Facebook ads vs Google ads: What’s the difference?
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When it comes to scaling a business, you could say that Google and Facebook are the two giants that dominate the online advertising landscape. It’s fair to say in this day and age, there’s no shortage of advertising platforms to choose from, but which one is best for your business goals?
The primary difference between Google and Facebook is that Google Ads helps you find new customers, whilst Facebook helps new customers find you. Therefore, these two platforms are often positioned as competitors, however, many agencies like Embryo are leveraging the strengths of both platforms to achieve maximum visibility for their clients.
But as time and money can be limited, where do you begin to get your money’s worth? The two platforms have a lot of common ground, but there are a few differences between the two that will be highlighted in this blog to help you find the best fit for your clients or business.
If you’d like to discuss how we utilise both platforms to achieve award-winning strategies for your business, get in touch today!
So, what are Google ads?
No matter who your target audience is, you’ll grab their attention using Google Ads. Google Ads is the largest PPC advertising platform allowing businesses to advertise their offerings globally using targeted pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements. Google Ads offers a variety of different ad formats across all of Google’s networks including Google Shopping, Display, Search, GMail, Discovery and YouTube. However, you’ve probably more commonly heard the phrase ‘paid search’ thrown around, which arguably is the core of Google Ads.
Google Search Network allows businesses to get their ads in front of users who are actively searching for their products or services. Selecting certain keywords that are relevant to your offerings will trigger your ad to appear when a user searches for a query that is related to your keyword.
And what are Facebook ads?
Facebook Ads is a targeted advertising platform that allows users to display ads in Facebook’s Feed, Facebook Messenger and other apps. Facebook ads offer a wide variety of visual ad formats including videos, carousels, single images and more, that are typically targeted to users based on their interests, demographics, location and behaviours.
Similar to PPC Ads, Facebook Ads bid for each click and appear amongst normal posts but are labelled ‘sponsored’ with more features such as links, product catalogues and CTAs. Facebook allows users to find customers based on things they’re interested in and their previous behaviour online.
Targeting, intent, formats, and cost: The four key differences between Facebook and Google ads
Both platforms offer options for targeting and retargeting, with audience signals available across Google and Facebook Ads. However, when you’re looking for a more granular targeted approach, Facebook Ads are the ones for you. Unlike Google, on Facebook, you have the option to build significant audiences within the Meta platform and target niche groups of people.
Facebook is known for its ‘lookalike audiences’ that allow users to upload a list of information about their current customer base, which then allows Facebook to target audiences that are similar to that list. Google has recently introduced a new ad format ‘demand gen’ which is the first ad that allows Google to experiment with ‘lookalike audiences’.
When it comes to buyer intent, Google ads are king of capturing high-intent traffic. Users who search on Google are often looking for a particular product or service and looking to make a decision. Therefore, Google Ads has a higher buyer intent and ads are more likely to convert as they are focused on the bottom of the funnel.
Facebook ads are more focused on the top of the funnel, which means they reach users when they’re not actively searching for a product or service. Therefore, Facebook ads tend to have a lower buyer intent and converting interest into action tends to need more nurturing.
When it comes to which is cheaper to run, Facebook Ads typically tend to be slightly cheaper with a lower average cost-per-click (CPC). The avg. CPC varies from industry to industry, but the average across all industries for Google Search is £2.10. However, industries such as legal can reach as high as £6-£7 for one click. Whereas for Facebook Ads the average CPC across all industries, therefore making it more accessible for users to experiment with strategies without worrying about a massive ad spend investment.
Facebook has always been seen as a more versatile platform when it comes to creativity, allowing users to create more visually driven images, videos and carousels. It also continues to roll out varying ad formats to prevent ‘ad fatigue’, arguably making it a better platform to build brand awareness.
Although Google Search ads are text only, Google offers a number of features available to users to improve the creativity of their ads including image extensions. Over the years Google has continued to introduce new ad formats such as Performance Max which allows users to display imagery and videos.
So, which ad platform should you use? Well, it all depends on your business
What it really comes down to is your business goals and what you want to achieve. Both Google and Facebook are powerful platforms that can cater to all businesses. When it comes to evaluating each of their potential, it’s apparent that the two platforms can complement one another.
Typically, Google Ads are better for making sales and reaching new customers who are in the buying process, whereas Facebook Ads are better at building brand awareness and connecting with customers. Whilst each platform has its advantages, a combination of both can provide a comprehensive strategic approach to online advertising that provides maximum visibility.
