Pros and Cons of Google AdWords vs Facebook Advertising

Reaching out to your potential customers through paid advertising might intimidate you, even more so if you’ve never done it before. In this article, we’ll split the pros and cons of both advertising platforms so you can make the most out of your marketing campaign.

Paid Search vs Paid Social

Google AdWords (paid search) is the most popular PPC advertising platform, it’s also the largest. It focuses on keywords and uses text-based advertisements. Advertisers bid on these keywords expecting their ad to appear within certain keywords’ search results so users will click on them. Once an user clicks on an ad, the advertiser will be charged an amount of money. In other words, you are paying for the possibility of finding a new customer based on the keywords and search terms they use to find information via Google.

 

On the other hand, Facebook Ads are a great example of advertising on social networks. Since it has the highest number of active users a month, it has become highly competitive and also offers a great potential for advertising campaigns. However, unlike paid search, it helps users find companies according to the things they like and how they behave online.

Advantages of Google AdWords

Google is considered the leader in online advertising since it’s the most popular search engine. For you, this means that Google provides an unequaled potential audience of users looking for services and products.

Detailed measuring tool makes your campaign easy to track

With Google Analytics you’re able to easily monitor your campaign’s progress and general statistics. It can show you where it’s being more effective and when. You can then make your decisions based on this detailed information.

Large potential audience and Immediate influx of traffic

This is one of the main advantages of AdWords since Google handles more than 40,000 queries per second. The immense amount of potential customers makes Google one of the best options for your marketing strategy.

Complete control over your daily budget and instant return on investment

Google AdWords focuses mostly on quality and relevance of the advertisements, instead of how much you invest in your campaign. Some keywords may cost more than others but you can specify a maximum to spend daily and you only pay per click. Also, you can drive traffic to your website quickly, as opposed to SEO which can take weeks or even months.

Different advertising options

Even though Google still relies mostly on text-based ads, you can now also take advantage of options such as display network, search network and remarketing. AdWords even introduced formats that are tailored for specific business such as the hotel and vehicle industry.

Disadvantages of Google AdWords

Setup and management can be very time consuming and costly

If set up and managed incorrectly, it can be extremely costly. You pay per click, which means that even if the user clicking didn’t convert into a customer, you still have to pay for the ad. There’s also a very steep learning curve with AdWords which means mistakes will cost you big time.

Limited space within your ad

There’s a restriction regarding the amount of characters you can use and a maximum of three lines of text for search ads. And unless you use Google Shopping or Youtube advertising, you can’t include pictures or videos in your ad, only text.

Some industries have a higher cost per click (CPC)

If the industry is very competitive, the cost per click will most likely be very high as well and if your keyword bid is too low, your ads could end up relegated past the first page. As an example, one client paid between $9.90 and $22.84 per click.

You could target the wrong audience

A great part of your potential audience can turn out to be irrelevant if you don’t add enough negative keywords to your campaigns. This means that no matter how much you spend you might missing out on users that could actually turn into customers.

 

You can certainly manage your own Google AdWords campaign, but many people waste a lot of money making rookie mistakes. We are Google Certified Partners, certified in all 5 key aspects of Google AdWords management. Contact us and we can help you get the most out of your AdWords campaign.

Advantages of Facebook Advertising

Complete control over your daily budget and maximum CPC

You can easily define a cost per conversion and understand what your profit is. Your budget will vary according to a number of factors, however your campaign should still remain surprisingly affordable. Facebook has a lower minimum cost than other mediums, while achieving almost the same results. On average, our clients have paid no more than $0.61 per click.

More targeting options

Facebook has a truly global audience, but instead of simply showing your ad to this great audience, it allows you to granulate which adverts will target which users. Facebook users share a great deal of personal information in their profiles, which provides a unique opportunity to target according to locations, age, interests, income, and other demographics. You can also target people early on in the buying process and separately capture those who are aware of the need, in a subtle way.

You can use images and videos

Visual content attracts more attention, and your ads should take advantage of that.Facebook allows you to use images and video to capture the interest of your target audience. You can also customize the character length for your ads.

Disadvantages of Facebook Advertising

If set up and managed incorrectly, it can be costly

It will still be less costly than Google AdWords but it still becomes an issue when you set up wrong ad options and you end up wasting your budgeted amount. Facebook provides tips for your ad copy and placement, but without the correct knowledge, this won’t be useful at all.

Organic reach has been reduced

As users add more friends and like more pages, the organic content they find on the timeline is greatly reduced. The algorithm plays a major role in defining what content gets or doesn’t get views. This means that brand messages are seen by about 8% of its fan base, and the number might keep going down.

 

Start by creating a Facebook Ads account and you can certainly manage it on your own, but many people end up wasting a lot of money this way. To obtain the best results out of your investment, reach out to our experienced team to get quality assessment that can make the most of your Facebook Ads campaign.

Which one should I use?

As you might have noticed after reading, both platforms can be used by any type of business. This means that they should be seen as complementary platforms rather than rivals. Though both platforms share many similarities, the way they have evolved through the years show they should be used in convert.

 

To maximize the impact of your Google AdWords and Facebook Ads campaigns, contact us today for a free consultation. Our 4SpotMarketing team has years of experience working on marketing campaigns for both platforms and knows how to incorporate them so they work together. We have everything you need to master paid search and paid social, and to help even the smallest advertising budget work harder and smarter.