Advertising strategies had to adapt to customers’ new way of researching for products and services. Offline advertising a.k.a billboards, tv ads, magazines, and flyers are still of value; but are best supplemented with digital ads.

Online advertising can be tricky and complicated. Paid online traffic will help your business get more leads and eventually generate sales. However, it can be difficult to decide which option will work best for you.

The top 2 pay per click advertising platforms are Google Ads and Facebook Ads. Let’s get to know how different they are, how businesses use them, and which one gives better ROI.

Google Ads

How It Works 

Google is the largest search engine in the world. Data from Internet Live Stats tells us that there are now around five billion Google searches per day.

Google Ads is a great platform to advertise your business if your goal is to tap into that enormous search traffic.

They key to running a successful campaign on Google ads is keywords research. These keywords are what Google ads use to trigger your digital advertising based on what users actually search for.

This is also called Pay per Click or PPC advertising. The initial important steps you have to take are: look for the best keywords for your business, decide on the best landing page to link your ads to, and choose the most cost effective keywords to target.

Advantages

Google Ads is a great platform for businesses who want to target warm leads. This means that your ideal audience is actively looking for a product or service that you are providing and they are ready to buy.

For example, when someone searches for a keyword like “chiropractor near me,” this person is most likely going to call the first few chiropractors they find. Simply reading that keyword will tell you that they are looking to solve a problem fast.

Simply put, Google Ads works best when it comes to driving traffic with the intent to convert.

Because you are reaching out to those wanting to buy and actively looking to buy, rather than targeting a wider, largely disinterested group; this results in a higher ROI.

Cost

According to Google, advertisers on their platform make $2 for every $1 spent. This means that it is very doable to double your investment in this platform.

The actual cost, however, varies depending on several factors such as your budget, objectives, and the quality of the keywords or phrases you have chosen.

You can start a campaign with as little as $100. With more experienced keyword researchers in your team, you can choose to target high quality keywords and phrases with lower competitiveness, to capitalise on ROI. 

Effort Needed

As mentioned earlier, the bulk of your efforts will go to keyword research before setting up your campaign. Aside from doing primary and secondary keyword research, you will also have to decide on location and demographic targeting, adjustments on bids, and create your digital advertising. 

Once your campaign is launched, weekly monitoring and optimisation are needed depending on the ROI results so far.

Measuring Success

Google ads is equipped with powerful analytics to help you monitor the performance of you campaigns. It will give you a complete picture of your success with graphs and tables to show you engagement impressions, click through rates, and other relevant data. 

You can measure the success of your campaign  and make any adjustments as needed by analyzing the clicks, click through rates, and sales your ads are generating.

Facebook Ads

How It Works

Let’s take a step back and ask ourselves why do people visit Facebook? To look for the next product to buy or the next service to avail? Do people also search for chiropractors on Facebook?

Definitely not. It’s a social network. Therefore, the intent to purchase is not as high as those who click ads on Google.

But it does not necessarily mean that you will be wasting your ad money on Facebook. Facebook has more than 2 billion monthly users worldwide, averaging 58 minutes per day using the platform. 

With this enormous user base, you can find almost any target or niche market on this platform.

Unlike Google, you won’t see Facebook ads at the top of search results. Instead, they often come like a normal post that integrates directly into your Facebook feed.

Facebook ads are displayed to a targeted audience selected through user demographics, behavior, interests, and Facebook engagement patterns. Once the audience is selected, a business also has to identify a budget, placement, and run time before running an ad.

Once a campaign is launched, Facebook validates each ad before it is fully activated. This process takes 24 to 48 hours. Facebook Ads Manager makes it easier for businesses to view, make changes, and see results for all campaigns, ad sets, and ads.

Advantages

Facebook advertising is an amazing platform for creating brand awareness. It allows your business to reach your target audience while they are at the start of their buying process.

The platform’s sharing ability also helps in significantly increasing your ad’s reach. Users can easily your content with their family and friends. Your potential reach is literally everyone using Facebook.

The best goals for Facebook advertising is email list building, lead generation and attracting new business prospects. This also includes increasing your brand awareness and raising your social media profile.

Cost

Facebook advertising is relatively inexpensive compared to other platforms. Your cost can range from $1 to $40 per day, depending on your goals, audience, and campaign duration. One way to lower costs is to make sure that your demographic targeting is on point.

Effort Needed

You will need to be more hands on in managing Facebook ads than Google ads. Daily campaign checks are essential to make sure that you can adjust your target audience requirements as needed and optimise consistently.

Measuring Success

The level of engagement of your users define the success of your Facebook ad campaigns. Engagement includes likes, comments, shares, and number of leads generated.

Final Thoughts

Both platforms, when set up and managed correctly, can work hand in hand and deliver traffic, leads, and sales for your business. On the other hand, poor quality ad campaigns on either advertising platform can lead to wasted money. If you’re new to pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, it’s worth hiring a highly ranked PPC management company such as Torn Marketing to get the most out of your ad spend. Message us for a free consultation today.