If you are an SME business owner and looking for an online marketing strategy to grow your business, you may bump into 2 primary paid marketing channel, Google Ads and Facebook Ads.
You may wonder what are the differences and which is better for me?
Google Ads Strategy
Firstly, Google Ads is a search intent marketing strategy.
This is how it works. People enter a keyword in Google search to find the solution or product. E.g. Florist in KL.
With Google Ads, your message can be shown up on the top of page 1 result.
If they click on your message (ads) to visit your website to find out more, you pay a fee to Google.
This type of people is actively searching for a solution, product or service to fulfil their needs.
The search intent is strong, and we often consider them as warm/hot leads (leads refer to visitors indicate interest in becoming your customer).
For Google marketing, you are targeting an individual who needs your help urgently.
Facebook Ads Strategy
Facebook Ads is a pattern interrupt marketing.
Very few people will search for a solution, service or product on Facebook.
Everyone is browsing their newsfeeds such as looking for pictures, jokes, funny video from friends, family or news website.
Once a while, when they see a relevant message, images or video that pop out in their newsfeed, they might click on to find out more about your message.
They don’t need your services or product urgently. But once they need your service or product one day. They will look for you if you are consistently showing up and providing values to them.
These visitors are considered cold leads, where it might take a longer time to become your customers.
For Facebook marketing, you are targeting a group of people with specific interest and demographic.
Here is the quick summary
| Google Ads | Facebook Ads |
|---|---|---|
Strategy | Search Intent Marketing | Pattern Interrupt Marketing |
Fee | Charge Per Clicks | Charge Per Thousand Impressions |
Leads Type (First Contact) | Warm/Hot Leads | Cold Leads |
Urgency | High | Low |
Targeting Method | Input Keywords | Demographic, Interest |
Audience Size | Individual | Segment/Group |
| |
Does Google Search Marketing work for my business?
In short, Google search marketing is a good fit for you if there is significant search volume for your “Buying Keywords”.
Buying keywords indicate the keywords search by a potential buyer for your product or services.
For most business owners that provide local services or products are a good fit. For example, home service provider, retail shop, travel & tour and professional services are excellent.
But if you are selling something new that nobody is searching in Google, this may not be the right fit for you. Facebook will be a better option where you can educate and open the new market there.
6 Benefits of using Google Ads
#1 - Better Leads
You will get warm or hot leads who ready to pay for your services or products. The visitors from Google are at the last stage of their buying journey.
Unlike visitors from pattern interrupt marketing, you need more time to turn them to become your customers.
#2 - You do not need to launch new ads campaign frequently.
If you are familiar with Facebook Ads, you often need to launch multiple campaigns to test various message, images and video. Once you got your winning ads, you will slowly increase the budget to maximize the return.
But for most of the case, the ads campaign may only work well for a specific time and gradually become ineffective. You will then need to launch a new campaign to target a different audience and interest.
This is a time-consuming process for a business owner like you. Unlike Google ads campaign, once it is set up and running well, it usually works well for years without the need to do many changes.
#3 - Images are not required in Google Search ads.
I understand that many of us are not good at design. We often struggle to choose and design the right image in Facebook ads campaign.
The good news for using google ads is you don’t need any images! You just need to have the right copywriting (ad’s message) to stand out from the crowd.
#4 - Ads fee charge per click and no impression
You will be charged a fee when visitors click on your ads. Unlike Facebook ads, it charges based on impression.
If you have a bad ad campaign, you will be charged even nobody clicks your ads to view your message.
#5 - Best fit for a business that offers services or product with urgency
Google Ads is a search intent marketing strategy which is very effective for this type of companies. People are urgently searching for product or service to solve their problem.
If you are a business owner like home service provider, retail or repair shop, Google Ads will be able to deliver qualified leads instantly.
#6 - Possible to turn on or off your ads without impact the performance.
You can pause your Google ads base on your availability anytime without impacting the effectiveness of your ads once you restart the campaign.
Unlike Facebook ads, once you pause your campaign, restarting the same ad campaign will restart the Facebook algorithm, which impacts the performance of the ads.
Conclusion
Ready to get started with Google Ads? Here are the immediate thoughts pop up from your mind:
“Should I manage Google Ads myself?”
“Should I get a Google Ads agency to do it for me?”