In an ideal scenario, you would be able to implement both platforms to advertise on, but we realize that sometimes that’s just not possible, or not in the budget. So we’ve put together a quick breakdown of the differences between each tool, so that you can make an educated decision about which to use for your paid advertising strategy.
Facebook Advertising vs. Google Adwords
Advantages of Facebook Ads
Targeting: One of the top advantages of advertising with Facebook is is targeting. Facebook targeting allows you to take complete control of who sees your ads, and when. You can run them based on gender, age, location, certain behaviors, relationship status, and even certain interests, like fantasy sports leagues. Google doesn’t have this same ability to “know” people like Facebook does, as it cannot see data from their personal profiles, or see what users like or follow.
Multiple, Visually Appealing Ad Types: Facebook offers different types of ads depending on your business’ objectives. Whether you want to build your brand and awareness, engage your audience, or drive traffic and leads to your website, Facebook has an ad type specially designed for you. Plus, high-quality images are proven to capture interest and increase the CTR of paid ads.
Advanced Reporting: Facebook advertising also provides advanced tracking and reporting tools on your campaigns, giving you the ability to easily measure how successful and unsuccessful your campaigns are, and why.
Overall, Facebook ads have the ability to capture users right at the beginning of the buying process, at the Awareness stage. By using Facebook’s powerful targeting functions, you can target your ads to people who share an interest in what you are selling, be it products or services, making them aware of your brand and your offerings, before they even know they need or want to buy them. This then leads to them to the next stage, where they learn more about your business and your products or services by clicking on your ad and clicking through your website.
Advantages of Google Pay-Per-Click Ads
Large, Targeted Audience: Google PPC ads offer the benefits of a larger audience – not just those with a Facebook account.
Also, because Google Ad campaigns are set up with selected keywords, anyone viewing your ad has already searched for the keyword that you’ve chosen to target – which means you’re reaching out to them at a later stage in the buying process, which increases the likelihood of converting their click into a sale.
Campaign Customization: Google Adwords offers you the ability to fully customize your campaign setup, which means you can select keywords relevant to your products or services, and you can also select negative keywords that you do not want to trigger your ad.
PPC can get you a bigger audience for your advertising campaigns, but it does come at a price, and can be a costly investment if not managed properly. While Google Search Ads don’t have the ability to showcase images or videos, they are highly visible at the top of the SERPs and can include valuable text exerpts to describe your business, products or services. Video and Display advertising are also other options though, which allow for this additional ability, to show up via YouTube (video) and in the Google Display Network (GDN) for images.
Conclusion
Facebook Advertising is best used to bring about awareness and discussion about your business, products or services, to a targeted group of people. Facebook can not only help you increase sales, but it can help you build a relationship with your audience.
Google Ads, on the other hand, are best used to target people already researching your product or service through a keyword. Google won’t help you build relationships with your searchers, but they help you to reach those already late in the buying process, furthering your chances of a conversion.
For more details about paid advertising, download our free guide to show you how to maximize customer acquisition with advertising.
