Google Ads or Facebook Ads?
When deciding whether to use Google Ads or Meta Ads to promote your business or services online, I always have a fairly frank conversation with our clients about their ideal customer’s intentions. Why is this relevant when discussing different online advertising options I hear you ask?
Well, it’s relevant as customer intent and a good understanding of it should form a crucial part of your online advertising strategy. In my experience, Google Ads tend to lead towards customers who are searching directly for your products/services, whilst Meta Ads work well for more opportunistic sales/purchases. I must add at this point, this isn’t always relevant or accurate for all industries, however often for e-commerce businesses with products for sale, Google Ads lends itself towards a more sales-driven approach based on customer intent. Crucially, it’s also important to remember as well that remarketing/brand awareness are also important aspects of a good overall marketing strategy and both Google and Meta offer these options to advertisers.
In an ideal world, you want to be using a multitude of different advertising options to capture your customer’s attention, but having or gaining a thorough understanding of their intent at the time of seeing your ads is crucial to ensuring a ROI from your advertising budget.
This post has been edited and new content added above – the original post begins from here…
Digital marketing has become a way of life for marketers over the past decade and a half. Yet, there is so much to learn about digital marketing and its scope of turning your business into a lucrative enterprise. It is a known and accepted fact, in all form of marketing campaigns, that strategic advertising to promote your brand and its awareness is crucial. In an age where the digital revolution has touched the lives of billions worldwide, how do you ensure that your brand of goods or services makes the most impact?
Google Ads, also known as AdWords, and Facebook Ads are both viable options. But people often misunderstand how to use them effectively so that they fail to generate the ROI expected and required by business owners and investors. Here, in this article, I intend to share some useful hints and tips on both Google Ads and Facebook Ads, so that can you make an informed decision on which one may benefit you the most.
Google Ads – Instant hits!
Paid search, paid advertising or pay per click (PPC) is the essence of what Google Ads is. Being a pioneer search engine, Google allows advertisers to put up ads of their goods or services at the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs). Google generates revenue based on search engine users clicking on these ads. Critically, advertisers only pay when end-user clicks on the ad.
The importance of paid search results using Google Ads is immense in search engine marketing. At the very basic, they are more conspicuous than organic search results and attract instant attention, by landing top spots in the search engine results, as I mentioned earlier.
If you keep the following pointers in mind, the advantages of using Google Ads become clear.
• Google, as a search engine, is omnipresent in the world wide web.
• In terms of the sales funnel, Google Ads represent the latter half of the picture – which deals with the creation of interest, leading on to decision making, and finally enabling conversion through sales.
• The number of ways to reach potential customers are higher in Google Ads, as email marketing can also be facilitated by using the Gmail inbox for example. The dedicated promotions tab can thus be a vital marketing strategy to benefit your business.
• Although very effective in terms of increasing website traffic quickly, the initial set up costs for Google Ads can be high, depending upon your niche or industry. However, with its ability to reach large audiences, the advantage of this marketing tool cannot be overlooked. So, if possible, setting aside a larger marketing budget can be beneficial in the long run.
• It is important to know and have an understanding of PPC Management if you are to run an impactful Google Ads campaign that will generate an optimum ROI (return on investment). Keyword analysis, monitoring metrics, report analysis, competition analysis and optimised ad spends are some of the great ways to achieve this.
Many people spend the majority of their time online surfing and browsing the internet. As a result, finding new customers is very easy if you make smart use of Google Ads. That’s why even with a higher initial investment, the assured profitability and quick returns make this marketing strategy very popular among all types of businesses, whether business to business (B2B), or business to customers (B2C).
Facebook Ads – Fuel brand awareness
Over the years, social media has occupied a prominent place with its scope and reach to people all over the world and the single most popular social media platform, to stand the test of time is Facebook. When the social media giant introduced the concept of Facebook Ads, it is thus no wonder it became a hit among businesses trying to find newer ways of getting across to consumers.
With an established digital marketing strategy in the form of paid search ads and PPC Management, you may be wondering how Facebook Ads Management can work for you. We have summarised below some of the key points that can help you maximise your profits by running Facebook Ads campaign for your business.
• Facebook, as a social media platform, is user-specific and the target audience for advertisers can be customised to those using the platform.
• In terms of the sales funnel, Facebook Ads represent the top half of the picture which deals with awareness and interest creation through website visits, social media interactions and blog post reads (Although it can also be used for customer services and remarketing as well, for example).
• When it comes to segmenting your target audience in digital marketing, Facebook Ads have a slight advantage over Google Ads, as the data of users of the social media platform, their likes and interests form the basis of creating relevant ad campaigns.
• The initial start-up costs for Facebook Ads is relatively low so new enterprises and small businesses can also take advantage of promoting their brand, products or services without burning a large hole in their marketing budget.
• Compared to PPC Management, which often needs engaging the services of specialists and professionals to effectively run the ad campaign, it is easier to set up and run Facebook Ads via boosted posts for example.
Facebook vs Google – It isn’t a war of ads
Which digital marketing strategy you ought to adopt – Facebook Ads or Google Ads? Given they both offer a number of interesting advantages, we often advise clients to first look at their customers and find out where they are more likely to be searching. Ideally, your demographic will dictate to you where you focus your ad spend, although for many advertisers today this means splitting your budget to include both Facebook and Google Ads. For example, typically speaking, a large percentage of B2C sales will require a blend of both Facebook Ads and Google Ads as this is where your ads will generate the highest ROI.
I hope you have found this article useful. Do you use Google Ads, Facebook Ads or both? What are your experiences using these platforms? Please do share your thoughts and experiences with us in the box below!
