• Advertising
• Google Paid Media

Facebook Ads versus Google Search Ads: Which advertising platform should you choose

When choosing the best digital marketing platform to invest in, many contemplate the two most popular online digital advertising channels – Facebook and Google.

A common misconception among new advertisers is that the two are mutually exclusive and produce similar results. Although in reality, these two platforms produce different results for different niches but yield the best return-on-investment (ROI) when used together.

Let us take a deeper look into these platforms.

Facebook Ads – Paid Social

Facebook Ads are also known as paid social – advertising on social networks. Paid social helps users find products and services based on their interests and online behavior. In paid social, your ads are displayed on millions of homepages and social feeds – a great way to create brand awareness and reach new customers.

Facebook is no doubt the largest social media platform in the world. With over two billion monthly active users (MAUs) and over 200 million businesses actively advertising, an estimated 35% of the global population uses it. With this colossal pool of users, Facebook yields the highest paid social return on investment. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, owns Instagram and Whatsapp, increasing your potential reach to millions more while giving you various forms of advertisement.

Facebook has a few key advantages over Google:

• In-depth targeting of interests and demographics

Being the largest social network in the world, spanning its reach from countries to cultures, Facebook has users that span all ranges of demographics.

Advertisers can target their audience to their age, region, preferences, and activity. With this level of detail, advertisers can ensure not to waste their ad spend on advertising to people who do not fit their target customer demographic.

Because of the advanced algorithm that Meta uses to serve ads in most scenarios you can target your audience much more effectively than you could in Google Ads.

• It leverages visual ads

Unlike Google Ads, Facebook offers more visual ads that can help you capture the attention of people outside your potential demographic. Visually engaging advertisements are a great way of attracting new customers to show interest in your brand- capturing customers at the top of the funnel.

Facebook also keeps experimenting and evolving its advertising platform in ways that help attract more users visually and give them a satisfying online shopping experience.

• Affordability and high ROI

Compared to other social media platforms, Facebook advertising is very cost effective and yields a high quality of results. Facebook ads have a lower Cost-per-Click (CPC) compared to platforms like Linkedin, Instagram, Youtube and Google Search. Moreover, Facebook Ads provide a better clickthrough rate (CTR) compared to other advertising channels.

With the highest user base in the world and on average lower advertising costs, it provides great value for money for all sizes of businesses to advertise in.

Google Ads – Paid Search & Display

With over 8.5 billion searches processed daily and over half of the product searches beginning with it, Google is the most popular search engine and PPC advertising platform in the world. Unlike paid social, however, Google Ads display advertisements on search engine results, Google’s display network, and its partner websites (like Youtube).

Google Ads are better for advertising to middle or lower levels of the sales funnel, where customers have a better chance of buying your product. These customers may have interacted with your brand or may be looking for the same solution you provide, but between different brands.

A few benefits of using Google Ads are:

• Largest audience reach

Although not a social network, Google is visited almost 90 billion times every month, making it the most visited site in the world. Every second, Google processes over 100,000 searches. These numbers will keep increasing as Google evolves its AI and Machine learning. 

With a Search Engine Market share of almost 92%, Google Ads is the clear choice for PPC advertising.

• Quality before budget

Unlike traditional ad forms where perhaps spending may be linear to results, Google Ads works quite differently – it gives quality scores to each advertisement. These quality scores help advertisers, who create high-quality ads that are relevant and well optimized, gain an edge over those who create poorer quality ads with a larger budget.

• Provides better Remarketing

Remarketing is marketing to your audience, who have interacted with your brand but have not gone through the sale. Google Ads make it easier for you to reconnect with customers stuck in the sales funnel via ads that display on their google searches, Youtube, and Google’s partner websites.

*It is crucial to capture sales in the middle and lower stages of the funnel.

• Wide range of ad formats

Google Ads are not just limited to text-based ads on search results. Google is perpetually implementing new ad formats throughout its vast network of display networks and partner websites. Over the years, Google has introduced ad types with various elements that take advantage of images, placement, maps, and much more. 

There will always be an ad type that suits your brand and its audience.

Why you should use them both

Facebook and Google Ads are dynamic and cost-effective tools to advertise and create brand awareness for your products and services. Although these platforms differ in how they advertise, to whom they advertise, and at what stage of the sales funnel they capture.

Every platform caters better to a certain level of the sales funnel. Facebook Ads may help capture clients at the top of the funnel as visually appealing advertisements may help increase your brand awareness. On the other hand, Google Ads can fall in anywhere between the sales funnel. In the gigantic pool of daily searches, many searches range from looking for a solution to looking for the best option; each search leads to a different stage of the customer journey.

Applying the power of paid search and paid social can yield incredible results and a high level of data analytics that will provide you with valuable insights. 

Breadschool can help you maximize your return on investment from Facebook and Google Ads. Learn more about our services here.