Facebook and Google Ad Words advertising can be viable via media options based on your business goals and marketing budget. If you want to read how Facebook and Google Ad Words (paid search) can benefit your paid media strategy by targeting the full funnel, check out my newest blog on "How to Leverage the Paid Media for the Whole Client's Journey."
So why is there so much discussion on Facebook Advertising and Google Ad Words in the paid-up media space? In other words, the continuous growth year after year cannot be ignored.
According to Forbes, Facebook shows a 50% increase in active advertisers from 2015 to 2016 and reaches 3 million advertisers. In addition, Facebook accounts for 65% of the total advertising spending on social networks, which is expected to reach $ 36 billion this year. Why such an important growth? This is mainly due to the targeting capabilities of the platform, mobile growth and the growth of committed users.
Not to be totally outdated, Google saw a 17% increase in revenues from one year to another, comparing 2014 to 2016 according to Adage. Revenue growth for Ad Words is primarily driven by growth in mobile, business and other formats.
So, when you have to select one ad channel on the other, which one do you choose? As a secondary note for this article, when I talk about Google Ad Words, I will mainly talk about their research product (so keep this in mind).
There are several factors to consider when deciding which advertising channel is best for your organization.
Digital advertising budget and average CPC
In most cases, cost-per-click (CPC) will be significantly higher for Google Ad Words than Facebook ads. By Ad Espresso, the average CPC for Facebook ads in the US was $ 0.28 in the third quarter of 2016. Conversely, the average Google Ad Words CPC was $ 2.32 according to Word Stream. As a result, on average, Facebook ads were about 88% cheaper than AdWords in 2016. So if you have a very small monthly advertising budget (for example, $ 500 to $ 1,000) Use Facebook ads as it will allow you to bang more for your money. "
Admittedly, clicks are not everything and there are rare events where you can run AdWords with smaller budgets. However, sometimes advertisers simply do not have enough budgets to compete with AdWords and they could see better results (both clicks and conversions) on more affordable channels like Facebook.
Your industry and your competition
One point related to the first is that you should consider your company's industry and your competition when you are trying to make a decision. There are some industries or sub-industries that are costly from a CPC perspective. For example, if you plan to publish one of these keywords on Google, and you do not have an incredibly large budget, you may want to reconsider. I have direct experience in higher education, finance, law and healthcare; All are extremely competitive within AdWords and therefore very difficult to succeed. Again I'm not advocating using AdWords, but I feel that Facebook ads could be a more affordable alternative with extremely powerful targeting capabilities for many industries.
Define your goal
Once you have determined what your organization can allow you and you have reviewed the industry and competition, you should consider what you hope to achieve through this marketing initiative. If your goal is to increase brand awareness or generation of demand, Facebook ads would be your best bet. However, if you are looking to generate sales or leads (ie catching demand), AdWords could be a better bet. With AdWords, a user searches for what your business sells. Therefore, their purchase intention is generally much higher. But you will have to consider the overall costs again. In several cases, we found lower costs per conversion (ie, costs per prospects) of Facebook ads.
Stage in the buyer's journey
Understanding where the user is in the buyer's trip will also help you decide which advertising channel to leverage. If you're looking to capture users when looking to buy a product or service, Google AdWords would be your best bet because of the high level of intent of your audience.
Product/service maturity and general research volume
This point is obvious and somewhat neglected. If your organization has a new product or service and there is very little or no search volume, Google AdWords (paid search) will probably not generate much traffic and therefore should not work. Before you completely exclude AdWords in this scenario, you can consider the bid on a series of keywords that describes a problem that your product or service solves. My recommendation would be to test the bids on what your product or service solves rather than a product or service of which very few have been exposed.
However, in most cases, I would recommend starting on Facebook ads to generate awareness of your products or services, explaining what problem they are solving and developing brand recognition. Then, you will generate a request to set you up for more success with regards to Google AdWords.
Product or service sensitive to demographics
In other words, there may be some cases where an advertising platform is better suited than the other. If buying your product or service is highly correlated based on the concrete events of life, Facebook is probably your best option. Facebook has powerful targeting capabilities, such as being able to target events that change lives. For example, by targeting those who have recently become engaged or married, those who have reached age 65 (Medicare insurance) or those who have recently had a new baby are examples of life events that can all be targeted accurately via Facebook ads and not as easily or efficient Via AdWords. On the other hand, a product or service offering that attracts a wider audience could be better advertised on AdWords.
Brand Recognition
Not as important as some other factors, but it should be noted and loosely related to the point above. If you are a new business, you will probably be less successful in research compared to a mature and established company in your industry. Why? In this scenario, your competitors have a lot more brand and brand loyalists. When users see your ad (a company they do not recognize) and your competitor's ad (they recognize it), they will likely see much more success (ie, a higher click-through rate ) In your competitor's announcement. Larry Kim at WordStream wrote an excellent article on this concept of brand affinity in regards to research with great ideas backed by data. Therefore, be sure to consider your company's position in the market. You may need to develop your brand reputation via Facebook ads and other channels to get started, before moving on to Ad Words to increase your chances of success.
A bonus graph to guide you
Below is a quick chart to guide you through the best decision for your organization between Google AdWords and Facebook ads. Although there are exceptions to the rule, if your situation is moving more towards one side or the other, this is the string that you must first test.
Conclusion
After reading these points, you will notice that there is no single answer to whether you should use AdWords vs. Facebook. When you try to decide between Facebook Ads and Google AdWords for your organization, you must first take a step back and understand what you are trying to achieve with your investment and your available marketing budget. These are really the two most important factors when considering which channel is best. Other factors are also important and should help make your decision on what is best for your business or brand.
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