Which is Better for Your Brand?

If you are reading this article, it is likely because you are considering serving digital ads.

You have heard of Facebook Ads and Google Ads, but are still unsure of the difference between the two platforms.

This article covers the unique features of each platform, the key differences to consider, and the factors to consider when deciding which ad platform to use.

Let’s begin.

These platforms are often played off against each other. In fact, Facebook Ads and Google Ads are complementary and each offer unique benefits to marketers.

If your team can only focus on one thing, there are a few things to consider.

Your campaign goal

What do you want to achieve with your campaign? Is it brand awareness, leads, sales, or something else? Knowing this answer can already steer you in the right direction.

Google Ads is ideal for capturing demand to reach users with high purchase intent. For example, if I look up the keyword “water bottle” it can signal an interest in buying a bottle.

With that in mind, the following ads are a good match for search intent and can result in sales.

Facebook ads, on the other hand, are great for reaching consumers who are at the top of the funnel (i.e. great for brand and product awareness).

So you can use both platforms at the same time to target users at every stage of the journey. However, if this does not align with your overall goals, the main objective of your campaign can help you determine which platform is better suited to achieving those goals.

Your Büdget

With every advertising campaign, your goal is to maximize the return on your advertising spend (ROAS). This is easier on some platforms than on others.

With Google Ads, you need to consider keyword competition and keyword price. If the keywords you are targeting have high cost-per-click (CPC) and you are on a tight budget, this may not be the best place to invest your money.

Let’s say you have a daily budget of $ 100. You want to be rated a “hardware store” in your area, but the cost for that keyword is $ 20. This means that you will get a maximum of five clicks per day – quite a limiting factor.

With the same $ 100 budget, you could potentially reach more people on Facebook ads and run experiments to learn more about which strategies will work for your target audience.

It’s about figuring out where your dollar is going the furthest in relation to your goals. Using tools like HubSpot’s ad software, you can measure the ROI of your campaign and make adjustments to optimize performance.

Stages in the buyer’s journey

As mentioned above, certain platforms are better suited to certain stages in the buyer’s journey.

Since Facebook is a social media platform, most users don’t actively search for products. However, they do explore and share their interests on the platform. With that in mind, it’s a great place for users to discover your brand, especially if they don’t think it relates to a topic that users are looking for.

In contrast, it is estimated that Google receives over 5 billion searches every day. These searches can occur anywhere on the buyer’s travel level, but certain keywords indicate high purchase intent.

For example, if I search for “best water bottle” or “water bottle price” it indicates that I am interested in purchasing this item. With this approach, marketers can reach out to who they are knows are near the bottom of the funnel.

Historical and / or competitor data

As you develop your game book for your next campaign, it is helpful to look at historical data to inform your strategy. Knowing what has worked in the past, what has not and what remains to be researched can serve as a reference and benchmark.

If you’ve never run a campaign before, take a look at your competitors. What ads are they running? Where are they going What are their creative assets like? What’s your message?

This competitive intelligence can highlight some areas of opportunity and give you insight into the strategies your competitors are using.

Benefits of Facebook Ads

In a HubSpot State of Marketing 2019 report, marketers revealed that Facebook was the paid channel with the highest ROI. Let’s examine some of the reasons for this.

For starters, Facebook is the number one social media platform with over 2.7 billion active users per month, according to a Statista report from 2021. In addition to its large audience, the platform offers detailed targeting capabilities that marketers can use to reach users based on demographics, behavior, life events, and interests.

Before starting a campaign on the platform, you can create a “Lookalike Audience,” which is essentially your user personality. Facebook Ads will then show your ads to audiences that match your description.

This is an advantage of the platform over Google Ads – it’s much more detailed who to target for your ads.

In addition, you may be able to reach more users and get a better click through rate (CTR) through Facebook ads. Smart Insights reported that in the first quarter of 2020, the median click-through rate for a Facebook ad in the newsfeed was 1.11%, compared to 0.47% for Google Display ads over the same period.

Benefits of Google Ads

In 2019, Google estimated that for every dollar it spends on ads, a company makes $ 8 in profit. Let’s see why that is and how the platform can be useful for brands.

Google Ads, formerly known as Google Adwords, initially only offered very basic text-based ads in the search engine. Now features have been added that can dramatically improve click-through rates, such as: B. Reviews, detailed contact information, a shopping function and the optimization of mobile devices.

In the first quarter of 2020, Smart Insights found that Google search ads had the highest click-through rate of 1.55% compared to display and Facebook ads. This is likely because Google is prioritizing ads based on relevance.

While you have to bid on keywords, the highest bid doesn’t always win. Your bid gets you in the door, the relevance of your ad to the keyword that the user’s search intent brings you in with.

Remarketing that reconnects with users who previously interacted with your brand is now much easier with Google Ads. So let’s say someone visited your website and added something to their cart, but didn’t complete the purchase. You can now re-involve users when they search Google, watch a YouTube video, or browse a website on the Google Display Network.

The platform’s simple user interface and advanced features such as the search term report, ad editor, and auction insights make it easy to create, start, and track campaigns.

With Facebook Ads and Google Ads, one is inherently no better than the other. Once you have your goals, budget, and audience in mind, you will find that each one offers unique features that can be useful for your brand at different points in its growth.