Google vs. Facebook: Which Delivers a Higher Return on Investment?

It’s no secret that Facebook and Google are two of the most popular advertising platforms out there. Both platforms have billions of users and massive data sets that help companies get their ads in front of prospective customers.

Google as a search engine and Facebook as a social media platform, both offer effective and cost-effective advertising strategies that allow businesses to sell more than ever before.

While the audience size and targeting capabilities of Facebook and Google are great, it can be difficult to choose between these two platforms when you only have the budget for platform advertising. This article will discuss the pros and cons of advertising on both platforms, and which platform is likely to provide a higher return on investment (ROI) for your business.

What are Facebook ads

What are Google ads

Features of Facebook Ads

Features of Google Ads

Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads: Comparison Chart

Which one is best for the company's business?

What products are they best for?

How to use Google Ads and Facebook Ads

01 What is Facebook Ads

Facebook is a powerful social media platform for individuals and businesses, with approximately 1.6 billion people around the world connected to a small business on Facebook.

Essentially, Facebook ads require using the Facebook Ads Manager tool to create and run ad campaigns to reach your target audience based on their location, profile data, and demographics. In addition to this, you can choose where to run your ads, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and/or Audience Network, as well as the type of device your business is targeting (mobile or desktop). It also allows businesses to track and analyze the performance of advertising campaigns based on business needs. Facebook ads are effective at increasing brand awareness and engagement, generating leads, driving traffic to your website, expanding content reach, and creating awareness for upcoming events.

02 What is Google Ads

Google accounts for 38.6% of total U.S. digital ad spending, making it the most popular digital advertising strategy. When creating ads, in order to "win" the Google ad auction and see your ads show for the keywords you choose, you need to optimize your quality score and bid amount. For better ad targeting, it's important to optimize your bid amounts and maintain a high quality score. Take my search result "books to buy" as an example

Ads appear in search results and businesses pay for each click on the ad (hence the name pay-per-click, PPC) or for every 1,000 views (impressions) the ad receives (hence the name cost-per-thousand impressions, CPM). Google Ads are a great way to drive more qualified traffic to your website or online store, especially when targeted keywords show potential customers are interested in buying.

03 Characteristics of Facebook Ads

wider audience

With over 2.7 billion users, Facebook is undoubtedly a great advertising platform. Expand the audience for advertising display and increase brand awareness, which will also bring more website traffic and increase overall sales.

More granular targeting options

Target specific audiences based on conditions such as residence, marital status, education level, etc., advertise to extremely refined groups, and increase conversion rates.

More visually appealing ads

Facebook's social media attributes allow companies to display and promote products in the form of videos, graphics, product carousels, etc., allowing users to understand product content more intuitively and interestingly.

04 Characteristics of Google Ads

There’s a very simple reason why Google is the most popular advertising platform – it works.

Target people who are ready to buy using Google ads and Facebook ads

When it comes to Facebook vs. Google ads, it’s hard to find a clear winner. However, when we talk about targeting users who are ready to convert, Google takes the cake. As we mentioned before, when using Google Ads, you can target users based on keywords and extract these keywords from tools dedicated to what users search for. With Google Ads, you can not only increase brand awareness, but also target users who are ready to use your product.

Use multiple ad formats

While Google ads may not be as “interesting” as Facebook ads, there are options to make your ads more engaging, making users more likely to click on them. For example, you can add customer reviews, website links, phone numbers, and more to your ads. These are called ad extensions and they make your ads more effective.

Perform a deeper analysis

When it comes to analytics platforms, Google Analytics is second to none. Businesses see important advertising metrics they didn't know they needed, such as impressions over a specific time period, average cost-per-click (CPC), and more.

05 Comparison chart between the two

06 Which one is best for the company’s business?

Buyer's intention

When deciding whether to run Google ads or Facebook ads, you should consider which part of your marketing funnel you want to target.

• Facebook Ads Increase Brand Awareness

Because Facebook collects detailed data about its users, Facebook ads are better at increasing brand awareness. When you need to cast a wide net, increase brand awareness or promote an event, Facebook is the best choice. Information can be put in front of a broad audience who are generally interested in what is being promoted. But there is also a phenomenon where Facebook can be used effectively for middle and bottom funnel campaigns if partnered with Custom Audiences. For example, we can retarget users who have already visited a pricing page or a feature page on our website to keep our corporate brand top of mind as they continue their search for the right solution.

• Google ads are better suited to purchase intent

When it comes to the bottom of the funnel, many businesses prefer Google Ads, which attract the most traffic from users who are actively searching for a purchase. Google's users have high intent, so businesses can reach people who are actively looking for a product/service and ready to take the next step in the buying process. When consumers want to make a purchase, they are more likely to turn to Google for research.

cost

Obviously, cost is one of the most important considerations when deciding between Facebook ads and Google ads. How much do we pay every time someone sees a business’s ad or clicks on it? How much do we pay to acquire each new customer? The platform you choose can have a significant impact on your customer acquisition costs.

• Facebook tends to be more cost-effective

In a recent survey, nearly two-thirds of respondents said their average customer acquisition cost was $10 or less, and 28% said their average CAC for Facebook ads was less than $5. $10 can actually get you a ton of impressions, engagement, video views, amplification, or website traffic on Facebook, but with Google ads, $10 might only get you 1-2 clicks on your business website, depending on the keywords you’re bidding on. Most marketers we hear from agree that when it comes to price, Facebook is the winner.

• Google ads are better at generating conversions

While spending $10 on Google ads may only get 5-10 clicks, Google ads have more purchasing intent, so we simply convert more visitors. So companies with smaller advertising budgets will generally have better success with Google Ads, since higher intent usually leads to higher conversion rates.

Audience size

As of last year, Facebook had 1.73 billion daily active users and 2.60 billion monthly active users. We can't measure Google's user base in quite the same way because you don't need a Google Account to use Google's search engine. But we know that Google handles over 3.5 billion searches every day. So there's no clear way to choose between these two platforms in terms of audience size. But recent reports of Facebook's declining reach among younger audiences mean some businesses and brands may find that Facebook doesn't give them the audiences they're looking for in the same way that Google's multi-platform ad ecosystem does. When businesses want to connect with younger customers, YouTube and the rest of Google's vast multi-platform advertising system may provide better reach.

audience participation

When advertising, businesses want to make sure they place ads where their audience will engage. 52% of marketers say their audience is more likely to interact with their ads on Facebook than on Google. Still, 45% said their audience is more likely to interact with their ads on Google than on Facebook.

So when it comes to reaching an audience, either platform is probably a safe bet.

Unique ad placements

Generally speaking, Google ads are text-based ads that appear in Google Search and Google Maps results:

Facebook ads can contain media such as images and videos, and typically appear in a user's timeline and sidebar (on desktop):

But the real value of both platforms comes from some of the more unique ad placements.

• Facebook Messenger ads have higher open rates

Facebook Messenger ads are highly valuable, with most companies achieving over 90% open rates and over 30% click-through rates.

• Google Shopping ads lead to more purchases

Google Shopping results are a huge boon for companies looking to sell products to searchers. Google’s other search platforms (Images, Shopping, YouTube, Maps, etc.) are game-changers. It all depends on where the enterprise market is and what they are looking for.

07 What products are they best suited for?

Facebook ads are best for social products and low-cost products

The fact that people go to Facebook for social reasons also affects how they respond to ads. Social networking and project management are all about sharing ideas. Teams collaborate and work on projects together, which means work is shared. Likewise, share thoughts on Facebook.

Google ads are best for high-cost products and retargeting

Businesses can choose the best time to show up. The initial cost is higher, but the conversion rate for high-value products is much better. When businesses are considering retargeting, Google has broader retargeting potential than Facebook.

08 How to use Google and Facebook

The best digital advertising strategy is one that uses both Google Ads and Facebook Ads. If the target market already knows about the product, focus the company's marketing spend on Google ads and then introduce some Facebook activity. Conversely, if the market does not have the brand awareness to support paid search, it is recommended to start building awareness on Facebook and then add Google ads later. Typically, if consumers know the brand/product exists and they know to search for it, Google ads are more likely to be recommended as a starting point for media investment, layering in some activity within Facebook such as retargeting.

However, things change if brand awareness and search volume don’t support paid search. In these cases, or where search is too competitive and cost-prohibitive, then it is recommended to frontload other channels such as Facebook and save some budget for the most cost-effective keywords in paid search. It’s also recommended to start with one and gradually build the other – making profits from optimized Google ads to cover the cost of expanding to Facebook. Of course, it's also possible to retarget from both services - maybe someone clicks an ad while searching on Google, and the business can then advertise to them on Facebook by retargeting; or it can be done the other way around: start with Facebook and then retarget on Google. In the Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads debate, it's hard to pick a clear winner. Many marketers recommend testing both Google Ads and Facebook Ads to see which one works better for your business. But it’s true that if you advertise on both Facebook and Google, your business will have as many potential customers as possible, your marketing campaign will be most successful, and the more real estate you buy online, the more you’ll increase brand awareness and sales.

When you select both Google Ads and Facebook Ads, not only will you be shown the keywords your audience is searching for in Google, but you'll also be closing the gap by serving ads on Facebook that are targeted to your potential customers' interests.

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