Facebook Ads vs Google Ads: Making the Right Choice For Your Business
This is clash of the titans. In the red corner, we have Google, with 2020 ad revenue exceeding $146 billion and an average ROAS of 200%. And in the blue corner, we have Facebook, who has challenged Google Ads’ dominance by achieving more than $84 billion in advertising revenue for 2020. Both networks are worth your advertising investment, but which is better for your business, should it come to choosing between the two? The decision will depend upon a number of factors. So let’s check in with Melbourne’s digital marketing experts to see what insights they can offer.
Your Industry
Data from Wordstream shows that apparel, beauty, legal services, and fitness industries drive the highest click-through rate (CTR) on Facebook Ads. Google Ads delivers the highest CTRs for dating and personals, auto, advocacy, and travel and hospitality.
The CTR can give you the general idea about how people on a particular ad network respond to advertising in your industry. However, you should also consider your customers and strategy before making a decision.
Your Customers
If most of your customers interact with your business via Facebook, maybe that’s where you should put your money. On the other hand, if your website receives most of its traffic from Google, Google Ads may be the better choice for you.
Google Ads also works better if you target high-intent keywords. For example, a user searching for the key phrase “buy camping gear” has a higher purchase intent than a person searching for “what is camping gear”. With Facebook Ads, you cannot target specific keywords.
Your Strategy
The choice will also depend on your marketing strategy. Ecommerce companies looking to get some quick sales can use Google Ads for reaching customers who are actively searching for their products. Businesses pursuing a social ecommerce strategy, particularly those in the beauty, apparel, fitness, technology, and legal segments, would prefer Facebook.
Your Advertising Goals
What are the goals you want your ads to achieve? Do you want to create brand awareness, generate leads, or increase sales? Facebook is great for long-term engagement with your audience. You should expect Facebook users to spend some time getting to know your business better before they start buying from you.
Google Ads, on the other hand, helps you reach customers ‘in the moment’; when they are closer to making a purchase. For example, a user searching on Google with the keyword ‘dell laptop price’ is actively looking to buy. It is a good time to show them your ad if you are selling laptops.
Your Budget
The average small business in the US using Google Ads spends $60,000 to $150,000 per year on their Google paid search campaigns. Facebook advertising can cost $2,400 to 60,000 per year, depending on business size. Potentially, clients with smaller budgets can reach more people with Facebook Ads than Google Ads. Paid search can help you make quicker sales, but you might need to pay a higher CPC.
For example, legal businesses using Google Ads may expect to pay an average CPC of $6.75. The CPC of high-competition, high-volume keywords may be as high as $20. So, if you have a small budget and your target keywords have higher costs per click, you may be able to reach more people with Facebook Ads compared to Google Ads.
Your Customer’s Journey
The ad campaign should correspond to the buying journey of your potential customers. If you are planning a campaign for customers when they are still in the process of gathering information, Facebook may probably be a better option. You can target your Facebook audience with TOFU (top of funnel) content, such as informative videos.
Google Ads may be a better choice if you want to promote BOFU (bottom of funnel) content. Your target keywords reflect the intent of your customers. For example, the key phrase “chiropractor near me” shows a higher buying intent than the phrase “what is chiropractor”. Facebook Ads may be a better option to promote content related to the second type of query.
Facebook Ads Vs Google Ads: A Head-to-Head Comparison
Google Ads and Facebook are the world’s largest advertising platforms. Both have billions of users and can deliver a considerable return on your investment. They also have their strengths and limitations when it comes to choosing between the two. Let’s take a quick look!
Google Ads
Pros
Huge reach: Google’s search network fields more than 3.5 billion search queries every single day. Google Display Network reaches more than 90% of the entire internet population.
A wide range of formats: Apart from text ads, Google Ads also offers display ads, video ads, and Shopping ads. You can enrich your ads by using Google Ad Extensions to feature your user reviews, phone number, address, main products or service, and other important information.
The ability to retarget lost visitors: With Google Remarketing Ads, you can reach customers who came to your website but left without buying anything. You can retarget them with reminders, special offers, and discounts as they browse the internet.
Cons
Certain keywords may have an exorbitant CPC.
Facebook Ads
Pros
Granular targeting ability: Facebook has the unique ability to let you reach people based on their social behaviour. For example, you can potentially show your ad to people who are getting married or have a friend’s birthday coming up, depending upon their privacy settings.
Affordable and cost effective advertising: Facebook Ads have an incredible ROI. They are ideal for advertisers on a shoestring budget.
Cons
You cannot target by keywords, so you don’t really know the level of purchase intent.
The Facebook Ads versus Google Ads debate is like the Apple versus Android debate. Both have their pros and cons. Ideally, you would like to advertise on Facebook, Google, Instagram, YouTube, and a couple of other channels. But, in the real world, you may be limited by budget and technical bandwidth to handle more than one channel. If that is the case, Emarket Experts can help you decide where to spend your advertising dollars. Feel free to get in touch with us and we shall point you in the right direction.
