Google Ads Verses Facebook Ads: Truth Revealed

Google Ads verses Facebook Ads truth revealed.

In this article, we are going to explain the major differences between the two and the mindset of the users of both.  There are key differences between Google and Facebook so we really need to have a knowledge of the difference between them.  TrendStrategics.com can design, place and manage your ads on Facebook and Google, as well as Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.  With Facebook you are sort of looking for your customer, we could say you’re hunting for them.  With Facebook you’re looking for target audience that is out there.  With Google it’s the opposite, you’re setting a trap.  You set up keywords and when someone needs something within that keyword or keyword phrase, they see your site or article in the search results (SERP) and they can click on your link.  You get traffic, they get what they want.  An answer to a problem, a question answered, a product that fits their need etc.

What is the difference between Google Ads and Facebook Ads?

This is really the key difference between Google and Facebook.  A lot of time what happens and why people get frustrated is because they’re treating Facebook like Google and it doesn’t work!  Facebook is like a bullhorn in the hands of an announcer.  FB lets everybody know what you do so it’s more like marketing then Google. You need to understand that and sometimes people are confused between the two so they don’t make that distinction.

When I am counseling a new client, I ask what their immediate goal is.  Do they need the cash register to ring because they need sales now or do they want to increase market share?  Many ask, “What’s the difference”?  I’ll reply. Sales is you need to cash register to ring now, marketing is do you have time to wait until it does?  Do you the difference?  So the difference between advertising on Facebook and Google is really clear when you’re looking at Facebook and its ability to target people.  In the not too distant past, we were talking a lot about Facebook which was in the news about the data they collected on people and that data being stolen and people using it for other purposes.  But there is nothing that Facebook did that was really wrong.  You agreed to the use of your data when you signed up.  Same as you did when you opened a Gmail account with Google!  Did you ever scroll down and actually read the rights you were giving up and agreeing to before you actually clicked “I agree”?  I did, and it’s alarming.  Facebook stated they haven’t done anything wrong but did concede that they were not as transparent as they should have been.  This is the nature of their business there in a business of collecting data!  We agreed to participate and exchange our data for the free use of their service.  Now, they can legally target you and market to you with advertisements and provide your contact info to help others market to you and that is how they monetize their site – by selling ad space.  This is the same as Google.  Credit card companies started using these very same tactics over 20 years ago.  Don’t you know that they know more about your spending habits than you do?  They know what brand of butter you buy and how often you buy it.  They know what stores you like to shop at.  They know where you get gasoline for your car, what type of car, where you get your gas, where you went in your car… Well, you get the point.  Anyway, it is part of the agreement you made with them when you agreed to use their credit card.  You made the trade for convenience, so you didn’t have to carry wads of cash that made you susceptible to thievery.  Of course now you may need to be concerned about digital thievery.  But that is another topic.  Now it’s Facebook who has the scoop on you (yes the credit card people are still in play).  It is said that Facebook has 1,400 points of data on you.  Believe me 1,400 points of data has the ability for marketers to be granular in their marketing to you.  That is how most of the time, when you see Facebook ads; they are relevant to your interests.  And with cookies, even more time sensitive relevance!  They know what you been looking for!  What the data sets reveal about you are almost unbelievable.

As a marketer, I can narrow my target audience down to age group, sex, geographical region or city or town or state.  We can narrow it down to women and their thirties that like fitness and that like to be healthy that live in Birmingham Alabama and that also like the Chicago Cubs.  If my product fits people in those groups I can target specifically to them and them only.  With Google I can do the same things with keywords.  I can specifically to them right now. It’s all about the keywords you target your audience with. With the proper keywords you are going to have the closest fit of people within your interest group to market to.

Now with Google Ads, it’s really all around a keyword or key phrases which makes it completely different. When a person does a keyword search on Google if it is for a product, then most likely it is intent to buy and that is huge on Google.  That is really the distinction between the two.  If you are asking if you should advertise on Google and I say people go to Google and search for something because they want to buy something.

This should clarify where you should advertise more.  You probably don’t go to Facebook to search for a product.  You go to FB to get a recipe or look at funny dog pictures or friends children growing up or doing fun things. That’s not where you go to get purchase choices.  You go to Google with the intent to buy or at least shop.  That is the intent.  With Google the intent is very clear; you need a local electrician or a plumber.  It is highly unlikely that you go to Facebook to find one of these.

You may go to FB to ask friends about the experience they had at a new restaurant, or hairdresser.  But you’re not going there with spending money on your mind!

So human behavior and interaction is a huge component on Facebook.  Based on the stuff you like is what is going to be put in front of you as opposed to Google what is strictly a keyword or key phrase and sometimes in a specific location as in plumbers in Tacoma. Facebook is huge they have two billion active users that is massive and Google has 2.3 million searches every minute. Facebook is 91% of all the social network traffic Instagram and the others are not even a close second.  It’s like Facebook, Google and then the rest and then Google has 91% of the global market share 81% after that you have the second in line which is Bing with 7% and I’m convinced that the people that are actually on Bing are people that bought a computer with Microsoft Bing already pre-installed and they didn’t know better so that is what they are using.  They didn’t actually choose that search engine.

So should we consider advertising in those other markets like Instagram and Pinterest?  Well you could advertise everywhere if you wanted to but I don’t know a lot of people that have unlimited budget.  If you have a limited budget and my opinion those main two are the 800-pound gorillas that you and I as business owners can actually get all our online business from. Now another interesting fact is that with pay-per-click the average cost-per-click with Facebook is under $1 and that is really inexpensive compared to Google. With Google the average cost-per-click varies between $0.35 to $5 and the most expensive cost-per-click actually is the word the key word insurance which is about $54!  Can you imagine a person sees your ad and clicks on it and that just cost you fifty bucks!  And you haven’t converted that person yet.  You just got a click on the ad!  That’s a pretty expensive proposition. In my opinion based on what I see is that Google is disproportionately expensive compared to Facebook which is disproportionately inexpensive.  They both have their strengths and use.  But use them wisely

Facebook has the ability to target with pin point accuracy which is mind-boggling when you start to look at the data and you start to look at how you can target people.

You could get Billboards on I-80 or TV ads and you are going to get a lot of eyeballs.  But do all those eyeballs have value for your product or service? Nope, that is the shotgun approach to marketing and while it does work, it is best suited for name recognition or brand awareness.  But if you are trying to increase sales, you need to target your audience and only pay for those interested in your product or service WHEN they want or need it.

While you do have some placement options when you place television ads, like what shows you want to advertise around, it doesn’t have the fine pointed scope like ability that either of the online players offer.

One of the questions I ask my new clients is if they need to make the cash register ring.  If the answer is yes then the decision to advertise on Google makes sense.  However, if they have some time and some money set aside then you should consider marketing on Facebook.  Also with the low entry point of FB, you can start with a small ad budget and increase as necessary.  It is a good way to test different ad campaigns and see which ones work better as seen in your FB analytics

Google claims that for every $1 you spend you should realize $2 in sales.  People search Google usually with intent to buy.  While Facebook people want to look at photos and interact with their friends.  You don’t go to Facebook looking to buy something or spend money!  So why would you advertise heavily trying to sell something in a space that is not really designed for it?  Sure, they have made great strides in attempting to lure you into giving them lots of your ad spend, and yes, they have a very intuitive back end and yes, you can really fine tune your target or micro target your audience.  The main problem with all that is that that target audience isn’t in the buying mood.  They are in the social mood.  This is really important to understand.  All that said, it is a great place to market your wares.  Remember, sales and marketing are two separate things.  Don’t get them confused.  So in general, use FB to market and create brand awareness.  Use Google to sell your wares.  That said, there are exceptions such as in a local environment where you want to make people aware of your establishment or local events.  So realize the intent of the user on each platform you plan to spend money advertising on.  Hopefully this will help you understand the concepts of each and how to use them and what to expect.

Last thing you want to do is spend money on advertising to people who aren’t in the buying mood.  You may get clicks, even targeted clicks, but those clicks are going to cost you money and you may find that you are spending money by enticing people to click on your ad links, which cost you money only to have them look around out of curiosity and bounce out.  Why didn’t they buy?  Because they were tire kickers.  Not in a buying mood or spending mentality.  Got it?

You don’t want a bunch of unqualified leads but you have to spend time with it.  That’s the nature of the business so you have to become good at qualifying.  The average click-through-rate (CTR stands for click-through rate) is very low.  Google ads have the results at the top and actually represent less than 3% of the clicks.  The reality of it the vast majority of people avoid them like the plague never click 95% of people never click on the ads but they actually work because 3% of a hundred thousand people is still a huge number – the math works with Google but it’s a very small percentage.  But here the money is being made. Not talking about organic,  its a lot harder to actually rank organically for searched words. You know the difficulty involved in ranking for keywords so you know how you beat this is you buy ads.

You have to understand that you’re getting less than 3% on Google and actually for Facebook it’s worse it’s actually less than 1% it still works because the volume is there.  If you are putting your Facebook ads in front of a hundred thousand people, well you do the math it’s still whole bunch of people that actually click on the ad (that’s the click), that does the viewing or seeing of the ad or the fact that they saw it but didn’t click on it.  I have seen so many people spinning their wheels on Facebook ads.  There is a steep learning curve with Google ads and Facebook ads.  Anyone who has ever created a Facebook ad knows that it’s not an easy task.  It’s not really complicated but it does take some effort.  There is a sharp learning curve.  And while you are learning, you are spending time and money. You can spend months and even years educating yourself on how to run FB ads, and spending lot of money or you can just hire it done by someone who understands the process and knows how to build and place ads. 

So if you have time to burn, you can try it yourself.  But if you want quicker results and better results, then hire someone.  And that goes for Google ads also.

Google ads or Facebook ads are great sources to generate some leads, but then you need to understand that you’re going to be spending quite a bit of time learning how to do it

There are people that know Google ads and there are a lot of really bad unscrupulous people that have bad reputations and there are a lot of people that make false promises and don’t do a good job for you need to be careful when hiring.  However, there are many highly qualified people who can run FB and Google ads that can make a huge difference.

Hopefully this information answers some questions you may have had about advertising on the two biggies.  So to summarize, both are good, but for different uses and purposes.

TrendStrategics.com has been in the ad space for many years.  Give us a call and talk about your business goals.