Google and Facebook are a reckoning force in the digital advertising realm. With billions of users visiting the platforms daily, it’s reasonable for startup owners to capitalize on such potent and effective advertising techniques to expand their brand’s outreach. 

Alongside email marketing, advertising on Google and Facebook will offer your business optimal visibility, especially in the current eCommerce and digital era. Consequently, your venture will acquire new customers, increase leads and sales and ultimately, propel to scalable heights. 

It’s almost impractical to elucidate the immense power of running digital ads, particularly on Facebook and Google. And, it’s not our top priority for the moment. So, instead, this masterpiece will elucidate each platform’s unique features, key differences, and strengths. As a result, you can make an astute and informed decision on the ideal option for your startup. 

Facebook Ads

Facebook ads are a marketing technique where individuals create and publish advertisements targeting billions of users on the Facebook platform. The Facebook Ads Manager tool facilitates the process by aiding businesses to reach their target audience based on their users’ location, demographics, profile information, and in general, their online behaviors and interest. 

What’s more, Facebook ads aren’t limited to Facebook only. You can run your ad campaign in Facebook subsidiaries (Facebook messenger, Instagram or Audience Network). Finally, individuals can track and analyze the performance of their Facebook Ads campaign. 

There are four types of Facebook ads: images, videos, carousel (multiple images), and collection ads. Your preferred ad format depends chiefly on your campaign objective. For instance, videos are ideal for engaging audiences, while images help create visually compelling calls to action.

Google Ads

Formerly Google Adwords, Google Ads is more of a paid search platform. It’s the world’s most prevalent pay-per-click advertising model to the extent that the word Adwords is synonymous and used interchangeably with the term paid search. 

Google Ads, which covers YouTube, allows advertisers to display their ads on Google’s search engine results page. In addition, you can also advertise on Google Maps, Google Play, Google Display Network, and Google Shopping. 

Essentially, when your startup opts for Google Ads, you have to bid on specific keywords that are highly likely to be used in the search query. Consequently, your ads might be displayed alongside the search results of the searched questions. Then, whenever a user clicks on your Ad, you are liable to pay a certain amount of money. 

Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads: The Differences

Besides the most obvious difference (Facebook ads pop on Facebook and Google ads show up in Google search results), the significant difference between Facebook and Google ads is that Google ads help your startup find new clients. In contrast, Facebook ads help new customers discover you. That is, with pay-per-click advertising, firms can find new customers through keywords. On the contrary, through Facebook ads, billions of Facebook users can identify brands based on the things they are interested in and, predominantly, their online behavior. 

Also, Facebook ads generate vast brand awareness while Google ads’ chief objective is selling products/services. 

There is no hard rule in determining the exact cost for Facebook or Google Ads. However, you ought to be knowledgeable about more, as we will be explaining in a few. 

Strengths and Benefits of Facebook Ads

1. Audience Targeting

Effective marketing requires targeting the right audience. As such, Facebook has the upper hand due to its powerful audience targeting. And in particular, the granular targeting capabilities. That is, and as outlined, you can reach users based on demographics and behavior. 

There is no doubt that individuals share almost the entire thinkable detail of their lives on Facebook. As a result, advertisers can seamlessly tailor marketing messages to their preferred audience by narrowing the search to a particular niche. 

“Lookalike audiences” is a powerful application of the outlined functionality that allows firms to upload data regarding their current customer base to Facebook. Consequently, it’s possible to create an audience similar to the original customer base. 

2. Incredible ROI on Limited Budget

Facebook ads tend to be more cost-effective than Google Ads. Generally, the budget of running a Facebook advertising campaign depends on various factors, including your startup’s industry. But, all in all, Facebook Ads are affordable. Even better, their potential impact is remarkable since you will be targeting your startup’s ideal audience. 

3. Visually Appealing

Considering you can feature videos, images, carousels of products, and more, Facebook ads have an advantage over Google text-based ads. As a result, advertisers can capitalize on the persuasive qualities of visuals to show off their products. 

Other benefits of Facebook ads include: 

• Robust analytics about the performance of your ads. 
• It’s possible to remarket to users who have already interacted with you. 
• It’s easy to set up. 

Strengths and Benefits of Google Ads

The most notable advantage of using Google ads is that you can find new customers in various ways. 

1. Massive Reach

Google handles more than 3.5 billion search queries every day. So it’s astute for entrepreneurs to leverage this vast potential audience reach to acquire customers. 

2. Google Ads Target Users Who Are Ready to Purchase

Considering that advertisers target users based on keywords with Google ads, there is a high likelihood most users are ready to convert. Google attracts traffic from individuals who are actively searching to acquire a product/service. 

3. Wide Range of Ad Formats

Although Google Ads may not have appealing feathers than Facebook Ads, it’s possible to include attractive features in your ads to make them compelling and alluring visitors to click them. For instance, social proofing such as user reviews, add-ons options such as location extensions, call extensions, shopping ads, etc., offers exceptional levels of customization and control to advertisers. 

Other benefits of Google ads include:

• Google ads allow various ways of targeting the relevant keywords. Also, you can choose the age, location, and language of the individuals you want your ads to reach. Finally, you can set the time or days you want your ads running. 
• Google offers several tools to manage, analyze and monitor your campaign. For example, Google Analytics is effective in analyzing your success. 
• Google words encourage advertiser equality. That is, you don’t need to have a significant marketing budget to have a substantial impact. Instead, the quality and relevance of your ads will set you up for success. 

Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads: Which Is Best for Your Startup

Ultimately, the perfect model for your startup comes down to your business goals and your level of technical skill. So first, evaluate each platform’s strength and ideal application and assess if it’s a suitable model for your startup’s marketing strategy. Still, it would be best if you didn’t view both platforms as adversaries. Instead, view Facebook and Google ads in a complementary way. 

Harnessing the full potential of both platforms is an effective marketing strategy that can have an immense ROI impact on your growing venture. Still, track your campaign results to determine which channel is your top performer.