You know you need to advertise online. Do you need Google Ads, Facebook ads or both?
Advertising online is a powerful way to get your business in front of new customers. If you can get relevant ads in front of the right audience, you can sell products, share promotions and attract new customers.
Business owners looking to widen their customer base know they need to set aside an advertising budget. The tricky part comes when deciding how to spend it. Pay-per-click ads with Google? Ads on Facebook? Which is best?
Why combining both platforms might be the best solution
Many businesses use both Google Ads and Facebook ads to grow their businesses. Why? The two platforms offer different benefits and reach customers at different stages in their buyer’s journey. You may find that a combination will help you gain the most visibility, sales growth, audience reach and return on your investment.
Let’s have a look at why these platforms are popular, what benefits they offer and why you might consider a combined approach to your advertising.
Why advertising online is essential to your business
Shopping online has become part of how customers engage with brands and businesses. Searching for something we want to buy is almost automatic now, as is seeing ads in our social feeds.
In addition, the number of people online can make it seem easy to reach large audiences with ads. The trick is that your competitors are also online, and your ads must stand out.
How Google Ads and Facebook Ads differ
Google Ads and Facebook ads both offer massive potential to audiences, but they’re not necessarily competing options. Google Ads are a type of paid search advertising, while Facebook ads are paid social advertising. Ads on these platforms aren’t directly competing for the same customer at the same time.
Instead, Google Ads show up when users actively look for information, products or services online. Facebook ads show up to relevant users while they are using the platform for other purposes.
Google helps you find new customers who actively want to buy your products or services. On the other hand, Facebook helps new customers find you by showing your ads to people who are likely to be interested in what you sell based on their interests and behaviours online.
What you should know about Google Ads
Google Ads are paid ads that show up when someone types a keyword into their search bar. What does this action tell us about your potential customer? They are aware of your brand or product, have an identified need, and are looking for a solution.
This is a customer you may be able to reach with the right mix of relevant keywords, carefully crafted ads and robust landing pages for users to find once they click on your ad.
How can Google Ads help me attract new customers?
Google Ads can display text ads, reviews and contact information. They also allow shopping via the ads. Their click-through rate (CTR) varies depending on ad relevance, quality score and industry competition. Still, the average click-through rate in AdWords across all industries is 3.17 per cent for search and 0.46 per cent for display.
Smart marketers keep CTR and relevancy top of mind when designing ad campaigns because serving up relevant ads that match the user’s search intent will get you the best impact for your advertising dollars.
Google Ads also offers remarketing, a feature that shows your ads to users who have interacted with your brand previously. For example, if someone has visited your website or abandoned an item in their online shopping cart, Google can serve them ads in search results, display ads or on YouTube to help nudge them to remember your brand and return to your site.
The platform offers robust analytics so you can review data for every campaign you run, repeat what works and change what doesn’t.
Not convinced yet? Google estimates that for every dollar a business spends on ads, it earns two dollars in revenue.
The power of Facebook Ads
Facebook ads are displayed while users scroll through their Facebook feeds. The ads are usually eye-catching, with ad formats ranging from single images to image carousels to videos.
Instead of showing up in response to something a user is actively trying to find, Facebook shows ads to people who are likely to be interested based on their profile or past behaviour.
Facebook collects a lot of information about its users, from demographics and interests to how they interact with other ads.
Why are Facebook Ads a good option to grow my business?
Why are these features important to business advertisers? The information that Facebook curates helps businesses target potential new customers with surprising effectiveness. Plus, with more than 2.8 billion monthly users worldwide, they have an impressive reach.
The combination of striking visuals and thoughtful targeting can create effective ad campaigns for businesses looking to attract new customers. Even better, Facebook allows advertisers to enter data about their existing customers, then create look-alike audiences based on that data. Reaching new audiences who look and act and make decisions like your current customers can be very successful.
Which is better, Google Ads or Facebook Ads?
Both Facebook ads and Google Ads offer value to business owners looking to reach customers. Potential customers use both platforms regularly, but in different ways.
Instead of choosing, why not consider both? Once you review what each platform can offer, you can decide which campaigns are suited to each platform. For example, you may find success promoting certain products with Google Ads and investing in Facebook ad campaigns for others.
Get clear on your campaign goals
Again, the elements you should consider when deciding where to run an ad campaign are your goals, what you’re selling, your budget and the potential cost of the campaign.
Google Ads may be acceptable for the products or services you know people are searching for, especially if people can understand the value through a text ad. However, if you sell a visually appealing product that needs to be seen to be appreciated, a Facebook Ad campaign is likely going to serve you better.
Get the most impact for your advertising budget
A closer look at your budget and potential costs will also help you make better decisions for your ad campaigns.
Paid search advertising on Google varies in cost depending on the relevancy of your ads and competition for the keywords you are targeting. If you’re targeting a keyword few people are using, you could reach a sizable audience for low cost with Google Ads.
Conversely, if you have a small budget and your targeted keyword has a lot of competition, your budget won’t go far. It may make more sense to try a Facebook campaign.
Be strategic when choosing advertising platforms
Choosing the right platform for advertising your business is an important decision and shouldn’t be made lightly. The right choice for your business will depend on what you’re selling, who you’re trying to reach and how effective your budget might be on each platform.
An agency with broad experience across multiple platforms will know how to make these comparisons and base decisions on data to help you create successful advertising campaigns.
