Facebook Ads Vs Google Ads; What’s Right for You
Google ads & Facebook ads are powerfully effective tools for scaling your business and generating sales or leads.
Both platforms have become extremely popular in recent years, and almost every successful business will be using one, or both, of them.
The question is: which one is right for your business? Both have very lucrative advantages. Both have a few shortcomings that you need to watch out for.
We’ve completed a deep-dive of both platforms to get your business on the right track to new heights:
Google Ads:
Advantages:
Google ads are the bread and butter of generating sales or leads for any successful business. Google ads – or pay per click ads – are very effective at generating you results.
This is because Google ads target what marketers call The 3%.
Imagine you divided up your potential customer base; that is, people who could buy from you, based on differing levels of salesmanship needed.
It would look something like this:
- Roughly 87% of your target customer base are not aware of your business; but more importantly, are not aware of the problem your product or service is solving. These people need:
- Education – why they need your product/service
- Convincing – why your product/service is better than the competition.
- Awareness – who you are and what your business does in the first place
- Roughly 10% are aware of the problem your business is solving, are somewhat interested in solving it, and are in Research Mode. These people need:
- Convincing – why your product/service is better than the competition.
- Education – How your product solves their problem
- Then, we have the remaining 3%. These people are very easy to sell to, because they know they have a problem, they understand the value of your business and how you can help them, they just need:
- Convincing – why your product/service is better than the competition.
As you can imagine, Google ads are extremely effective because these ads can show your business to people who want to buy right now. They are the “easy sell.”
Google ads will be shown based off of Keywords, aka: “gold coast plumber” or “dog winter coat.”
This allows you to put your business in front of your ideal customer right when they are ready to buy!
Shortcomings:
As you can imagine, this 3% audience is extremely lucrative. So, it’s no wonder that the Google ads space is extremely competitive.
Every new business that runs its own Google ads will drive up the price of your customer acquisition.
And these days, everyone is on Google ads. For some industries, it simply becomes a question of how much can you afford to pay for a successful conversion. If you can’t afford it because of high Cost Per Clicks, then you’re priced out of the markets.
Google ads are relatively simple to set up due to their keyword-oriented nature, but finding which keywords work can take months, constant management, and a significant budget to split-test.
Facebook Ads:
Advantages:
Remember that 87% audience we mentioned?
Facebook ads are designed to target this audience – specifically, via brand awareness.
These ads let you target people based on their interests (such as soccer, Italian food, fashion, etc) and capture their attention with stunning creatives.
This way, you can make potential customers aware of your brand and the problem that you’re solving for them.
It may take more work to raise awareness and educate prospects, as opposed to just targeting the 3%, but the payoff is worth it: much cheaper results and huge quantities of engaged prospects.
Likewise, the competition will not be as fierce.
Additionally, Facebook ads make use of far more compelling creatives to portray your business’s message and voice.
Google ads will merely display words, such as “best plumber gold coast.”
But Facebook ads will let you run images, videos, emojis, longform & short form copy, headlines, stories, reels, calls to action, slideshows, etc to compel prospects to engage with you.
Facebook ads let you scale horizontally as well. Instead of just targeting keywords, you can segment your audiences.
For example, an accountant might run different ads for small businesses, families, white-collar workers, farmers & investors, to name a few. Each ad will be tailored to that specific audience, so you can always have a vibrant source of new business!
Shortcomings:
Facebook is, unfortunately, not user friendly. A lot of the time, businesses can be shooting in the dark with mixed results.
Worse, the parent company Meta is notorious for releasing new updates that drastically change how Facebook ads algorithm works. One day you could be getting leads for $10, the next it could be $100, with little to no change on your behalf.
Oftentimes, these updates will cause marketers to scramble for weeks just to understand what changed.
Lastly, Facebook ads primarily operate based on a funnel-system for most industries. That is, you raise brand awareness, educate prospects, and then close the sale. This system can be time consuming, and it’s very easy to get high metrics such as reach, engagement, clicks, but very little tangible results, such as leads or sales.
A Final Note:
If you’re still on the fence about which platform to use – or maybe you’re considering a third option, and want some professional advice – then don’t worry: The A Firm is here to help.
Our financial solutions team is now offering a free fifteen-minute strategy call! We’ll go over in comprehensive detail the next steps you can take to grow your business. Call us today!