Google Ads vs Facebook Ads: which of the two is better to invest in, and why?
One waits for the search, the other pushes the ad. And in marketing, 2 + 2 is not 4.
In the world of digital marketing, we always hear that Google Ads and Facebook Ads are the pillars of any strategy. The two advertising platforms that prevail over all the others (Twitter, Linkedin, Snapchat, among others), because if you are not on them you cannot be on the rest — that is what people usually say.
Making the best decision about which platform to invest in so as to optimize the resources we have is no easy task: on top of that, it is crucial for our business.
This is where the great existential question of digital marketing arises (or just one of them): Where is it better to invest? Facebook or Google? Google or Facebook?
The reality is that we must analyze what we want to advertise and research the audience the ad is aimed at: on which platform we find them, what their buying behavior is and what they usually look for (or not) on those platforms.
Facebook Ads:
To begin with, if we focus on Facebook Ads, its ads tend to be push ads, which means they appear to users without their specifically looking for them or intending to.
The ad shows up because Facebook identifies their profile, interests, habits and all the information related to them, in order to decide what content might interest them.
That is why, depending on the product or service, the option Facebook offers for your ads may be a better fit. For example: if the profession you listed on your profile matches long workdays in an office, under sedentary and stressful conditions, Facebook is very likely to offer you a back massager. Or, why not, a getaway a few kilometers from what it recognizes as your place of residence.
Google Ads:
On the other hand we find advertising on Google, which “helps” with the search intent a given user may have. For example: “cases for my phone”
Google relies on that intent to show thousands of options that may contain phone case ads, as the person keeps browsing the vast world of the internet. This happens thanks to the information the user provides to Google so that it shows them exactly what they are looking for.
This type of advertising consists of drawing the customer to your site, so that they arrive exactly at what they need without your having to convince them, since they already know what they want.
You also have to identify which side your product or service falls on according to the target you are aiming at, what its shop window would be. For example: a sofa cleaning service. It is far more likely that the user will search for it and hire it through Google Search or a good Google My Business page than through Facebook push ads.
But in Marketing, 2 + 2 is not 4...
You can be guided by these principles to start out, but also you must try, test, optimize and monitor constantly until you find which platform gives you the best performance.
Instead of guessing, the best thing is to try and clear up your doubts on each platform, since it will depend not only on your product or service but also on the point in the week or the time of day when you schedule your ads. It is true that there is a trend, as we explained earlier, but in digital marketing you must never stop testing, trying and analyzing until you settle on the best option; because with shifting cultural practices and the precision of technology, every person is a target in themselves and, as such, is in permanent flux.
So… Can I use Facebook Ads and Google Ads at the same time? The answer is: YES.
How much to invest in each one? To begin with, you can split the total budget in half for each and then analyze the results. If you see that Facebook produces better results, then on the next campaign invest 60% in Facebook and 40% in Google. And so on, continuously, until you find the perfect balance among the different platforms you advertise on.
“Diversify and you shall conquer” is the leitmotif we adapt to marketing when it comes to media buying.
Always base decisions on data, leave nothing to chance. Try and verify until you reach the best option and get the best distribution of the budget on the right platform.
In this case we also prefer to reformulate the classic axiom of “trial and error” into that of “trial and better”, since ultimately the learning processes of each campaign are also our own as professionals.
