Usually, when you have a small business the resources you can allocate to advertising are not quite a lot. Consequently, a question arises. How can I choose between Google ads and Facebook ads? Which one will guarantee me better performance?
The truth is that there is no simple answer. It depends. And what’s even more confusing, your success on Facebook or Google ads depends on more than one variables. To help you find out the difference and make the smart choice we have differentiated the most important features you need to know about Facebook and Google ads.
Google ads. How do they work?
Basically Google’s platform (Google Ads) is the biggest and most popular advertising place. Google Ads works in quite a simple way. What the platform does is to charge you money for each person who has showed interest in your ad.Depending on your goals and the type of campaign you can be charged for clicks, impression, conversion or watching a video. The idea is to pay only for the traffic your ad has generated for you. Simple as that, Google advertising is quite convenient as well. Your ads are shown to the people who are generally searching for you. Another option is to create awareness campaigns. That means the users are not necessarily looking for something in particular. When you advertise on Google your ads are split across two primary networks.
The Search network is the search engine where advertisers can bid on different keywords and phrases in order to target customers. The good news is that Google shows ads to the users which are more likely to engage. This means that relevance and quality have higher score above all other factors. Imagine your bid is smaller than the one of your competitor. But if your content is more relevant to the user, your ad will appear on the screen.
Google Ads has also a Display network. More visual ads such as banners and spans are offered to advertisers. Another way to promote your business with the help of Google Ads is to place it on Youtube. There you have the opportunity to present what you are offering in a short video. Generally, the Display network is highly useful and recommended when your goal is to raise brand awareness.
Facebook ads. What is different?
Google Ads paid search is mainly via keywords, while Facebook helps you find new customers based on their interests and online behavior. Nowadays, people share almost everything they do on their social media. Weddings, holidays, new job or accomplishments. Everything is on Facebook! And Facebook collects all that information to offer you the opportunity to target your audience successfully.
With the technology today and the features that Facebook ads offer we are able to create audiences based on their beliefs, ideologies, hobbies and all kinds of personal interests which were extremely hard to be targeted in the past. Today is just a matter of a few clicks! And it gets better and better. Once you have found the audience which suits you and is highly engaged with your business, you can clone it. How? Check out our article for Lookalike Audiences.
Google Ads, Facebook Ads. What should I choose?
Generally, the best solution is to combine your strategies and use both Google and Facebook for placing your advertising. Google Ads offers you access to access to people who are actively searching for goods or services. On the other hand, Facebook finds data about your customers and targets them. In a way with the help of Google Ads you can find potential clients. But with the help of Facebook potential clients can find you without even searching.
We at DigitInk would advise you to allocate your resources to both Facebook ads and Google Ads. Use them separately and achieve better performance. Combine them and you have an extremely powerful tool to target the right customers for your business. Online advertising is a difficult task.