Started in 2000, Google AdWords, now Google Ads, is paired with the term “paid search”, as no other PPC advertising platform can rival it in popularity and scale. Advertisers on Google usually need to take care of two primary networks:
There’s a common misunderstanding that Google Ads is limited to text, therefore can’t be appealing. In fact, though remaining text-based, Google Ads have many features to make it more enticing to prospects, such as ad extensions, sitelinks, reviews, location targeting, and much more. But this is hardly the end of innovation for Google Ads, as they’re researching to introduce other interactive ads formats, integrating rich visual elements.
“Facebook” was the most globally searched query on Google in 2019.
The biggest social media platform in the world, Facebook hosts 1.73 billion global daily users in 2021. In Vietnam, there are nearly 70 million Facebookers as of January 2021, earning the country the 7th place in the list of countries with the most Facebook users.
Born seven years later than Google Ads in 2007, Facebook Ads doesn’t choose to go head-to-head against Google Ads on keywords. They look into the users’ interests and their online behaviors, so a totally different level of audience granularity.
On their official page about Facebook Ads, Facebook claims that “1.6 billion people worldwide are connected to a small business on Facebook”.
Unlike “Paid Search” of Google, “Paid Social'' is how Facebook Ads works – showing sponsored ads on users’ News Feed based on their relevance. With Facebook Ads, your ads will appear on many channels: Facebook, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Facebook Marketplace and Facebook Audience Network.
Facebook ads are highly visual, because that’s how the platform was made even before the advertising feature was born. Though visuals take much less time to digest than text, “ad fatigue” exists and reduces the effectiveness of marketing campaigns on Facebook.
The names Facebook Ads and Google Ads make it easy to think of these two tools as direct competitors. Many have long waited to see the end of the “Google Ads vs Facebook Ads” battle.
But to their disappointment, if you consider these “enemies” as “Paid Social” and “Paid Search”, that battle may not even exist to begin with.
As we go deeper in the next parts, you will understand that they are not mutually exclusive. You can leverage both tools for many business goals. But it’s true that most of the time, one is a better choice than the other.
Let’s learn the real differences between Google Ads and Facebook Ads and how they help your PPC campaigns perform the best.
You may not like the answer “It depends” given by most marketing agencies to many questions you bring to the table. However, before having sufficient information, no reliable agency can promise you any result. That’s why we have compiled a list of important factors for you to consider before making the final decision. Let’s take it down one by one:
The short answer is Google Ads when the intent to buy is high, and Facebook Ads when the product/service is highly sensitive to demographics.
When you decide on one option, make sure it is the best to serve your purposes. Therefore, the decision to invest more on Google Ads or Facebook Ads greatly depends on what you want to achieve in the end.
It’s easy to think that Google is the go-to option for the goal of increasing reach thanks to their enormous audience size, hence higher exposure.
But does it mean more relevance or better targeting? Hardly. Because apart from keywords, Google Ads’ audience targeting is based on location, basic user demographics (e.g. age, gender…) and device. There is also an option to retargeting with Google Ads – reconnect with people who previously visited your sites or apps.
On the other hand, Lookalike Audiences is one powerful feature of Facebook Ads. Advertisers can create a “lookalike” audience based on their own uploaded customer database. Now, advertisers can target new customers who look very alike to their existing customers, hence much higher chance to success.
Google Ads offers a wider reach, but Facebook Ads is the winner in audience targeting.
If your product/service has a longer buyer journey and lead nurturing is essential, Facebook Ads is your first choice.
If a person is researching information to make a purchase, where do you think they will go first, Google or Facebook?
The answer is clear: Google serves well as an information hub for people with a buying intent, while Facebook users don’t expect to shop when they scroll down their newsfeed. Therefore, if you’re looking to increase sales in a short time, Google Ads is your favorite partner.
So Google Ads generate more quick sales, how about its relevant costs, in other words, ROI? You may be surprised to find that ROI is actually one attractive selling point of Facebook Ads due to its lower required investment.
Google Ads converts faster, while Facebook Ads offers more attractive ROI.
While Google offers a higher CTR (click-through-rate), CPC (cost-per-click) of Facebook is generally lower, especially in “hot industries” with “hot keywords”.
Pro Tip: The CTRs of both Google Ads and Facebook Ads will increase if you leverage their unique ad placements. With Google, it’s the Shopping ads, while with Facebook, it’s the Messenger ads.
Before the launch of Uber, there was no such word as “ridesharing”. People may ask Google about the cheapest taxi or vehicle rental services in their areas, but they don’t search for “ridesharing” or similar words.
If your product/service is so new to the market, global or local, Facebook is a better choice to grow your audience and clear their doubts.
Of course you can still use smart keywords related to pain points to appear on Google SERPs, but if the users haven’t heard of you before, they are more reluctant to click.
Also, as Facebook Ads are highly visual, it serves better the purpose of attracting new audiences, who have been shown the ads because their favorites and online behaviors match with the ad content. It’s also easier to tell your brand story on Facebook.
Now when we have reached this point, let’s be honest: despite many differences between Facebook Ads and Google Ads, what’s “competing” here are not Google and Facebook or their wonderful PPC tools, it’s your own resources – budget, time, and effort. But even if you have unlimited money and personnel to spare, there’s no way to take back the time you lost in a less-than-optimal investment decision. And your competitors don’t wait for your recovery either.
So, the good news is you don’t need to answer the either-or question, just the question of “How much for each?”. Though fortune favors the bold, there’s also the old saying “don’t put too many irons in the fire” (especially if you’re not a blacksmith). In other words, there should be a thorough plan to distribute your resources over time on Google Ads and Facebook Ads to create the highest impact.
There are more than one way to combine Google Ads and Facebook Ads to make the journey through your funnel an even more enjoyable experience. Learn and leverage each one’s strengths to your advantage, but keep in mind that these two giants don’t stay the same. To future-proof themselves, they will continuously evolve together with technology advance, social transformation and new consumer behaviors.
It’s time to put an end to the long-standing battle due to differences between Google Ads and Facebook Ads, because we have learned a better way to create more value for all: a partnership. A wise investor knows how to best allocate assets in their portfolio. Similarly, a resourceful businessperson knows how to best distribute their limited resources to achieve highest results.
In other words, you don’t need to view Google Ads and Facebook Ads in an adversarial way, as usually exacerbated by technology media and the misguided. The question shouldn’t be, “Which one?” as you can’t have a healthy funnel by caring only for the top (Facebook Ads) or the bottom (Google Ads). The question then should be, “What’s the right mix?” and “In which order?”
To answer these practical questions and increase your chance of getting it right at your first step, your wisest choice would be to seek the help of experts. Because even both Google Ads and Facebook Ads always pitch themselves as easy-to-use, it’s another story to master the tools and reap the highest possible rewards.
With a verified track of records in PPC services, On Digitals is ready at your side on the journey to build a sustainable online brand and ultimately realize extraordinary results. If you are looking to expand your business to the Vietnam market, no need to look any further, talk to On Digitals for unique local insights and unparalleled support.
