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Google Ads Vs. Facebook Ads: Which Platform Offers The Best ROI?

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It’s no secret that Google Ads (formerly known as Google Adwords) and Facebook Ads have a long-standing rivalry. What is it about these two platforms that cause so much discussion? And how do you choose which platform to utilize for your business?

When it comes to your ROI (return on investment), it’s essential to make sure you invest in the right platform to generate ad revenue. Digital marketing experts are no stranger to this question, but the response is almost always the same; it depends on your company and your target audience!

Both options are great, and depending on your business objectives, one may be a better fit for your budget. In this ever-changing world of digital marketing, it’s helpful to invest in the right ads. If you’re ready to invest in one of these platforms and finally choose a side in the Google Ads vs. Facebook Ads debate, this article is a must-read!

Google Ads vs. Facebook Ads: Why the Debate?

In reality, there isn’t a “better” option, because both platforms perform differently from each other and bring their unique benefits to the table. Some more specific questions to ask are:

  • What is my available advertising budget?

  • Which one is better for reaching my target audience?

  • What stage of the buyer’s journey am I trying to earn?

Most internet users regularly use both of these platforms. Depending on the age, income range, lifestyle, and other factors that make your audience unique, one may be better at investing your budget. But, what other factors are important to increase your ROI? When you take a look at what makes these platforms unique, and the Google Ads vs. Facebook Ads cost, it can become easier to make your decision.

WHAT ARE GOOGLE ADS?

Customers have more choices now than ever before, as businesses worldwide create websites for their businesses. To be successful, you need to change how you find, deliver, and retain customer interest at each stage of the purchasing funnel.

The different types of campaigns you can use with Google are:

  • Search Network Campaigns

  • Display Network Campaigns

  • Google Shopping Ads

  • Video Campaigns

  • App Campaigns

Google has been instrumental in facilitating these changes by implementing their PPC (pay per click) advertising approach that uses your industries keywords to charge you only for the clicked ads. Also known as paid ads, this technique can be efficient or expensive, all based on your industry. Other search engines use methods, but Google is the most popular and successful option available for this type of marketing.

WHAT ARE FACEBOOK ADS?

While Google Ads focuses on paid search, Facebook Ads are all about paid social. Your target audience’s behaviors and patterns are what make social advertising so effective. Through Facebook, your customers can connect with other consumers, voice their personal experiences with your company, and stay up to date with your business.

The different formats of ads you can use on Facebook are:

  • Video

  • Photo

  • Slideshow

  • Carousel

  • Dynamic Product Ads

  • Lead Form Ads

Over 180 million businesses use Facebook for their business advertising or to connect with customers. Like all things on the internet, other social media platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn Ads are quickly becoming valuable tools for business owners around the world.

How Does Each Platform Benefit Your Business?

What are the different benefits each of these platforms offers your business, and what are the different options available? When it comes to brand awareness, sales generation, and more, this list of top three perks for each has you covered!

The Benefits of Google Ads:

  1. You can bid on millions of keywords to get your ads to rank higher, reach new people, increase your exposure, and more.

  2. Earn higher SERP (search engine results page) ranking by creating relevant ads. Money doesn’t buy the top advertising spots, so any sized budget can allow you to compete with top brands for customers.

  3. Google uses search and display networks to help you create ads that will appear in search results. The variety of options that can help you generate more leads.

The Benefits of Facebook Ads:

  1. People share tons of information about themselves on Facebook, like interests, beliefs, hobbies, and more. You can use this natural transference of data to target the people most likely to shop with you.

  2. Once you have a database of the people most likely to shop with you, you can import that data to Facebook and target those people with your ad campaigns.

  3. A critical part of successful advertising is your conversions. Earning sign-ups, sales, subscriptions, followers, leads, and whatever else matters to your business will help you succeed.

So, Which Platform Has the Best ROI?

It’s clear that there are benefits to advertising on both platforms, but what matters at the end of the day is your ROI. In the great debate of Google Ads vs. Facebook Ads, it comes down to which one will bring you the highest return.

Theoretically, if you took two campaigns in the current market and ran them for 30 days to gauge their performance, specific trends may start to appear. Both Facebook and Google are focused, in this instance, on earning memberships for a gym:

  • The Facebook option earned 103 memberships and had 150,000 impressions, but had an $11.00 cost per conversion.

  • The Google option gained 200 memberships at an impressive $4.00 per conversion and collected useful data about the types of ads that worked best.

While Facebook looks like the more expensive option, you can’t deny that a large number of impressions could lead to a higher long term return. The best social media platform campaign is truly based on those valuable impressions and regularly reminding your audience that you can help them solve their problems.

Where to Start

Your business and industry will heavily weigh which platform would be best for your business. Rather than Google Ads vs. Facebook Ads, consider instead what your company needs and where you can reach your target audience.

For more information about digital marketing, contact our experts at Trigger Media & Digital. For more industry insight about social media and internet advertising, check out the other articles on our blog.

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Sourced from Trigger Media|Digital

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HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT PLATFORM FOR YOUR E-COMMERCE MIGRATION

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By Duran Inci.

There are a number of reasons a business might undergo an e-commerce migration, such as if your business’s needs are changing or if you simply want to upgrade your e-commerce services. In other instances, however, your platform might simply be out of date. For many websites using Magento 1, this is the case.

After June, users will no longer receive support for Magento 1, according to Adobe. Website owners will be on their own for customer service, upgrades and developments unless they upgrade to Magento 2 (or another platform entirely).

The question then becomes, “How do you choose a new platform?” Many factors go into this decision, and because my company specializes in e-commerce marketing and migrations, I have ample experience with making such choices. There are a few aspects you need to consider, especially in order to comply with new regulations.

Data security

A business cannot have data breaches. From a customer standpoint, data breaches can cause a loss of trust. From the business’s standpoint, you can get in trouble with the law. The payment card industry data security standard (commonly referred to as PSI DDS) requires that systems are updated with security patches to protect from vulnerabilities. Approved scanning vendors (ASVs) can help you determine if your company is compliant with PSI DDS requirements. A sensible owner won’t stick with a platform that a credit card vendor will be forced to refuse.

When it comes to choosing a platform, research how successful the platform is at preserving customer data, and look at any history of breaches. That way you can ensure you’re compliant with data security requirements, especially with changes to the GDPR in the European Union.

Cost of your investment versus the return

While free platforms exist for your e-commerce store, and there are platforms that run on a tiered pricing schedule, you ought to figure out how high of a monetary and time return you want on the monthly fees and startup costs. The hard part is that no single platform is a cookie-cutter solution; businesses differ in terms of their needs.

Many e-commerce platforms are either software as a service or open source. SaaS provides prepared business solutions so that the owner or marketing team in charge of the site doesn’t have to implement any coding. They do have a recurring fee and allow for less control, but it’s better for those who want a high-quality site that’s standard. You don’t need a team of specialists for it or a web host to ensure that your business stays online.

Open source does require coding, but it gives you more control over your individual website and customization. You also have more freedom to scale.

Tiered pricing varies widely depending on the platform you choose. You might be able to choose a basic plan for less than $50, while a more advanced plan could cost you more than $200 within the same time frame. If you opt for a tiered pricing platform provider, remember that the difference lies in API support, product filtering, price lists and other additional filters. Not every business needs to necessarily receive unlimited API calls, but one that does can take advantage of the feature for a price.

User experience

My clients want to manage their storefronts and optimize shopping for their customers. The learning curve should be minimal, even if they are delegating the services to a marketing team. That way, if they want to handle the back end, complicated steps won’t hinder them.

Take add-ons, for example: They can customize and improve your storefront. Some platforms require separate file transfer protocols and modules to install these add-ons, which can become laborious. Others make it very easy for a user to conduct an installation.

Ideally, you also want a platform that will cross-manage the multiple processes that e-commerce requires. You are not just covering inventory or distribution of goods and services; an online platform needs to wear all the hats in the business. This includes marketing, keyword optimization and SEO.

Management of opportunity costs

By opportunity costs, I am referring to the price of making a selection and missing out on the other alternative platforms. A business owner needs to give up on a benefit after they make that choice and remain aware of it. Managing opportunity costs means that you take full advantage of the choices you make.

I have seen this time and time again: A client starts a business on a platform, and they are pleased to see revenue and improved shopping experience. But then they plateau and become stagnant, unable to grow. The owner knows that they should start to migrate.

Sometimes, a platform can limit your potential to optimize revenue or to increase conversions. What’s more, a new storefront could unify all of the processes and save you the time of having to monitor each one for efficiency. You simply need to figure out which one is right for you.

Users might also miss out on automatic updates to platforms if they choose to stay on the same one. It might not seem like much, but automatic updates mean that you have access to the same resources that other owners on the same platform do. What’s more, in the case of breaches, you receive updated security patches without having to handle it proactively.

Regarding migration, some users worry about losing valuable customer orders. If this is something you don’t feel equipped to migrate yourself, you can consider asking a professional web developer for help. They will know how to migrate those orders. Any losses should only be for the short term.

Know how to protect yourself and stay updated. That means assessing what you want out of an e-commerce storefront. The right store platform online can help you level up and allow you to grow in the long run.

Feature Image Credit: GETTY

By Duran Inci.

Duran Inci is an internet technology executive with 15+ years of experience and the CEO of Optimum7.

Sourced from AdAge

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