Did you know that online advertising spending is expected to grow by double digits over each of the next few years? Are you considering increasing your advertising budget or starting a new PPC marketing strategy?

If so, then you’re likely weighing your options between Google Ads vs Facebook Ads. Don’t worry if you’re not sure where to start because we’ve got you covered. Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about these media giants and where you should focus your efforts this year.

Facebook Ads

You’ve seen them while you’re scrolling Facebook, those paid advertisements in your feed. But are they effective? And should you use paid social media posts in your marketing strategy?

For years now many businesses have been able to grow their following and increase sales through social media. There are many benefits to using social media to grow your business online.

Facebook ads have been an integral part of many businesses’ strategies and accounted for large gains in revenue. However, if they’re not done right many other businesses have wasted thousands of dollars on wasted advertising space.

Advantages of Facebook Ads

One of the early draws to Facebooks ads was their affordability. Never before had businesses been able to reach their audience so intimately for so little investment.

Another big advantage of using Facebook to reach your audience is the sheer number of people on their platform. Seven out of ten American adults say they’re on Facebook, and half of those people say they’re on several times per day.

If you want to reach your ideal audience, then chances are they’re on Facebook.

Google Ads

Google ads meanwhile are kind of like the older cousin of Facebook advertising. We’ve seen it around for a bit longer than Facebook ads, but do we know any more about it? Or do we know how to use paid search effectively in our marketing strategy?

When you search for something on Google you will see many different types of results on the page. The top results are usually paid to show for anyone searching for the term you just entered followed by organic results, possibly a map pack, or videos depending on what you’re searching for. The top results that say “ad” next to them are where you could place a link to one of your top articles relating to certain search terms your audience is using every day.

If you stay up-to-date with the many algorithm changes on the search engines then you can drive traffic to your website every day. Working with an SEO expert can help you stay abreast of the important changes that happen regularly with Google.

Advantages of Google Ads

The biggest advantage of Google ads is the fact that the reason someone sees your ad is they just searched for a relevant term. If someone is searching for “realtors CRM” and you’re a SaaS company offering CRM software for real estate agents then this viewer is your ideal viewer. A well-placed ad for that search term could net you consistent new business year over year.

There are over five billion searches every single day on Google. If you know what your target audience is searching for then using Google to drive traffic, both paid and organic, could grow your business exponentially.

Google Ads vs Facebook Ads

Both Facebook and Google ads offer something unique to businesses across all industries. It can be daunting to decide which platform your business should focus on this year. And for the best way to decide which is best for your organization, you’ll want to look at the following three areas:

1. Your end desired outcome
2. How much do you have to spend
3. Who your target audience is and where they are online

Determine Your Goals

First to truly see the level of success you want from your marketing strategy you need to know what your end goals are. Different goals will give you different strategies and cause you to choose a different platform.

Generally speaking, Facebook ads are best for goals centered around increasing brand awareness. If your goals focus more on increasing sales or lead generation then Google ads will generally give you better results.

There are caveats to these generalizations. If you’re selling a very low-priced product such as an inexpensive necklace for mother’s day, running ads in April on Facebook will do very well for you. However, if you’re creating your overall marketing strategy for the year you won’t want to focus on these outliers.

Outline Your Budget

The second factor you must consider when deciding between Facebook ads and Google ads is your budget. Facebook still offers very low-priced advertising options with budgets as small as five dollars per day. However, with social media, you will need to consider that it is often difficult to scale without also scaling your budget.

If you’re focusing on your organic search volumes while also focusing on paid search results then you could see exponential growth over time without increasing your ad spend. However, depending on your industry some keywords can be very competitive and might cost more to rank for.

Find Where Your Audience Is Online

Finally, you need to know where your audience is spending their time online. You could have the largest marketing budget in your industry, but if you’re targeting the wrong platform it won’t make any difference.

Take the time to determine who your target audience is. Then find out where they spend most of their time online. You can do this by sending a simple survey to your customer list if you already have one.

Scale Your Business With Online Advertising Today

Now that you’ve seen the advantages of Google Ads vs Facebook Ads, you can make an educated decision based on your unique business situation for your marketing strategy.

If you’re ready to work with an expert in PPC advertising then reach out to us today. We can show you how we help businesses just like yours to grow your reach and scale your business with online advertising every day.