GOOGLE ADS
Facebook Ads vs Google Ads: What to Focus on in 2021
As digital marketing experts we are constantly asked the questions of ‘what paid ads should I be doing, Facebook or Google?’ While we would love nothing more than to give a definitive answer to our clients, the reality is – there is no definitive answer.
Both Facebook and Google have their own unique strengths and benefits, and ultimately you want to be able to use both. However budget constraints can sometimes be a barrier, and in the interest of arming you with the information you need to make an informed decision, we’ve taken a look at some of the strengths and benefits of both strategies.
Which one is more cost-effective?
To look at ROI effectively you need to set a benchmark, and generally speaking, the first metric to look at is cost-per-click (CPC). There are many factors that will influence your CPC in both Google Ads and Facebook, so for the purpose of a straight comparison you have to be thinking about the same industry comparing one platform to another, and in this case, generally speaking, Facebook’s CPC will be lower than Googles.
However, this doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the best platform for you to go to. Considering the user’s intention to buy is higher with Google Ads – meaning its response to a user search terms rather than appearing on a social media feed – your business may be better suited to Google Ads.
Which is more user friendly?
When it comes to getting your ads up and running, and making sure they are effective Google Ads is likely the more user-friendly platform. The reason being that Facebook Ads rely on the health of your Facebook page to indicate your ads are not spam or fake news. So you need to have an active and engaged Facebook page so that Facebook trusts your ads and distributes them accordingly.
With Facebook, there is also more technical set up in the form of creating audiences to target, and setting up Pixels on your website. So it can take a little longer and requires more knowledge to get your Facebook Ads up and running in a way that will be cost-efficient and effective.
Which one will get me better engagement?
To compare engagement you need to look at click-through-rates (CTR) and conversions. Similarly to CPC, there are different engagement benchmarks for each industry, but you can begin by comparing the right CTR’s.
In Facebook, a regular CTR refers to any clicking action on an ad, which could be as simple as clicking ‘see more’. Whereas outbound CTR refers to clicking on a link in the ad that takes you somewhere else, which is more important and more comparable to Google CTR’s.
For both Google and Facebook, you should aim for around a 1% CTR for the top of funnel audiences – these are cold audiences who are just being made aware of your brand.
For middle-of-funnel audiences who have interacted with your brand and are being retargeted, a good CTR is between 3-4%. This is fairly comparable between Google and Facebook.
Ultimately you need an omnichannel strategy
As you can see with the right skill and knowledge both Google and Facebook can be harnessed to get results and it’s ultimately impossible to say which one is better suited to your business. With an omnichannel strategy, you can set the same total budget but utilise both platforms, and shift focus on spending depending on your results.
To get the most out of your budget why not leave it to the experts and talk to our specialists? Call us on 1300 376 466 or contact us here to have a chat about how we can set up a strategy for your business.
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