Google Ads vs. Facebook Ads –  Which One Is Best for You

The world of paid ad campaigns is growing fast, and the two biggest names in the industry when it comes to ad platforms are Google and Facebook ads. Both tech companies created numerous features and solutions to help business owners easily reach their target audience through different ad formats and platforms.

That said, it can become hard to choose the best advertising platform for your next ad campaign. If this is your main problem, don’t worry. This article is perfect for you.

We will cover both ad platform options and their main features to ensure you find the best choice for your business and its needs. Take an additional look at both Facebook Ads and other social media ads.

Make sure to take a look at all aspects of each option. This way, you’ll be able to better tell how each platform can benefit you.

This article is a segment of a more extensive piece about Google Ads vs Social Media Ads.

What Is Google Ads

Google Ads (or Google Adwords) is the biggest search engine solution for paid advertising inside the main platforms owned by the brand, including the search engine itself, YouTube, and many others. It is one of the first tools dedicated to this kind of action and, thanks to these years of experience, is also the most developed one. It features dozens of tools and resources to help you create the perfect Google Ads campaigns and precisely reach your target audience.

Creating a Google Ads campaign allows you to create an infinity of formats and possibilities when uploading a new marketing action. Whether you want to create simple Google Search ads or a video ad format for YT, the platform has all the tools to help with this and will also provide all the help you need for everything to work just as expected.

What Is Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads is Meta’s answer to Google Ads but focused on platforms from the group, such as Instagram and Facebook. Meta also allows you to customize almost every aspect of your campaign when uploading it to the advertising platforms, including the target audience you want to reach and where your digital assets appear.

Even though the platform is way more recent than Google Search Ad, it has grown extremely fast to become one of the main industry options for paid advertising. This happens thanks to the number of users that frequently access the social media platforms from the brand but also thanks to Meta’s expertise in digital marketing.

It is a great option whether you’re creating ads for local businesses or just building brand awareness for your online store. No matter what type of company you have, the platform always has a solution for you.

Paid Search vs. Paid Social

Both Google Ads and Facebook Ads serve the same purpose, but there are key differences between them that you should know. The main one is that a Google ad is considered paid search, while a Facebook ad is considered paid social. Here’s a quick explanation of what each one means:

The paid search focuses on relevant keywords and what people search for when looking for a determined service or product. Whether they’re display shopping ads or simple ad copy, when creating a paid campaign on Google search results, you must bid on targeted keywords you consider essential based on your customers’ intentions.

On the other hand, paid social focuses on the interest of the users more than what they type when searching for something. Not only their interests but the way your target users behave is also an important aspect when working with social ads.

To summarize, the main difference between Google and Facebook ad campaigns is that Google helps you generate new leads and find customers, while Meta helps new customers find you. This is the central aspect you should consider before any ad spend planning or campaign strategy.

Main Reasons to Use Google Ads

Now it’s time to see the main advantages Google Ads has over Facebook and how they can impact your business. Take a look at each item to find out if this one is the best option for you and your business.

Here are the main strengths of Google and why it might be the best option for you:

Number of Users

Even though Facebook is still the most used social media platform in the entire world, its numbers are not even close to the volume of Google users. It is the most popular of all search engines in almost every country, making it the best option if you want your business to appear to the largest number of people possible.

Generating leads is incredibly easy when using search and display ads on the platform, thanks to the high volume of searches happening every second. According to Google, the search platform displays more than a trillion search results yearly, being the perfect place for announcing products and services.

The only problem with this is that the competition is elevated when it comes to paid advertisement. To ensure the success of your campaign, it is vital that you create a solid strategy and invest in the right keywords, making you highlight among all the other competitors announcing on the platform.

Variety of Formats

Another advantage is that Google Ads offers an enormous variety of formats for your campaign, going from simple text-based ads to visual ads like videos and GIFs. We know that each type of content generates a different result when marketing, and choosing the right one is a vital step in the process.

This will never be a concern when using Google since the platform offers an enormous variety of formats to attend to your needs, whichever they are. If you plan on using the Google Display Network for creating visually attractive ads, make sure to take a look at the image sizes and proportions supported. If you upload an asset that doesn’t follow the platform’s specifications, your campaign will not be uploaded.

Each type of business requires a different format, and you can even use Google to analyze which ones your competitors use the most. The platform provides numerous tools to make this task quick and easy.

Strategy Possibilities

Another positive aspect of Google is the number of possibilities for your strategy. Its automation features serve different purposes and can be life savers depending on the objective of your PPC ads.

Whether you want to increase your list of prospective customers through lead generation or run retargeting ads, Google has a strategy option for you that will automatically set the campaign’s main details. 

This is important, especially if you don’t have experience with ad placement or using a PPC platform. Having an automatic option that will select the best settings based on what you want to achieve and the advertising spend helps save time and avoids campaign problems.

AI and Algorithm

Google is also one of the market’s leaders in AI development and automation tools, which can be clearly seen in its arsenal of tools. Not only to identify what a user searches for when looking for a specific product but also for an infinity of other purposes, it can be the perfect way to optimize your efforts.

Based on machine-learning algorithms, the platform can identify which ads perform better and automatically determine what you should do for better results in your campaign. Since Google’s AI and algorithms are so advanced, they are extremely reliable and help you create the best strategy.

If you’re afraid of choosing automatic settings because you don’t trust the bots, don’t worry about this one. It can help you save time and money, regardless of your ad types and what you want to achieve with them.

Wide Range of Tools

More than 20 years in the business have granted Google much experience in this market and developing handy tools for users. Tasks like keyword research, which would require third-party software to do, can now be easily performed within the platform, allowing advertisers to reduce the necessary budget. This brings numerous advantages, including work optimization and dismissing the need for other paid programs.

One of the most useful ones is the Google Analytics console that reunites all the valuable information you need to know about your campaign’s performance in one place. Whether running Google Display ads or any other kind, the Analytics tab will have the main data regarding it and can even be integrated into other tools to create the perfect database.

If you’re looking for a PPC option where you can manage all aspects of your strategy on the same platform and without the need for third parties, the Google Ads platform is undoubtedly the best one. From keywords and search terms sorting to automated insight generation, Google advertising has everything you need for a successful campaign.

Dashboards and Insights

One of the most used tools of the platform, and for a good reason, is the dashboard option. It can save dozens of hours you’d need to dedicate to create it and dismisses the need for third-party programs. 

With just one click, Google automatically compiles all the information regarding one or more paid ads and creates a visual dashboard presenting the main information regarding them. From demographic data to the number of clicks on your ad, everything is gathered and organized for easy evaluation.

Not only that, but Google automatically generates insights regarding the campaign performance. By accessing a dedicated tab, you can see the main insights generated and consider them for creating even better campaigns.

It can be a lifesaver for business owners investing in the search network. Every time you upload PPC campaigns, whether in search engine results pages or any other platform from Google, it requires a 15-day period for testing your campaigns. After that time, the insights will be available in a dedicated tab.

Main Reasons to Use Facebook Ads

Now it’s time to see some advantages and reasons why using Facebook Ads might be better for your business. Just like in Google Ads, it is essential to look at every aspect to make the best decision. Otherwise, you might choose a platform that doesn’t feature all the tools you need for an effective campaign.

Here are the main reasons you should consider using Facebook Ads:

Audience Research

Unsurprisingly, everybody shares almost every aspect of their lives on social media, especially Facebook, with more than 1.5 billion monthly active users. This makes it much easier for companies to understand to whom they sell their products and services.

While on Google, you’d have to conduct numerous search queries to understand your audiences, on Facebook, you can efficiently run your own research and understand how to create lookalike audiences and how they behave. 

This doesn’t mean you don’t need to conduct audience research when doing Facebook advertising. But there are no doubts that the process is much quicker and cheaper than when doing paid search, which makes the Google Ads cost higher overall.

Better Visual Integration

We all know that Google is mainly composed of text, especially regarding the result pages. When you create banner ads or any other visual type of advertisement, it might look very unnatural depending on where it is displayed.

Unlike Google, Facebook and Instagram are highly visual platforms, and the digital assets blend very well with them, making your advertisement more natural. It is also important to note that Meta’s platforms allow you to upload heavier images and videos when creating paid social media advertising. If you rely heavily on images and visually catchy marketing assets, Facebook ads work better for your needs.

Elevated ROI

One of the most remarkable characteristics of Meta’s advertising platforms is its incredible ROI. Even little investments can grant you a great profit depending on how precisely you set up your campaign and its details.

But to achieve a positive ROI, every aspect of your campaign must be well-thought-out. Both Google and Facebook Ads use your data to understand who should see your advertisement campaigns. Imprecise data can lead to your ads being displayed to the wrong audience, consequently generating a low ROI.

You can easily create engaging Facebook ads that help you achieve your objectives even when on a lower budget. On the other hand, Google’s ROI might not be that optimized, and you’ll have to spend a little more to reach the same results.

Overall Costs

Not only the ROI but all aspects of the ad spend are usually cheaper on Facebook. Even with a short ad budget, you can create a solid campaign passing through all main platforms supported by Meta.

There are different types of campaigns, and each has particular needs, so there is no specific price for every marketing action. Each one will depend on the activities that will be done and where the ad will be displayed.

When it comes to the budget-friendly advertising platform topic, Facebook is a clear winner over Google.

Mobile Optimization

There is also no doubt that Facebook Ads offers better mobile optimization, especially because social media platforms are much more present in the mobile environment. This makes it much easier for social media ads to offer a better experience when looking for a product or service on your smartphone.

This doesn’t mean that your Google ads work poorly on mobile environments or that you should not use them. Both platforms have the tools that allow you to create the perfect ad. But regarding Facebook Ads vs. Google, Meta’s solution works better in mobile environments.

Advanced Targeting Options

This is not something exclusive to Facebook, but they have one of the best settings when it comes to the targeting aspect of the campaign. Whether targeting existing customers or creating a display ad for new audiences, the platform allows you to edit even the minimum details of it.

You can also do it on Google, but Facebook takes advantage of having a more user-friendly interface. If you are inexperienced with ad placements, Meta’s platform might be better suited, but everything will depend on the kind of product or service you sell and where your audience is.

Which One Is Better

There is no right or wrong answer regarding which platform is better. Both paid advertising options have distinct tools and features to help you achieve your business goals.

The best options will depend on your needs and where your target audience is located. You must analyze all aspects of your campaign objectives and evaluate what tools and features each platform provides to help you.

We showed you some of the main advantages of both Facebook Ads and Google Ads, but several aspects need to be considered before making any decision. Make sure to visit both options’ websites and review the documentation.

Both are powerful advertising tools and are the best options on the market. Using it can help your business grow and highlight among the competition.

A good tool, aligned with a solid strategy, can make your sales and website traffic skyrocket.

Google Ads vs Social Media Ads: Exploring the Platforms for Your Business

Here are some recommended readings to help you navigate the differences between Google Ads and various social media platforms:

• Google Ads vs Instagram Ads,
• Google Ads vs LinkedIn Ads,
• Google Ads vs Tiktok Ads,
• Google Ads vs Twitter Ads.

Why Hiring a Professional Agency Is Recommended

As we mentioned, both tools have automation features, but several aspects of the campaign need to be manually set up. This is something that takes time to learn and will directly impact the performance of your campaign.

Because of this, it is highly recommended to hire a professional company to take care of your paid marketing campaigns. By doing this, you ensure all steps are done by a professional, increasing the performance and efficiency of your ads.

At GamerSEO, we have the best professionals with years of experience to help you achieve your objectives. We will work with you in every step of the process to guarantee the best results. 

We have everything you need to make your business highlight among the competition. Join us, and let’s create quality marketing together.

Conclusion on Google Ads vs. Facebook Ads

There is no doubt that Google and Meta are ahead of all competitors in the digital paid advertising world. The two ad platforms have years of experience developing tools and features to help business owners reach their audience and help the companies grow.

Paid advertising is growing faster than ever, and if you want to shine among the competition, it is an indispensable investment. But for it to work as expected, everything needs to be well-planned.

Now, it’s time to choose which platform will be the go-to for your paid advertising actions. Remember that a good strategy is also indispensable, and hiring a professional agency is highly recommended.