Facebook Ads vs. Google AdWords: Which Should You Be Using?

For a long time, Google AdWords and Facebook Ads have been viewed by many advertisers as two opposing platforms. Their rivalry – often exaggerated by technology media outlets – has been interpreted as strong evidence of the two platforms’ direct competition with one another and deemed necessary for businesses to make difficult decisions regarding which platform is suitable for their needs. To those new to online advertising, this false dichotomy causes confusion.

Practically speaking, although these two platforms are often seen as competitors, nothing could be further from the truth. Both platforms jointly provide many businesses with the strength of advertising on Facebook Ads and Google to reach maximum visibility, finding new customers, increasing leads and sales, adopting various strategies that align with the applicability of each platform and noticing exceptional return of their advertising spend.

Google AdWords and Facebook Ads: How do they Differ?

Crucial difference between the two ad platforms:

Google AdWords: Paid Search

Google AdWords is the world’s most widely used pay-per click (PPC) advertising platform. It is so popular that it has become synonymous with the term “paid search.” The two terms are used synonymously, even though other platforms such as Bing Ads work in a similar way.

Paid search focuses on targeting keywords and using text-based advertisements. Advertisers utilizing AdWords bid on keywords – specific words and phrases included in search queries entered by Google users – in the hopes that their ads will be displayed alongside search results for these queries. Every time a user clicks on an ad, the advertiser is charged a certain amount of money, hence the name “pay-per-click advertising.” Essentially, users are paying for the potential to find new customers based on the keywords and search terms they enter into Google.

Facebook Ads: Paid Social

Facebook Ads is a prime example of what is known as “paid social” – the practice of advertising via social networks. Having the greatest number of monthly active users (MAUs) of any social network in the world, Facebook has become a highly competitive and potentially lucrative element of many business’ digital advertising strategies.

Advertising via Facebook and AdWords is similar in the sense that advertisers using both platforms are promoting their businesses via the internet. However, this is the extent of their similarities. Unlike paid search, which finds new customers through the use of keywords, paid social helps users find businesses based on the ways in which they behave online and the things they’re interested in.

The primary difference between the two platforms can be summed up in one sentence:

AdWords helps you find new customers, while Facebook helps new customers find you.

The Strengths of Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads is a pioneer in the sphere of paid social and has become a central part of many business’ digital marketing strategies.

Exceptional Audience Granularity

Both Google AdWords and Facebook possess a vast global audience. However, with more than 1.55 BILLION monthly active users – more than one-fifth of the entire world’s population – Facebook has no rival when it comes to the enormity of its audience. Further, rather than exposing advertisers and their messaging to this vast audience, the true strength of Facebook’s immense audience lies in the potential granularity with which advertisers can target Facebook’s users.

Users share almost every detail of their lives with their Facebook friends. This can include meetings, weddings, birthdays, or even new career developments, just to name a few. Users utilize this platform as an opportunity to share life’s milestones with their friends and networks on a daily basis. They also search for content that aligns with a range of personal interests, values, and beliefs. This is of major use to advertisers who are given a unique opportunity to tailor messages to target audiences in ways previously considered impossible.

Many newcomers to paid social ask the same question: “Does Facebook advertising work?” By now, the answer should be obvious – yes it does, and exceptionally well. However, rather than view Facebook as the world’s largest potential billboard, advertisers should consider Facebook as a way to get closer to their ideal customers than they ever thought possible.

An Inherently Visual Platform

The very best Facebook ads blend in perfectly with the videos, images, and other visual content in users’ News Feeds, enabling advertisers to leverage not only the strongly persuasive qualities of visual ads but to do so in a way that conveys the aspirational messaging that makes high-quality ads so compelling.

Just as Google is constantly experimenting with the formatting of its text-based PPC ads, Facebook constantly evaluates how it can offer advertisers a superior marketing platform and users a satisfying, rewarding online experience. In the past, Facebook mandated that ads on its platform featured text that occupied no more than 20% of the total advertising area, a restriction it has since relaxed. However, despite this considerable change to its advertising governance, Facebook remains an inherently visual platform – a major selling point to many advertisers.

Incredible ROI

Businesses and marketers experimenting with Facebook Ads are often impressed by the array of targeting options, as well as the tools they have at their disposal for creating engaging ads.

Although the budget of a Facebook advertising campaign will vary widely depending on a range of factors, such as messaging, and overall campaign objectives, Facebook Ads are remarkably affordable, especially when considering their potential. This competitive pricing makes Facebook Ads a very attractive proposition to small businesses and companies with limited resources – not just large companies with high marketing budgets. Combined with the remarkable potential returns offered by the platform, Facebook Ads is one of the best-value online advertising solutions available today.

Computer science and data analytics have made it possible to track these campaigns and count conversions down to the hour that they occur. It is extremely helpful that advertising platforms can tag each and every visit to your website that occur via advertisements. Further, the tag follows them even while they make a purchase or bounce off. This level of detail means there is more data than ever before to help you optimize your campaign’s performance.

We track conversions on a daily basis and explain to business owners how their campaigns are performing.