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Google Ads vs. Facebook Ads: When to Use Which

by Adedolapo Olisa

October 3, 2018

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Many advertisers often view Google Ads and Facebook Ads in a competitive manner. However, this shouldn’t be so. Both brands are strategically posed as competitors. This is possibly a brand awareness and sales tactic. Indeed, the two digital marketing tools have differences. Yet, this hasn’t hindered many businesses from combining the two superpowers for their business advantages.

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By advertising with both Google and Facebook Ads, entrepreneurs and brand managers are able to achieve the utmost exposure for their enterprises, increase sales and find new customers.

However, each platform has different and unique functionalities and they should be carefully considered before deciding which would suit a business’ digital advertising  goals. Even with their distinct functions, there are tons of strategies that companies can employ to aline these functionalities to reap remarkable returns on their advertising spend.To that end, let’s delve into what each advertising tool is about and when it is most profitable to use which.

Google AdWords vs. Facebook Ads

Google Ads

Google AdWords is synonymous with “paid search” and the two terms can be used interchangeably. The primary focus of paid search is targeting keywords and the use of text-based advertisement. Businesses employing the use of AdWords bid on keywords – specific phrases or words added to search queries – in the hope that their ads will be displayed with search results in such queries. Each time a user clicks on the ads, the advertiser is charged a certain amount, thus the name ” pay-per-click advertising.” In essence, the users are paying for the potential of finding customers relying on the keywords and search terms they enter.

Facebook Ads is a prime example of the practice of advertising on social networks — “paid social”. Although advertising on Facebook can be similar to Google AdWords as both platforms are promoting their business via the internet, the similarity ends there. Paid social helps in finding patronage based on the things users are interested in and how they behave online.

In simple words, Google AdWords helps you find new customers, Facebook helps new customers find you.

When to Use Google Ads:

When promoting brand awareness

Google advertising offers two primary networks – the Search Network and the Display Network. Search Network embraces the totality of the Google as a search engine, and advertisers can bid on millions of keywords and phrases to target potential customers. The Google Display Network offers more visual ads such as banners, and seeing as the Google Display Network spans little or more than 98% of the World Wide Web; it is a great choice for advertisers who want to accomplish marketing goals such as brand awareness.

Relevance and ads quality

Google Ads provides an immense reach as an advertising platform, it addresses more than 40,000 search queries every second. It offers a wide variety of potential audience and this alone makes it an admirable inclusion to your digital marketing strategy. AdWords focuses on the quality and relevance of the ads, the more relevance the ads has to the user, the better the experience the user is likely to have, therefore they are more likely to continue using Google as their go-to search engine. This is why smart advertisers with ads of relevance, high quality and optimization rarely have to bid as highly as advertisers with poorer ads.

When to Use Facebook Ads:

When looking for ideal customers

Facebook is a pioneer of paid social and has become centre in many businesses’ digital marketing strategies. Facebook also boasts a vast number of global audiences. However its true strength lies in the potential granularity with which advertisers can target Facebook users.

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People basically share almost every detail of their lives and affairs on Facebook, they also search for and consume content that are in alignment with their personal interests, beliefs and ideologies delivering advertisers with the golden opportunity to tailor their advertising messages to target audiences in ways previously conceived as impossible. Businesses should consider Facebook as a way to get closer to their ideal customers.

When the resources available is limited

Facebook Ads are remarkably affordable, especially considering their impact and the granularity with which advertisers can target their ideal customers. This makes Facebook Ads a very attractive offer to small companies and businesses with limited resources.

Are you baffled about which digital advertising tool is best to help your business achieve its goals? Reach out to Charisol for a business consultation today! Our seasoned digital marketers are here to serve your business that extra boost and quality touch it needs become a top-ranking business in its niche.

Author

Adedolapo Olisa

Adedolapo Olisa

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