So, you’re trying to advertise your brand or business, but you don’t know where to start. You’ve heard good and bad things about advertising with Google, but you’ve also heard there were pros and cons with advertising with Facebook, so where exactly should you go for your advertising needs? If you tried to research which one is universally better, then you’re not going to find what you’re looking for because there are many variables that come into play such as your target audience and the objectives of your business. Let’s look at a rundown of both Facebook and Google ads and the pros and cons of each.
Google Ads
The first difference between Google and Facebook ads is that they’re two completely different platforms. There are billions of searches a day on Google around the world. If you’re looking for simple traffic, then advertising through Google is one of the best ways to get your business or brand to the top of Google searches. If you’re selling a product, then your ads will show directly at the top of the screen when someone searches for the relevant keywords. There are also video ads for YouTube. You could even utilize Google Maps for location-based advertising if you’re only looking to advertise in your local area.
The major pro of marketing through Google advertising is you’re marketing towards a very specific group of people. Your business is not going to show up if someone’s not even looking for it. For example, if someone searches for “pizza places near me,” they’re not going to find your business that sells treadmill parts. With Google, you can also play around with keywords that will help customers pinpoint you exactly when they’re looking for treadmill parts. For example, if someone just types in “which treadmill is better?” then they’re most likely not going to come across your website about treadmill parts. But if you are targeting keywords like " treadmill replacement mat" then your ad is likely to shown to users looking for that specific part. Or you’ll want to target those searching for treadmill repair or how to repair a treadmill themselves, depending on your business type.
Setting up Google ads is also a great pro as it can get set up rather easily and you can even customize the type of ad that you want to be shown. Not only is the setup easy, but you can also control how much you’re spending on advertising each day.
However, all the good doesn’t mean there aren’t cons to advertising on Google. Just because you’re providing a niche business of treadmill parts doesn’t mean you are without competition. If someone with a higher budget for advertising comes in wanting to spend more to advertise their business for treadmill parts, then you might be out of luck.
That also means you can’t put any content you want on your ad to edge out your competitors because Google is a little more restrictive on the types of ads it will allow. You have to make sure that when you’re advertising through Google, that you’re playing by their rules.
Facebook Ads
People only go to Google when they’re searching for something specific, but people are on Facebook almost all the time when they’re not doing anything else on the internet. Advertising on Facebook is targeting people who may not know they need your brand or service but allow them the satisfaction of the “aha!” moment for realizing that they could use whatever you’re selling. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of advertising on Facebook.
One of the pros is how targeted ads can be. For example, merely searching for something on Google and then opening Facebook a second later could show your relevant advertisement. People often wonder if it’s magic, but you’re using their online behavior for your profit.
You don’t even have to spend a lot to get your brand out there either. For the price of a burger and some fries, you can get your advertisement out to about 1,000 people. Not only that, you can spend so little on the most effective form of micro-targeting to your specific group.
However, while cheap and effective is good, you have to consider the con that Facebook is now geared towards interaction between friends and family while brands are being pushed to the side with lower organic reach. You would need to create compelling content that elicits conversation about your brand in order for your content to rank higher. There are other factors involved in how your content is ranked through an algorithm that Facebook put into place after complaints from its user base about seeing more marketing than they were their sister’s baby pictures. Basically this means that Facebook wants businesses to pay for ads on Facebook to get the reach that brings in business!
The most important thing when doing advertising through Google or Facebook is to know your audience. Knowing who you want to get your ads out to, how much you wish to budget for advertising, and the type of ads you wish to run will influence you to either Google or Facebook.
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I tried Google for my motor court. I started with a very small budget. Two things happened: first Google went into my bank account and basically stole $300 to increase my budget w/o notice or permission; At the end of one month, I was charged essentially for customers who already had reservations and were calling for directions. Not with Google anymore.