Facebook Ads vs Google Ads.
A simple guide to understand how Facebook Ads and Google Ads are different and which one is right for your business.
Facebook and Google are the two largest digital advertising platforms on the planet, but which one is right for your business?
And what is the difference between the two?
Well, I'm about to rock your world with a straightforward explanation that will help you wrap your head around Facebook and Google once-and-for-all.
And when I say simple, I mean simple. I'm giving you two words that will help you understand what makes the platform unique and, more importantly, how you can use them to drive your business and build the right marketing strategy.
The words are:
Interest and intent.
Facebook Ads (and Instagram Ads) are all about creating interest.
Generally, your customer is going to Facebook or Instagram to connect with their friends, family or pursue what they're passionate about. As far as they're concerned, their Facebook page is their personal space, their sacred world.
With Facebook Ads, you're paying for the privilege to insert yourself into your customer's world. Making Facebook Ads a great place to:
grow an audience and connect with new customers
drive awareness for your brand, product or service
generate interest in your brand and business
build a relationship with your new and existing customers
You do this right; you can entice your customer to buy from you straight from the platform.
Google Adwords is how you harness intent.
Google Adwords is an entirely different world. Your customer is stepping outside their world with a specific intention in mind. To find an answer to a question, find out more information about a product or service, learn more about something they're interested in or buy.
Google Ads lets you catch your customer at a critical point in the customer journey when they've started thinking a solution to the product or service you offer. This makes Google Ads great for:
getting and keeping your brand top of mind
adding your product or service to your customer's consideration set
stealing customers from competitors
converting customer intent to sales
When it comes to Facebook and Google, they serve two distinct and different purposes as far as your customer is concerned. With this in mind, I would suggest that you need to be using both if you want to grow your business.
And you must respect each platform's differences by using unique copy, creative and advertising messages on Facebook vs Google.
To bring it home, here’s a gardening-themed analogy to help paint the picture.
It helps to think of Facebook like a party when you try to understand the difference between how to advertise on Facebook vs Google
If Facebook were an event, it would be a garden party. Your customer's backyard garden party. Thanks to Facebook Ads you can score an invite to join the party with their friends and family. But once there, your job is to be both interesting and interested, so that you're invited to stay and most importantly come back. This means you need to be engaging, entertaining, and deliver enormous value. If you do it well, your customer may love you so much they buy from you immediately. But you're are building a valuable relationship so that whether they buy now or later - you are top of mind and the solution they turn to.
Google is more like a garden expo. Your customer is venturing out of their home for a short time because they want to learn more about gardening or buy something specific for their garden. Google Ads gives you the chance to be there at that particular moment, along with other vendors bidding to harness the intent in that critical moment.