Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads: Where To Advertise?

Today effective competition on the market entails a high-end approach that requires advertisers to use marketing instruments correctly and precisely. To the fore in this regard is a marketing communication. The potential effectiveness of such communication represents a key factor when planning an advertising campaign and when trying to achieve a balanced budget distribution among different advertising channels.

Marketing communication via search engines and social networking is one of the most impactful ways of garnering meaningful traffic in the Internet age. This fact is confirmed by the ever-growing profits of Facebook and Google, the majority of which are derived from programmatic advertising.

Facebook as an advertising platform

Facebook was the first social networking site to start selling ads in the Real-Time Bidding model. Such an advertising message was directed to a targeted group of people, created on the basis of their own data (First-Party Data) and external data (Third-Party Data).

Making recourse to data, the targeting tool in Facebook Ads, tailored the advertising message to what users were looking for on the Internet. And all this became possible thanks to the launch of the Atlas advertising platform, which Facebook bought from Microsoft.

The platform is not only the primary tool for targeting users and their interests in Facebook, but it also can be used outside of the social networking site, facilitating as it does the collection of user data on the pages of many publishers.

Its unique user identification system and the abundance of information that can be gleaned from various sources means that Facebook Ads can be seen as a fully-fledged advertising program platform with its own DSP, which is responsible for automating the purchase of advertising through advertising networks. And so, Facebook Ads has found itself in direct competition with the Google Marketing Platform.

Facebook Ads is a great example of the so-called Paid Social model. In other words, these are paid advertising formats shared by social networking sites.

Thanks to its large number of monthly active users, Facebook is a highly competitive and profitable tool for communicating the advertising messages of businesses, to include their business strategies, in the field of digital advertising across all social networking sites.

Google’s programmatic history

It all began with such platforms as AdSense, DoubleClick for Publishers and Ad Exchange. Before you get too confused, it is worth noting that since 2018 there have been dramatic changes that prompted Google to reorganize its advertising products and adapt them to the requirements of publishers and advertisers.

• Google AdWords has become Google Ads
• DoubleClick for Publishers and DoubleClick Ad Exchange have been merged into a new platform called Google Ad Manager
• DoubleClick advertiser and Google Analytics 360 have been added to Google Marketing Platform

At present, Google’s platforms are some of the largest advertising platforms in the world, operating in the PPC (Pay Per Click) model.

In a nutshell, this is a model for the settlement of banner campaigns, wherein banners are displayed at the top places in all search results for specific phrases. Google is actively developing and investing in technology, which will help it to maintain and continue to conceive cutting-edge platforms that enable advertising in the programmatic model.

Which advertising channel is most effective?

It is worth noting that it cannot be stated with certainty that using the Facebook Ads platform will be more effective than advertising through the Google platform since both have similar tools and are able to provide all necessary data and statistics. Nevertheless, both platforms boast emission features that are different or mutually exclusive.

What aspects should you consider before choosing a shopping platform?

From the outset, it is worth considering whether the product is known on the market and whether it is in demand among Internet users. In general, if the demand for a promoted product is discernible, and the advertisement is only as a ‘brand reminder’ or a ‘product promotion’, it is best to establish such a campaign through Google Ads and Display & Video 360. At this stage, users are looking for a specific product or service. They are considering or adopting the buyer’s path and are actively looking for a solution to a problem they have already identified.

If the product is a market-first product, then there is a slim chance that users will search for information about the product through the Google search engine. In order to familiarize users with the new product, it is worth advertising the product through the Facebook Ads tool.

Targeting

Targeting consumer spread is key when it comes to running a successful advertising campaign. The first necessary step is to define the target group for the promoted product. Through Google Ads tools, we can direct advertising messages via user data.

• Demographic data, through which the advertising message will be directed to the user based on information about the geographical location, age, gender and the device used.
• Remarketing lists that are created based on data about users who would have previously seen or interacted with an advertising message.
• Lists of similar users, with the help of which we can direct advertising messages to people with interests similar to those on the remarketing lists.

When talking about demographic targeting for Google tools, it’s important to remember that demographic targeting always results in limited coverage.

The most effective way of using demographic data in Google tools is to deliberately exclude demographic groups. In other words, we do not need to plumb for demographic targeting at all since most users do not specify age and gender.

When it comes to Facebook Ads, the flexibility of configuring the target group in Facebook Ads Manager is not in any way dependant on Google tools – we can target ads based on demographic data, user interests, conversions, etc.

With such tools as Facebook Ads and Google Ads, you can find potential recipients for the purpose of promoting various types of products. The main difference is that Google collects data about people who are searching for increasing numbers of products or services, whereas Facebook has a huge amount of information on the interests of potential buyers.

Budget

Statistically, Cost per Click in Google tools costs more than the cost of one click on Facebook. The difference can range from 40% to 100% depending on the calculation matrix and consumer behavior.

CTR and Conversion

The Google advertising platform always provides a higher click-through rate and a higher conversion rate. Comparative statistics has a very wide range. In most cases, the CTR rate in Google search is 2 times higher than Facebook. There have been campaigns in which Google has generated 36 times more conversions than Facebook, but this is by no means a fixed rule.

The recap

In order to advertise those typical and sought-after goods and services which your customers may come across, choose the Google Display Network. Social networks are indispensable for the spontaneous advertising of little-known products and services.

Understanding the behavior of a target group is very important when weighing up the correct choice of an online advertising platform. Although clicks and conversions with Google tools are more expensive than Facebook tools, revenues, taking into account the cost of advertising, may also prove higher.