Every business’s marketing mix will look different. This could be the combination of traditional and digital marketing efforts or the number of channels and activities that make up a digital strategy.

This article will provide a detailed introduction to Google Ads (formerly Google Adwords) and Facebook Ads. The ultimate goal is to help you choose which channel may be best for your business.

Before we begin, it is worth noting that many businesses use both platforms effectively as part of their digital advertising strategy to reach maximum visibility and target users at various stages of the conversion process.

Facebook and Google Ads both fall under the umbrella of pay-per-click (or pay-per-click advertising), which allows advertisers to pay for every click or a thousand impressions. Both channels will require you to pay for results. Before you decide to advertise on one of these channels, you should first consider your budget.

As both advertising channels have different budgets, it is nearly impossible to recommend an advertising budget. This is because the appropriate budget will depend on your industry, audience, and other factors. It’s worthwhile to do some forecasting and projections before you start. Google and Facebook both offer planning tools that can be used to assist you in this endeavor.

What are Google Ads?

Google is the most used and popular search engine in the world, with more than 3.5 million searches each day. Google Ads lets you place targeted adverts on the search results page to reach your target audience.

This article will focus on Search Engine Marketing via Google Search and Shopping. We’ll mention Youtube and Google Display Network when appropriate.

This is keyword targeting in the case of Google Search. Advertisers have the option to choose which keywords or phrases they wish to target based on their unique product/service offering. The below yoga accessory seller is using the keyword “yoga mat” for its target keyword.

Google Shopping advertisers do not have the ability to target specific keywords. Instead, they must upload data about all products they wish for Google to promote. Google will match the search query of a user to relevant products if advertisers provide the necessary information. Below is an example of Google Shopping results for my search “yoga mat”.

Also, Google Shopping can only be used for physical product advertising. If your business offers services, such as yoga classes and teacher training courses, then you can quickly exclude this Google Ads channel.

Advertisers have the option to add a variety of targeting options to their product data and keywords. This includes:

• Location targeting – This allows you to target users who live in or are interested in specific countries, cities, or even postcodes

• Time targeting – The ability to set the time and day that ads will appear on a particular day or night of the week.

• Device targeting – The ability to target specific devices, e.g. mobile, desktop, tablet

• Demographic targeting – The ability to target users differently depending on gender, age, and/or household income

• Audience targeting – This allows you to target specific audiences. These can include, but are not limited to

• Website visitors/ remarketing – users who have previously visited your website e.g all users over the past 30 days

• Similar audiences – are a type of audience that Google auto-generates. It creates users with similar characteristics as your existing remarketing audiences.

• Affinity audiences – Users grouped based upon their passions, interests, and habits e.g. fitness enthusiasts

• In-market audiences – Users grouped based upon their recent purchase intent, e.g. in the market for exercise equipment

It’s clear from the above that Google Ads can be a very effective method to find new customers for your business. Google Shopping Ads and Google Search are preceded by a user search, such as “yoga mat”, which means that they will be in a buying mode when served with an advertisement.

Advertisers have the power to reach the right people with the right message at the right moment, thanks to the many targeting criteria, budget management strategies, and engaging copy and creativity.

What are Facebook Ads?

Facebook Ads Manager lets you place ads on Facebook, Instagram, and the Audience Network. You’re likely to have seen ads on Facebook and Instagram if you browse the site.

However, the core difference is that Instagram and Facebook don’t get user intent the same way as Google. This is because the user hasn’t initiated the search process before being served an advertisement. It is difficult to determine the intent of Facebook or Instagram users at any moment. While they might be looking for a purchase, they may have also logged into a social network to check out memes, catch up with friends, and read the latest news.

To compensate for user-intent issues on Facebook, audience targeting options on Google Ads are more specific than on Facebook.

Google Ads can be used to target keywords and products, but Facebook Ads lets users search for businesses based on their personas. Facebook offers demographic targeting options that go beyond the location and demographics options on Google Ads. These options include life events (e.g. marriage, moving house, or getting a dog), parental status (down to the granularity of the age of the children) and marital status.

Facebook offers extensive interest targeting and behavioral targeting options. This allows advertisers to target customers based on many characteristics, such as what brands they like, their hobbies, television shows they watch (interest targeting), and digital activities (behavioral targeting).

Advertisers can also create a remarketing audience (users who have interacted with your site or social profiles in the past) and lookalike audiences (an audience created by Facebook), which create users with similar characteristics as your existing remarketing audience.

Facebook offers a wide range of targeting options, making it a great place for users to find new brands or be inspired by products and services from brands that they already love.

Are there any similarities between Facebook Ads and Google Ads?

As I have already mentioned, the largest difference between the platforms is the intent on Facebook compared to Google Ads. They do share some key similarities.

Once you have established your budget and allocated it across campaigns on either platform, campaigns should be closely monitored and optimized to achieve your desired results.

Both platforms reward advertisers who deliver high-quality, relevant ads to their audiences with higher ad delivery rates and/or lower traffic.

These ads require expertise to be effective.

• To create high-performing copy and ad creativity
• Effectively allocating (and reallocating) budgets
• Select strategies can be applied strategically (or manually managed bids).
• Use the appropriate targeting settings

There is some overlap in audience targeting capabilities between Facebook and Google, as we mentioned earlier. Although Facebook’s targeting criteria are more detailed than Google’s, both platforms provide the ability to target demographic, device, and interest groups, as well as the capability of creating your remarketing lists or similar/lookalike audiences.

If you advertise on both platforms, the audience performance can be used to inform and guide the other.

If you’re looking to run ads on any platform, I recommend that you take some of the free courses offered by Google/Facebook before you start. Or, you can enlist the assistance of an agency. This will allow you to maximize your advertising budget, and prevent you from spending unnecessary money.

Which should I choose, Facebook Ads or Google Ads?

Let’s now look at the pros and cons of advertising on each platform.

Google Ads: The Advantages

Volume Google is the most widely used and popular search engine in the world. It is also the leading online advertising platform. Google receives 3.5 billion searches every day. Each year, the volume of Google searches increases by 10%.

Intent Google gives advertisers unprecedented access to a huge potential audience of users who are actively searching for goods and services. Targeting long-tail keywords that are hyper-relevant and relevant is a great way to ensure the purchase intent or lead intent of users (e.g. purple yoga mat and barre mat).

Advanced Google Ads is undoubtedly the most advanced advertising platform. It allows advertisers to access the largest volume of data as well as technical features such as attribution reporting, automated bidding, and responsive ad copy. Advertisers can drive greater performance and better results by strategically using these features and effectively analyzing the data. This large amount of data can be used by advertisers to not only understand their performance in Google Ads but also how it influences performance across digital channels.

For all industries, Google advertising is more appropriate for certain industries. It is unlikely that a user will scroll through Facebook and choose to hire a law firm based on seeing an appealing ad. However, placing an advertisement for your law company on Google can help secure a prominent spot in the SERPs and attract those people who are already looking for legal services.

Can be used for B2B. Google is a better choice for companies offering B2B products or services. People will use a search engine to purchase work. Not Instagram, hopefully! Google Ads is an excellent choice for companies selling B2B training courses or industrial products.

Advantages of Facebook Ads

However, Facebook Ads can be rewritten using the same principle.

Creating intention – If you love luxury skincare products, it’s unlikely that you will ever set out to purchase any skincare products. If you see an engaging Facebook ad promoting a brand you have never heard of or if your favorite skincare brand has a new product or is having a sale, it’s still possible to purchase. Facebook Ads are more effective than Google Ads when it comes to spontaneous purchases. Even if the user isn’t actively looking for a product or in a purchasing mindset, Facebook Ads can help them reach their target audience and engage with creativity on Facebook.

Reach – Facebook offers additional advantages. While it has a smaller audience than Google, its potential reach is not small. It has 1.66 billion active users each day and 66% of Facebook’s total user base is active every day.

Targeting – Facebook’s audience targeting capabilities have been described as unrivaled. People share so much about their lives through Facebook, including engagement announcements, restaurant choices, holiday snaps, and even photos of themselves. They also engage with content that is strongly indicative of their values, beliefs, ideologies, and personal interests. Advertisers can target their messages and content even better than Google.

Cost – Facebook is typically a cheaper platform than Google for advertising, with lower CPCs overall. Google can charge as much as $54 for CPCs in certain sectors like finance and insurance. If you are an advertiser with a small budget, Facebook advertising might be more feasible than Google. The platform’s extensive targeting options and various ad formats can help you drive good ROI with both small and large budgets.

Visuals – Facebook is a visual platform that allows you to showcase products and services appealingly. This is especially true for those that fall under the broad categories of fashion, beauty, fitness, food and dining, and health and fitness. Advertisers can use multiple images or videos in a variety of ad formats, such as collection ads and carousel ads. Story formats can be interruptive, immersive, and full-screen experiences that, when done well, are sure to grab users’ attention.

Google Ads are less advantageous than Facebook Ads

As mentioned above, certain industries and topics with high search volumes on Google can be extremely expensive and competitive.

These topics include insurance, loans, and mortgages, as well as attorneys. It can be costly and difficult to stand out in SERPs if you are operating in these areas with a limited budget or a new brand.

You may also experience low search volume if your brand is new or offers a unique product/service.

This means that not many people (or very few) are searching for your keywords. You won’t get enough traffic. Facebook Ads might be a better option in this situation. You can use it to increase awareness of your brand amongst the relevant audiences. They will then hopefully search for your brand later down the line.

Facebook Ads: The downsides

The visual nature of Instagram and Facebook can be a benefit to some people, but it can also present challenges for others. It’s harder to create beautiful Instagram stories showcasing car insurance products than a new lipstick line.

Additionally, not all businesses can produce high-quality ads (especially videos), so they can outsource this work. Contrary to Google Ads where you can only enter a few lines about your product/service to create an ad.

Facebook Ads are less advanced than Google Ads. Google Adwords was introduced in 2007, while Facebook Ads only became available in 2007. Less extensive reporting, attribution, and measurement solutions are generally considered less accurate. A common complaint is that Facebook reports often up weights Facebook channel performance.

What’s next?

Many businesses are not asking the question: Should I use Facebook Ads or Google Ads? Instead, the question should be: Should I use Google Ads or Facebook Ads?

Advertising on these platforms will be affected by your brand awareness, industry, and the products/services that you promote. You can use Facebook Ads to increase awareness or show new products, and Google Ads to capture users who are already looking for relevant products and/or services.