Facebook Ads & Google Ads are two different digital marketing platforms. They both provide great avenues of advertising, but have different benefits depending upon your current business goals. Some people decide to go with one or the other, while others utilize both to help them achieve maximum results.
Facebook Ads
Facebook Ads are passive ads, meaning the ads are displaying to people who are not actively searching for them. People are on Facebook to be social, so when they see your ad, it is interrupting what they are doing. The ad has to have enough relevancy and appeal to grab their attention away from the social aspect of the platform and get them to take action.
How Facebook Ads Work
Facebook Ads are a Paid Social platform. Advertisements can be shown across Facebook, Instagram feeds & even apps and sites within the Audience Network. You can advertise with video, photos, image carousels, and slideshows. You can target audiences by location, demographics, behaviors, interests, future prospects, and even website visitors from your site. Therefore, it is critical you know who your target market is and can define them very accurately. This may be a great option if you want to increase brand awareness, introduce a new product to current customers, & generate lead through a form or other specific action. It can work really well for someone who is a repeat buyer or already shown an interest in your product, service, or organization by reminding them of why your company is awesome or when its time to upgrade or replace a product. While Google Ads also has the capability to show video and images, Facebook will provide a more visually appealing presentation that is really tailored to mobile Facebook app experience. Facebook also allows users to share ads, comment on them, tag people, etc, which can help spread your brand awareness or products even further.
Google Ads
Google Ads can be either active or passive, depending on which type of ads and targeting you are using. Google Search Ads are shown to people actively searching for keywords related to your ad. They are researching using very specific keywords and keyword phrases, doing product comparisons, information gathering, and may be ready to buy. Google Display, Video, or Gmail Ads are more passive: you can show these ads to potential customers who meet various targeting criteria, but may or may not be actively searching for something when they see your ad. You can also create “custom intent audiences” for these types of ads, which allow you to target people who have recently been researching particular topics or keywords, but may not be researching it at that exact moment.
How Google Ads Work
Google Ads is a Paid Search or PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising platform. Google Ads is currently the most popular paid platform. Advertisements can include video, images, or purely text. Audiences can be targeted by location, keywords, demographics, language, interests, and device. Visual ads can be displayed across millions of websites including YouTube, whereas Facebook ads are shown only on Facebook & Instagram. This is likely the best choice if you want to get in front of competition and grab people that are actively looking for your product or service. This approach tends to work best for more immediate leads or sales.
You may find that one or the other is better for you, or that using both will help you meet your current business goals.
What do you want to achieve from an advertising platform? Are you looking for immediate sales or a wide reach across the web? Do you mainly need to increase brand awareness by getting yourself out there in front of the right audience or start generating leads? Contact your account director to help you decide which is platform is right for your business or if a combination of both would drive better results.
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