As a small or medium sized business, running ads online can be an effective source of revenue. However, creating ads for multiple channels might not be financially viable. This means choosing the type of online advertising that gets the best results for you, bearing in mind your products and services.
For many online businesses, the choice is between Google and Facebook, but which is better? In this blog, we’ll examine the key differences between Google and Facebook ads and how this can influence digital marketing strategy.
Why run ads online
There’s often a focus on driving growth through organic SEO (and rightly so). However, there are many potential benefits to online advertising that can allow businesses to scale up. They can:
- Optimise content for mobile devices and social media users
- Expand impressions
- Target a specific audience
- Gather marketing metric data
- Exercise control over content
- Be a way to create content on the go
Where a blog post isn’t guaranteed to rank highly in relevant user search results pages, ads can be a more targeted approach. Digital marketing campaigns are typically informed by a detailed customer profile which includes age, location, and other data gathered through ad interactions. You can even schedule ads to only appear at certain times of the day. This helps increase the efficiency of ads run on high traffic channels such as Facebook and Google, thereby giving them a strong ROI (return on investment).
How do Google ads work?
When you set up a Google ad, you’ll be asked to select a ‘maximum bid amount’. This is the highest cost you’re willing to pay for a click on the ad. It’s essentially a bidding system, as higher bids secure higher placements. Of course, there are different options for bidding with Google ads. These are:
- Cost per click (CPC) – amount paid per individual ad click.
- Cost per engagement (CPE) – amount paid when a predetermined action is taken with the ad.
- Cost per mile (CPM) – amount paid per one thousand ad impressions.
When a potential customer searches for a keyword that’s included in the ad, the SERP (search engine results page) will include the ad if the products and services align with the search intent. Google ads services display ads based on rank. This is determined by considering the amount the advertiser bid on the ad, as well as the keyword quality.
Facebook ads for business
Creating ads for Facebook is a process supported by the Facebook ad manager dashboard. This gives marketers an overview of their campaigns, scheduling capabilities, and data on individual ad performance. The ad manager also has features that allows businesses to plan out ads with their audience and certain objectives in mind. For example, one ad might be intended to drive traffic to a website, and another might be designed to improve brand awareness.
The final step before actually creating the ad is to set your advertising budget. This can be either a daily or lifetime budget to inform the pace of spending on Facebook ads. Just as with Google ads, Facebook ads following a bidding model that allows businesses to choose how much they spend overall. The bid types for Facebook ads include:
- Cost per click (CPC)
- Cost per like (CPL)
- Cost per download (CPA)
- Cost per mile (CPM)
Key differences
Facebook ads and Google ads share quite a few similarities. For instance, both are shown based on the nature of the search and user queries. Both search page ads are also pay-per-click and compete with other ads on keywords. However, there are some key differences that can indicate when businesses should use one kind of ad over the other.
Keeping track of when these advertising opportunities arise can be difficult when you have to run a business at the same time. An experienced social media advertising agency like Deliver Media can provide relevant advice as your digital marketing partner.
Ad formats
When looking at Google ads vs Facebook ads, the most immediate difference is the site itself. Facebook is a social media platform whereas Google functions primarily as a search engine. This means advertisers are more likely to see success when using visually driven Facebook ads.
Regardless, both Google and Facebook have lots of variety in the ad formats they offer. A Google ad campaign can include search, display, video, app, and shopping focused ads. Most of these will feature text and a static image, whereas Facebook ads tend to have more options for creativity. Here, formats are broadly broken into link and carousel types, although with scope for variation.
Targeting
Due to Google’s function as a search engine, it’s more concerned with ads that appeal to consumer needs. As a result, while both offer demographic targeting Google will look more closely at the how the keywords and search intent relate to the ad. On the other hand, Facebook considers a user’s past actions to develop a profile of preferences. Using Facebook ads therefore allows businesses to pinpoint more accurately what their ideal customer looks like.
Reach
Google and Facebook are the top dogs when it comes to their respective fields (search engines vs social media), but that doesn’t mean their reach is comparable. While Facebook has an estimated 2.7 billion monthly users, Google records more than 8.5 billion searches every day. You can do the math there!
It could be argued that Facebook ads can have an improved reach as Meta ads allow businesses to connect with new customers across other properties, including Instagram and WhatsApp. Although this still puts Facebook ads far behind Google in terms of reach.
Experienced Google ads services
Deliver is a social media advertising agency experienced in helping businesses run pay per click ads effectively on Google, Facebook, and Instagram. That’s not all though. We can offer services that extend to website development, graphic design, content creation, email marketing, and much more. Contact us today for a free, informative website audit.