Google AdWords or Facebook Ads: Let Your Goals Decide

Google Adwords and Facebook Ads are two popular paid digital advertising platforms. Before choosing one of these platforms, I recommend having a firm knowledge of your audience and well-defined campaign goals in order to choose the appropriate one. Although the goal of both is advertising to grow a business, they are different in functions such as ad display, ad type/composition, ad creation/type, audience targeting, bidding/budgets and reporting (Sharp, 2011). The features of each campaign are described below in more detail.

Ad Display

Google displays ads actively and passively. Active ads are shown in relation to a search query that is entered into the search box. Ads are also displayed passively which means an ad is displayed based on the content viewed by the visitor. For example, if you are searching for children’s toys, you might see ads for amazon.com or Toys R’ Us if the company is targeting a keyword you entered into the search box.  Facebook’s approach uses the company’s Opengraph objects to show ads. This formula is based on a profile’s likes and additions and edits to the profile (Sharp, 2011).  For instance, if you are a millennial living in the New York City area and indicate as such in your Facebook profile, you might see ads for night clubs.

Ad Creation/Type

Although AdWords and Facebook ads can be created quickly through a web interface while logged into each respective program, they both look different.

AdWords ads are plain text ads of no more than 70 characters which can click to any url. The character restriction can be limiting but a campaign can run more than one ad. Google runs these ads in rotation so you can see which ones are doing well or need improvement (Price, 2011). Facebook ads have the ability to show an image or show a video.

AdWords Example

Source: Thompson, A. (2012). Facebook ads or Google AdWords: Which one’s for you? Problogger.com. Retrieved from http://www.problogger.net/archives/2012/07/26/facebook-ads-or-google-adwords-which-ones-for-you/

Facebook Example

Source: Thompson, A. (2012). Facebook ads or Google AdWords: Which one’s for you? Problogger.com. Retrieved from http://www.problogger.net/archives/2012/07/26/facebook-ads-or-google-adwords-which-ones-for-you/

Audience Targeting
Facebook’s method of targeting an audience is a bit more intricate compared to Google AdWords. A user can select an audience by location, demographics, likes and interests, education and work and connections. This information is used to determine “reach.” Reach is the number of people who will see the ad.  Facebook’s targeting tool can assist with narrowing down the best audience for your campaign (Facebooktutorial, 2010). Google allows you to target by location and does not have the capabilities of targeting down to Facebook’s level (GoogleBusiness, 2009).  Adwords can target by location but ads are found through specific keyword searches (GoogleBusiness, 2009). Targeting by keyword is a topic I will explore in more detail under bidding and budgets.

Bidding/Budgets
Facebook advertisers can pay by impression (CPM) or by click (CPC or CTR). CPC may get you more clicks since Facebook appears to advertise these higher on the page compared to CPC.  However, to decide what is best for your campaign, it is recommended to test your them (O’Neill, 2010). You can also select a daily budget for your Facebook campaign. The more spend, the higher the reach (Facebooktutorial, 2010).

In Google Adwords, a good keyword list is crucial. A keyword list is entered by the advertiser into the system when the campaign is created. Keywords help your intended audience find your ads. There are other advertisers bidding on the same keywords. It is supply versus demand regarding keywords. The more popular a term is, the higher you will pay. Each keyword is assigned a Quality Score that determines how relevant the ads, keywords, and landing page are to a searcher (“Check and understand quality score,” n.d.). AdWords’ keywords can be edited to enhance a campaign that might not be doing so well.  Similar to Facebook, Google allows you to set a daily ad budget which can be modified at any time. Search traffic is unpredictable and to account for this Google will show your ad more frequently on days when traffic is higher. In order to not deplete account funds, you can borrow from other days where the budget is lower and will only charge a certain overage amount if necessary to protect your ROI (“Why costs might exceed your ROI, n.d.).

Gleaned from my own AdWords experience, I can tell you that keyword bidding can be expensive. Especially around the holiday season if you are online retailer. Other companies bidding on the same keywords can increase keyword costs.  The costs of our holiday campaigns were driven higher by competitors bidding on our branded (terms using our company name) keywords. This is unethical but by the time you discover this has occurred, the season has passed.

Reporting

Both platforms are easy to use and report generation can be done rather quickly. However, based on my experience, Google AdWords provides more analysis since the campaigns can be synched to Google Analtyics. This can provide a bigger picture of campaign performance so an advertiser can perform tweaks as necessary. Facebook Insights is not as detailed, but can provide a high level of how a campaign is performing.

In conclusion, you should define your advertising campaign goals before choosing a platform. If you have a short-term campaign and selling a specific product or service, AdWords is the answer. People visiting Google are further along in the sales cycle and use the search engine to find a specific item or service (Pluth, 2012). Additionally, if your target demographic is one not active on social networks, Google Adwords may be a better alternative.  

References:

“Check and understand quality score.”( n.d.). Retrieved from http://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2454010?hl=en

Facebooktutorial. (2010, April 5). Facebook tutorials: how to advertise on Facebook [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jOBDIql4yc

GoogleBusiness. Getting started with Google AdWords, June 15, 2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx2L6EGa9DY

O’Neill, N. (2010).  CPM vs CPC: Which is better for facebook ads? round 2. AllFacebook. Retrieved from

http://allfacebook.com/cpm-cpc-facebook_b19249

Pluth, L.  (2012). Facebook Ads vs. Google Adwords: Who wins. Lifehealthpro.com. http://www.lifehealthpro.com/2012/07/20/facebook-ads-vs-google-adwords-who-wins?t=sales-marketing&page=2

Price, D. (2011). Google Adwords vs. Facebook Ads, part 3. Above the fold and socially acceptable.  http://blog.intrapromote.com/google-adwords-vs-facebook-ads-part-three/

Price, D. (2012). Google Adwords vs. Facebook Ads, part 6. Above the fold and socially acceptable.  http://blog.intrapromote.com/google-adwords-vs-facebook-ads-part-6/

Sharp, B. (2011). Google Adwords vs. Facebook Ads, part one. Above the fold and socially acceptable. Retrieved from http://blog.intrapromote.com/google-adwords-vs-facebook-ads-part-one/

Thompson, A. (2012). Facebook ads or Google AdWords: Which one’s for you? Problogger.com. Retrieved from http://www.problogger.net/archives/2012/07/26/facebook-ads-or-google-adwords-which-ones-for-you/

“Why costs might exceed your ROI.”( n.d.). Retrieved from http://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2375423