the other. Or you might choose to use both. In this blog post, I relate my experiences with each, to help you make up your own mind.
What distinguishes Facebook Ads from Google Ads is primarily the fact that Facebook Ads are a “paid social” means of advertising, which is the practice of advertising on social networks, whilst ads in Google Ads are a “paid search” form of advertising, where paid adverts appear alongside organic search results.
Both platforms use either the Pay Per Click(PPC) or the Cost Per Thousand Impressions(CPM) billing mechanism, when you set up ad campaigns. PPC is a billing mechanism, in which you are billed according to the number of times your ad is clicked by the target audience, whilst CPM is the amount you are billed, to have your ad shown to potential customers for the given number of times.
Even though slightly technical in their own right, Facebook Ads are easier to set up compared to Google Ads. The reason for this, is that Facebook Ads have little reliance on the ad owner’s website, since most of them can run completely within the Facebook ecosystem.
With Google Ads on the other hand, the target audience has to be directed to the ad owner’s website, once they click on the ad. This requires more knowledge and some technical skills to set up the ad, and the corresponding landing pages. You might need the assistance of a web developer, with some Search Engine Optimization knowledge and experience in this case.
Google Ads is also more complicated than Facebook Ads, when it comes to targeting. Whilst Facebook Ads uses data collected from its massive user base for targeting, all provided to you in a convenient user interface, Google Ads targeting is by means of keywords, which require the necessary keyword research and an understanding of how keywords work, in order to implement.
Facebook Ads are highly visual, allowing for you to set up ads that have graphics and even video, with as much text as you deem appropriate. There are even many variations of ads, including collections of images that tell a singular story.
Google Ads is offered on two main networks- the Search Network and the Display Network. The search network encompasses the entire Google Search Network, which only serves text based ads, with limited length. The Display Network offers visual ads, in formats such as banners, more suited for promoting brand awareness rather than conversions.
I have found it more practical to stick with the Search Network on Google Ads, which limits my ads to the text format.
It is crucial to be able to track how your marketing campaign is going, and reports help with just that. Facebook Ads offers very generic reports, usually showing the numbers and demographics. I have found that it offers very little, in terms of customising these reports.
Google Ads on the other hand offers custom reports, which can be edited to include a wide range of data. The reports can also be scheduled to be emailed to you or any designated party. There are so many options in fact, that the report creation interface can seem overwhelming, and intimidating for the uninitiated.
Both Facebook Ads and Google Ads offer competitive rates, and their algorithms are not designed to reward only the big spenders. Which is good news for small businesses. All you need to do to ensure you get reasonable rates, and that your ads keep running, is to ensure that you write compelling ads that keep your target audience engaged.
Since Facebook Ads uses information provided by Facebook users, and gathered through their interactions on the platform, it is possible to get highly granular targeting. It is more precise to target users on Facebook, than it is with Google Ads, which uses keywords for targeting.
However, because people searching on Google already have the intent to seek what they are searching for, the Google Ads are more likely to convert into buying customers. Note however, that Google is more expensive to advertise on in general.
If you have the budget, instead of thinking either or, it might serve you well to market on both platforms, but with different intentions on each.
Facebook Ads are a social experience that is highly targeted and visual, but more suited for building relationships, or increasing brand awareness for a product or service and not necessarily closing the deal.
Google Ads on the other hand is driven by high user intent, with an existing market of searchers, and is therefore, more likely to produce more leads for your business, that actually convert. This is because people who carry out a Google search are already looking for something. This is in sharp contrast to Facebook, where you show ads to people in their normal activity of looking at posts.
Whatever you choose to use, and it can be both, you need to work on understanding how the platform you are using works, in order to get the most out of your budget.
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