posted bydopweb10/13/2020
Whether you like it or not, the actions you take online, on search engines, and social media, are being monitored and configured into data that will allow advertisers to better target marketing efforts.
From an advertising perspective, data is gold. It allows for audience stratification, product development, and more lucrative advertising.
However, as a business owner, you might be wondering, which advertising platform will be more beneficial to my business: Google Ads or social media ads?
While both Google ads and social media ads boast over a billion users per day, numbers that any advertiser would salivate at, it is the objective of your advertising that is most important when choosing between these two online advertising platforms.
Despite the obvious differences between Google ads and social media ads, like the way an advertisement would visually appear on a social media feed in comparison to search engine results, there are a few important differences to understand when beginning an online advertising campaign.
The marketing landscape has shifted with the advent of social media, which has provided a lucrative platform that enables marketers to directly target any stratified audience they desire.
Some may argue that social media now hinges on world domination considering the mass captive audiences it holds.
Although this is mildly sarcastic, the stratifying power of social media advertising is unparalleled.
Social media platforms, the most notable in terms of advertising being Facebook and Instagram, give users the ability to advertise their product or service without any third-party interaction.
For example, an Instagram user with a business profile can pay to have their advertisement sponsored for a certain period directly from the app and without having to cut a deal.
Now encompassing Instagram, Facebook remains the king of social media advertising, touting its simplicity and ability to reach any type of audience.
Google has become a ubiquitous part of daily function.
Are you pondering the answer to a question? Google it! Are you looking for a restaurant review? Google it! Are you searching for a product or service? Google it!
The world has become so reliant on Google, that many people forget other search engines exist, and therein lies the power of Google advertising.
Google ads allow you to create a search ad that you pay to be featured in search engine results.
You also have the freedom to have your advertisement featured on other Google websites such as Google Maps, and its subsidiaries, like YouTube.
Google ads also allow daily and pay-per-click budgets to be set so that advertising budgets are not exceeded.
What makes online advertising so profitable is its ability to target specific audiences, and implicitly guide consumers to the products they need or subconsciously want.
However, Google ads and social media ads use different data to provide targeted advertising.
Google Ads uses keywords to target audiences, allowing advertisers to bid on keywords that relate to their product, service, or business.
Each advertiser essentially wants their website to appear first when popular keywords are searched in Google.
Therefore, as an advertiser, it is extremely important to choose the most relevant keywords.
Facebook Ads use interests, demographics, location, and other information gathered through the social media platform.
For example, when setting up a Facebook ads campaign, the advertiser can customize different audiences and define them however they feel necessary, from age to gender to location, granting the ability to advertise directly to entire networks at a time.
Using Facebook as the pinnacle for social media advertising, it also allows marketers to create lookalike audiences, those that are likely to be interested in a certain product because it is purchased by those who are demographically similar.
When choosing which type of advertising campaign to embark on, there needs to be a clear objective that constitutes what action an advertiser hopes a potential customer will take.
For example, advertising to a customer who knows about the product and is interested in purchasing it, but has not done so, and advertising to someone who does not know the product exists in the first place are completely different undertakings.
This brings us to arguably the most important difference between Google ads and social media ads: they each advertise to consumers at different points on the purchasing timeline.
Google Ads will be most lucrative in instances where one hopes to make actual sales.
Someone searching for a product or service on Google knows the product or service exists and has possibly identified a need for purchasing it.
As many of us do, consumers take to Google to do further research on a product or to search for different options within a certain product category.
Social media advertising, on the other hand, is most effective in instances when one wants to create greater awareness for a brand or product.
Consumers do not scroll on social media looking for products to buy, rather, they use social media to relax and browse.
Therefore, social media advertisements are highly effective for drawing initial attention to a product and ensuring the consumer is consistently reminded of it.
Google ads and social media ads are both forms of pay-per-click advertising. Every time an advertisement is clicked, the advertiser pays the platform or search engine hosting that advertisement.
What’s the difference between Google ads and social media ads?
The cost-per-click varies by industry and is also slightly higher on Google Ads.
While the cost on Google Ads is slightly higher, these ads will likely be more profitable since, as previously mentioned, consumers searching for a product or service on Google are closer to conversion, or purchasing the product.
Advertising on a search engine and advertising on a social media platform each have their benefits, both creating targeted, data-driven advertising.
Depending on the product or service, the desired audience, and the current online visibility of the brand, choosing the right platform to advertise on will be greatly beneficial and provide the analytics needed to exponentially grow any business.
Get a free consultation with the advertising experts at dopweb today!
