Facebook Ads and Google Ads dominate the online advertising marketplace. If you want to reach a tremendously large audience, these are the two places you want to be. And while Facebook and Google might appear somewhat similar on the surface – the world’s largest social network and search engine, respectively, powered by multi-billion dollar web-based tech companies from Silicon Valley – they offer drastically different ad placement products. 

In this post, we will break down the differences between the two and which your business should pursue.

Understanding Facebook Ads

Facebook ads are visual advertisements that you pay Facebook to place on their platform, which happens to be the leading social media platform in the world. Facebook users do not have to like or follow your page to view your ad, but rather meet the predetermined targeting criteria that you create in Facebook’s Ad Manager tool. Facebook ads maintain the look of a classic Facebook post so as to not stand out as a paid advertisement.

In the very first steps of creating a Facebook ad campaign, you will be prompted with an array of objectives to select that best suits your ad campaign. With every campaign, there are three objective categories to choose from:

1. Awareness: Brand awareness or reach.
2. Consideration: Traffic, engagement, app installs, video views, or lead generation.
3. Conversion: Conversions, store traffic, or catalog sales.

The advertising solutions that Facebook has up its sleeve are extensive and impressive. If your business’ goals match any of Facebook’s advertising solutions, then explore Facebook ads and see for yourself that it’s definitely worth your time and budget.

Here are just a few of the many reasons why you should be utilizing Facebook ads:

• Your audience is already on Facebook.
• Advanced ad solutions (lead generation, conversions, brand awareness).
• Reach beyond your existing followers.
• Set your own affordable budgets.
• Scale ads across other networks like Instagram, Messenger, and more.
• Wide range of targeting capabilities (ex. Lookalike audiences, demographic or behavior-based targeting, etc.).

What You Need to Know About Google Ads

Advertising on the world’s most popular website, Google, is a tremendous tool for exploiting search engine traffic with the intent to convert clicks into paying customers. On average, Google advertisers receive $2 from customers for every $1 spent. The ads are centered on search keywords relevant to your business offerings, which are then bid upon based on how much they are willing to pay for an end-user to click on the ad.

How exactly do Google Ads work? Here are some factors to consider when building high-performing campaigns on Google:

1. Keywords
   

Each ad group you create will be targeting a set of keywords that Google uses to determine when to display your ad. Using tools like Google’s Keyword Planner, conduct keyword research to find out what your target audience is searching for and build your campaigns around the selections.

2. Location

Google’s priority, above all, is to provide searchers with the most relevant results. That’s the reason why one of the most crucial things to consider for an effective Google Ad campaign is selecting the geographical region you’d like to display your ad. With brick-and-mortar stores, for example, you’d want to choose the location of your store so that you can display as a result for people in the area who search your selected keywords.   

3. Ad Extensions

Expand your ad with additional business information so people can take action directly from Google’s results page. Extensions can fall under five categories:

• App Extensions
• Call Extensions
• Sitelink Extensions
• Offer Extensions
• Location Extensions

Google has a growing list of advertising benefits and solutions to offer, including five types of ad campaigns that drive success for businesses of all types:

1. Search – Text ads that appear on Google results pages and blend in with other search results.
   
2. Display – Ads appear on any of Google’s various websites across different industries that opt-in through the Google Display Network to display Google ads on their website.
3. Video – Video ads displayed in YouTube videos – At the beginning, middle, or end.
4. App – Display ads promoting your mobile app on Google Play, YouTube, Google Search Network, etc.
5. Shopping – Promote specific products or product lines with imagery and pricing information to be displayed along the top or side of the results page.

Wrapping It Up

Choosing between the two advertising solutions comes down to what your business does and the type of commercial engagement you are looking to fuel.

As a general rule, Facebook is usually better for reaching a large targeted audience in their native environment. Google, specifically search ads, is usually more effective at reaching a narrow and highly-targeted audience during the exploratory phase of purchasing.

If you see that social media advertising would bring value to your business, schedule a call with us – We’re here to help!