Google Ads vs Facebook Ads: Which Media Platform is Good for Your Business?

What comes to your mind when you hear the words Google or Facebook?

To business owners and marketers, Google is more than a search engine and Facebook is way beyond the usual chit-chat.

These two media platforms have changed the course of advertising. We cannot fight them, but we can use these social platforms to our advantage.

The core aspect of every business is marketing. Regardless of the quality of your product or services, once your marketing strategy is flawed, your sales value will diminish.

And by default, your marketing plan should feature budget, sale funnels or CRM, awareness, target audience, and media platforms.

Though these mediums are necessary, they would be useless if you use the wrong platform for your campaigns.

There are countless media platforms with the “advertise here” embeds, but in this campaign guide, we focus on the two most visited media platforms — Facebook and Google.

Are Paid Ads Worth My Dough?

Word on the street is “a good product sells itself”. Some would ask, why then, should I waste my hard-earned money on paid ads when I’ve got an excellent product?

Yeah! Good products can work magic, but only after the advertiser has done their job.

There’s a market for millions of “brilliant” products or ideas that have failed because of the lack of marketing strategies, which inevitably includes paid ads.

A good example is the Volkswagen Phaeton, a luxurious car that was launched in 2002. Phaeton was marketed globally as a premium class, full-sized luxury vehicle.

The sales were so poor that the company had to pull it off the market. North America and global sales ended abruptly in 2006.

Why Did Volkswagen Phaeton Fail?

Your guess is as good as mine — bad marketing. On translation, Volkswagen means “People’s car” in German.

Why on earth would Volkswagen make a luxurious car, when their greatest selling point is affordability?

The failure of Phaeton can be attributed to a bad UX design team and reckless marketing strategy. They could have created a mini-company for luxurious cars, like Toyota (invented the Lexus) and Honda (invented the Acura).

But Volkswagen made the mistake of marketing the wrong product to their target audience and they paid for it immensely. According to motor authority, VW lost €10,000 per Phaeton sold.

I’m not saying improving your product quality isn’t a good idea, but product development is fruitless without budgeting enormous funds for marketing.

Google Ads vs Facebook Ads: Which Are Good for Your Business?

Facebook feeds and Google’s search engine are well suited for ad placements, depending on your target audience. Facebook and Google have 2 billion and 2.5 billion active users respectively.

Given that these two platforms excel in what they do, comparing Google ads and Facebook ads is a tough task.

Let’s get to it.

Google Ads vs Facebook Ads: Differences Between Facebook Ads and Google Ads

The infographic above clearly shows the wide differences between Google search and Facebook feeds.

To get more sales on Facebook, you need interesting stories and great videos or gifs. Meanwhile, Google rewards great SEO ad content with high rankings.

Also, both platforms have mapped out various ways to reach specific target audiences which range from geo-location to search intent on Google and age to gender on Facebook. The choice is yours to make.

What Are the Benefits or Pros of Facebook Ads?

• Cheap and accessible

Facebook ads are cheap and accessible to small brands. According to a Hootsuite report:

“If you’re measuring cost per click (CPC) Facebook advertising costs on average about $0.27 per click. If you’re measuring cost per thousand impressions (CPM), Facebook advertising costs about $7.19 CPM.”

Going by the Hootsuite report, $100 would guarantee you over 13,900 impressions. It’s pertinent to mention that the performance of your Facebook ads also depends on the niche of your business.

And you could also boost an existing Facebook post to a wider audience with just $5.

• Detailed and Focal Advertising Options

Facebook lets you target your audience based on age, gender, geo-location, and interests. The advertising options are easy to use and straightforward.

In addition to Facebook’s advertising options, Facebook analytics provides full data on your current campaigns and the potential ways of improving your Facebook ads.

• Facebook Micro-targeting

This is the most pertinent part of Facebook advertising. Most influencers reach out to anyone, but marketers have no other choice than to target specific prospects.

The reason is simple; not everybody would be interested in office pens, so it would be a great disadvantage to market to manual laborers or truck drivers, who have little or no interest in office pens.

For a brand that sells office pens, the best way to make more sales is to target bankers, teachers, or corporate individuals who appreciate the product.

The beauty of Facebook micro-targeting is that it’s not limited to the occupation of your prospects.

You could also channel your Facebook ads based on location, age, and employment status, to gender, annual income, marital status and hobbies.

What Are the Disadvantages or Cons of Facebook Ads?

• Not for novices

Facebook ads might be a bit stressful for those who don’t have any online advertising skill. You need to be good in marketing before you can decipher and make the best use of Facebook analytics.

Read my online ad guide to get the full picture of what Facebook advertisement entails and what it takes to generate more leads.

• Requires market research

Facebook analytics would only throw bulky data at you; it won’t do your research for you.

No matter how much you have for paid ads, you cannot rule out the work of a market researcher and a user experience designer.

You must test your product for possible flaws and undeveloped areas while conducting multiple types of research on your potential prospects.

• No Money, No Clicks

Since 2018, when Facebook made an immense change in their algorithm, getting free organic reach has been difficult for brands and businesses using their Facebook page as a source of traffic.

Only a small percentage of your followers can see your posts organically on Facebook. Facebook now places more priority on paid ads rather than organic reach.

For small businesses, who cannot sacrifice some bucks for advertisement, Facebook is not the right platform. You must pay to get seen.

What Are the Benefits or Pros of Google Ads?

• Target specific prospects

Like I opined earlier, the slimmer your targets, the higher your chances of landing interested prospects.

Google ads allow you to aim at specific prospects who are most likely to be interested in your products or services.

You can narrow down your reach by adding specific terms to your ad copy.

By using Google targeting options, you’re not only aiming at the interested audience but also reaching people who are actively searching for keywords related to your brand, product or services.

Micro-targeting is also user-friendly. For instance, products that are harmful to kids under the age of five should exempt target adults raising babies.

• Easy to Set Up

Most business owners have little time. To make advertising easier, Google Ads has been created with guides and easy-to-use settings.

According to the director of content marketing of Disruptive Advertising, Aden Andrus:

“Google wants your money, so they make it pretty easy to set up an account and start advertising on AdWords. All you have to do is visit Google AdWords and hit ‘Start now.’ From there, you’ll be asked for your email (preferably a Gmail account) and the URL of your site.”

Before getting started with Google Ads, you’d be taken through a comprehensive guide, which explains all you need to know about Google Ads. Ads can go live within minutes of setting them up.

[Editor note: keep in mind that Google’s goal is to increase your ad spend while yours should be to maximize your profits. Do not blindly accept default settings unless you have a lot of money to waste.]

• Stay Within Your Budget

Like Facebook, Google ads are also cheap to set up. According to Wordstream:

“The average cost per click in Google Ads is between $1 and $2 on the search network. The average CPC on the Display Network is under $1. The most expensive keywords in Google Ads and Bing Ads cost $50 or more per click.”

With Google Ads, you can operate within your budget. You can set up an ad for one day, two days or one week. And the beauty of Google ads is that you can stop it anytime you wish.

• Promote Multiple Ad Types

Each prospect has a different view of things. Therefore, it’s necessary to communicate with each prospect the way they like.

Google allows you to design multiple ad formats and this feature is crucial to all brands. The multiple ad formats include search, display, video, and app.

What Are the Disadvantages or Cons of Google Ads?

• Requires Expert Management

Like Facebook, Google ads need the touch of an expert in order to perform well. If you keep tinkering the tool with the same poor knowledge of it, you’d end up wasting your money.

If you don’t have the time to learn, why not hire a professional promoter or a freelance agency to help you with the technical jargons?

• Your Neighbor Is Also Using Google Ads

Every marketing tool gives 100% performance when it’s still upcoming and less-known. But immediately after it hits the limelight, things begin to change.

Before, marketers and SEO writers had to battle with the Google algorithm, but nowadays, you must beat your competitors to rank high.

Google Ads vs Facebook Ads: Comparing the Duo

Facebook ads can help you build brand awareness and brand following/community, whereas Google is quite good for product sales and Shopify promotion.

On a sincere note, Google ads and Facebook ads are both great places to advertise. To determine which is suitable for your brand you’ve gotta try both and judge what’s best for you.

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Miracle Oyedeji

Miracle Oyedeji is a creative writer with more than 8 years experience in Business Journalism. He's been featured on Startup TV, Growmap, and State of Digital Publishing. His style of writing turns boring headlines into lively stories. He writes interactive and educative stories.

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