The increase in Digital Marketing led to the growth of Different Digital Media Platforms through which you can easily Advertise your Business or services. When choosing the best Digital Advertising Platform there was always a clash between the two most used platforms i.e. Google Ads and Social Media Ads (FB or Instagram ads). Both are powerful tools but they carry different marketing goals to fulfil.
What do you mean by Google Ads?
Often referred to as Google AdWords, Google Ads enables you to place your advertisement on other Google websites that are a member of Google AdSense in addition to Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs).
The most common Google ads are Search Ads that appear on the SERP pages and besides these other common ads are video ads, display ad
Pros of Google Ad
- Help to Target Users on the Web
- Google Ads focus on high-intent conversion and sales
- Google is the most used Search Engine worldwide, which means you get a wide range of target audiences for your Business.
What do you mean by Social Media Ads?
Digital marketing advertising that runs advertisements on social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter is known as social media advertising. These ads are famous for increasing brand awareness or promoting their service and products.
Pros of Social Media Ads
- Help to generate engagement, brand awareness and generate leads.
- When you are running Social Media Ads you have creative freedom which means for running ads you can different formats of ads (reel, image, carousel) to target the audience.
- Social Media ads are less costlier than Google Ads
Whenever any Business owner wants to run ads they feel confused about which Platform is Correct for them. Both ad tools are good from the marketing point of view but there are a few specific points that you should keep in mind before choosing a perfect platform for your Business.
Here is a breakdown of the confusion that I faced when choosing the between two :
1. Based on Targeting: Google Ads and Social Media ads both offer targeting options but they are different in Approach. Google ads more focus on search intent and Social media ads target based on demographics, location age group, etc.
2. Based on your ads Goals: “What is the main objective” behind your campaign plays an important factor in choosing the platform. Google Ads focuses on more conversion through the ads whereas social media ads more focus on brand awareness, engagement, and building a good relationship with the audience.
3. Based on Budget: For Both Platforms budgets or cost structures differ. In Google Ads, you have to pay for each Click (pay per click) but in Social Media Ads you have to pay for each Impression (CPM).
4. Based on Campaigns Optimization: It is necessary to monitor and optimize both Platforms continuously. On the one hand, social media ads may emphasize community involvement and content development, whereas Google Ads may include controlling keyword bids and ad copy.
These are a few Major Points that you can keep in mind while choosing the platform for running Ads.
The Key factors on which you can choose between Google Ads and Social Media Ads are mentioned below:
1. Target Audience:
- Google Ads: Google Ads led to target through keywords for which customers are searching. If you want to target through keywords then this is the best choice.
- Social Media Ads: If you want to target through Demographics, Locations, Interests, and Behaviours and you have good knowledge of your precise customers then surely go for this.
2. Campaign Goals:
- Google Ads: It helps to drive you more sales and Conversions.
- Social Media Ads: They help to build your Brand Awareness and Increase Engagement and they help to build brand loyalty.
3. Format
- Google Ads: Google Ads are mostly based on words.
- Social Media Ads: Social media based on images, graphic carousel, videos, etc to run an ad budget.
4. Budget
- Google Ads: Google Ads are costliers. It will depend on different sectors, keywords which are competitive bidding results in Higher Cost
- Social Media Ads: Social Media can be more cost-effective than Google ads.
What are the Key Factors to consider before choosing Digital Advertising through Digital Platforms?
- Help to build Brand Online Presence:Brand Awareness means how much customers are familiar with your business. With the help of eye-catching graphics and video, you can create creative advertisements that connect with the Logo and its brand tonality so that when customers purchase they can recall your brand. Brand awareness and advertising aims of informing, convincing, and reminding people about your brand are frequently combined to achieve this purpose.
- Traffic Increases: Traffic means how many people visit your website or page. For Increasing Traffic you have to set goals and make strategies for how you can increase traffic on your website or pages. Traffic will increase by search Engine and Clickable Images if your images are eye catchy so a high chance increases that people will click on your ad and it will direct them to your website page.
- Lead Generation: Lead Generation is increasing the number of customers interested in your business. By using the different marketing strategies you can easily generate potential and useful leads or connect with new leads which may show interest in your business.
- Boost Engagement: In Simple terms, Engagement means how your followers react to your post or Online content. Targeting an audience that interacts with your posts often or is passive and could just watch them is up to you. You can ask your audience for input to boost engagement. After that, you may make updates to your material and more precisely target your audience by utilizing that input.
- Now Let’s Deep Dine into Google Ads
What is Google Ads?
In Simple Terms Google Ads means Advertising through different Google platforms. Google Ads works in the form of PPC (pay per click) i.e. whenever anyone clicks on your ad you have to pay according to that. There are different types of Google Ads i) Display Ads ii) Search Ads iii) Video Ads IV) Smarts Ads etc. The most common and used Google ad is a Search ad which you see at the top of (SERP) when you search for something on Google.
Example of Google Ads
How Google Ads Performs :
- Create Campaign: First, you have to create a Google Ads account, and then by using this account start creating a campaign. In this campaign, you can define your goals, traffic, and sales, and set a budget for your campaign to start your campaign.
- Targeting: Now as you set up your campaign here comes the targeting options. In the targeting section, you can target the keywords for which you want to run ads or the keywords your customers are searching for. Google Ads gives different targeting options like demographic interests etc
- Keyword Bidding: Now after the targeting option you will get keyword bidding options. You can select the keywords that your customers are likely to search for your products and services. After selecting keywords you can bid for each selected the amount of bid depends on the maximum amount you are ready to pay each time someone clicks on your ads.
Search Engine Targeting with Keywords
- Relevance: The Basic idea is to target the keywords relevant to your niche. When someone searches for the term or keywords related to your ads so can your ad appear top on SERP.
- Keyword Selection: Keep in mind to always use keywords that are related to your niche but also have a decent search Volume (how many people search for those keywords) so that your ads can be visible to SERPs.
- Competition: Few keywords are more high value in competition to others. It means that the keywords you choose are also used by other businesses that are also bidding on those keywords. The competition level can affect how much you need to bid to get your ad shown.
3 factors on which your Google ads depend on
- Bidding Strategies: When you are using bidding strategies you can see different bidding strategies on Google Ads. You can set your bidding manually or use automatic bid strategies to optimize your bid strategies.
- Cost-per-click (CPC): CPC refers to the cost incurred when a user clicks on one of your ads. The sum is referred to as the cost per click.The amount will depend on the bid and keyword you have chosen to rank.
- Ad Rank: When your Ad is shown in SERP it’s not only dependent on Bid strategies or CPC. It also depends on the quality and the relevance of your ads itself.
Benefits of Google Ads
1. Contacting Users with a High Intent to Buy: Google Ads lets you run ads on Keywords that are actively finding this product or service on the internet. For Example, if You are searching for the Best Digital marketing institute and your ad shows up at the top then there is a huge chance that they will purchase your Service or product as they are actively searching for this change of converting is very High with them.
2. Flexible Targeting: In Google Ads, you will get a wide variety of Targeting through Specific Keywords, Demographics & Behaviours.
Keywords: These are the words that people look up online. To make sure your advertisement appears when people are searching for what you have to offer, use specific keywords associated with your goods or services.
Demographics: Aim for users according to their geography, income, age, gender, and even interests. This guarantees that the individuals are most likely to be interested in what you have seen in your advertisement.
3. Track outcomes and improve campaigns for increased effectiveness:
Data-Driven Decisions: In Google ads, you will get detailed reporting and Analytics by which you can track all campaign performance. In Analytics you can go through clicks, impressions, and conversions, (CPA). This data helps us to know about
what’s performing well in your ads: Look at which keyword, content, and ad copies are working and generating good results for the company. Optimize your Ads: Based on the information you get, enhance your ad wording, bidding, and targeting. By doing this, you can be sure you’re getting the most of your advertising spend.
Potential Drawback of Google Ads
1. Considerable Keyword Research: In Google Ads, you need to do proper Keyword research. Just Choosing & Putting the keyword will not work here. You have to understand the search intent of users and what people are looking for when they are using specific keywords. Are they willing to buy, or searching a product, etc? Targeting the wrong keywords leads to a waste of your money.
2. Daily Campaign Maintaince: There is no “set it and forget it” aspect to Google AdWords. You mustcontinually track your campaigns, modify bids, try various ad versions, and fine-tune your targeting if you want to get the most for your money. To get the most out of your investment, you must continuously optimize (ROI).
3. Bid Budget than Social Ads :Compared to other social media, Google Ads are more expensive. Biding strategies on keywords are utilized in Google AdWords. Due to several businesses bidding on the same popular terms, they become more expensive. This may cause challenges for smaller companies.
Let’s Dive into Social Media Ads
What do you mean by Social Media Ads?
Social Media is a form of Digital Marketing Advertising that uses different social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to reach their target audience.
Eg of Social Media Ads
Here is a Breakdown of how Social Media works:
Choose Platform: For Running Ads on Social Media, you must choose a Social Media platform like FB, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Every platform has its pros and cons of running ads.
Ad Creatives: The Ad creative includes 3 important things 1.Eye Catchy Visual elements of posts like photos, videos, etc. 2. The Ad copy content must be catchy. 3. The CTA part where you mentioned the details of your Business.
If you create social media ad creatives by keeping this in mind it can viral and your ROI will Increase.
Create Campaign & Targeting: After Selecting a Platform you can easily start creating your campaign with Ads Manager. The key
The factor of Social Media Ads is that you can flexibly target your audience by explaining what Google Ads is and how it works, interests, demographics, etc.
Ad Budget: Every Platform will ask you to determine the specific budget for your Ad campaigns. There is no specific amount of Budget that you should invest but the right Ad budget depends on the platform or objective of your campaign.
Social Media Ads:
1. Help to Build Brand Image: Promoting your product and services across social media helps to build Online Presence. Even if Users don’t click on ads, by seeing Online presence they will get familiar with your brands, and as a result in the eyes of the user your brand loyalty increases.
2. Measurable Results: In Social Media Ads you canget all the analytics about your Campaigns, so you can check how your ad is performing. By seeing this ad you can alter your campaign and make strategies according to that.
3. Engagement: Social Media Ads are the best way to create good relations with your Potential Customers. By running social media ads you can encourage people to like the page, follow the page, and share the content of your Page.
4. Cost Effective: Social Media Ads are more cost-effective than Google ads or other traditional Marketing. You can set your budget according to your will and it’s a great option for the business with a limited marketing budget.
Potential Drawback of Social Media Advertisement
Slower conversion rates: The main goals of social media are to increase brand recognition and cultivate connections with prospective clients. Unlike Google Ads, when someone is already searching for what you provide, they may view your material, and express interest, but take some time to convert (i.e., make a buy).
Challenge for content creation: It might be difficult to stand out on social media. People’s attention spans are short and platforms are cluttered. To draw attention and maintain followers, you must be interesting and original.
Head-to-Head Google Ads vs Social Media Ads
| Scenario | Google Ads | Social Media Ads |
| Well-defined target keywords | ✅ | |
| High-intent users ready to buy | ✅ | |
| Immediate conversions & sales | ✅ | |
| Specific budget targeting | ✅ | |
| Brand awareness & recognition | ✅ | |
| Active audience on specific platforms | ✅ | |
| Lead nurturing & relationship building | ✅ |
Combining Google Ads and Social Media Ads Can be more powerful for your Business as it adds punch to your Marketing Strategies.
1. Large Audience: Social Media ads and Google ads both have different audience segments so you can use this as an opportunity for your business. However, when you target an audience through both platforms it will give you a diverse audience, As a result, your leads and customers will increase.
2. Increase Brand Visibility: For Better Brand Visibility it was recommended to use Both Facebook and Google ads together. Use Google ads to target the audience who are actively active in search engines and by Facebook, you can tap audiences who are actively active on Social media in scrolling and searching So if you want to double up your Brand visibility use both platforms for targeting.
3.Deep Optimisations for Ads: When you areUtilizing both Platforms for Ads you will get a huge wealth of Data from both Platforms. By analyzing these Data you can get to know different insights and patterns of your ad’s audience which help to build a good marketing strategy for your business. Data from one platform can even used by other platforms to run more accurate and goal-oriented work.
4. Increased ROI: Combining Google Ads and Facebook Ads allows h companies to reach more potential leads and increase conversion rates by taking advantage of both platforms. Over time, organizations can increase their return on investment by leveraging retargeting methods and tailored ways to increase audience engagement.
Conclusion
In the present Scenario of the Digital advertising world, choosing the Optimal Platform for your business is very crucial Google Ads are best for running ads with specific target keywords with high purchase intent. It will connect with active users of that particular service or product. On the other hand, social media ads are good for engagement, and building a loyal brand community with an audience. A strategic blend of both Platforms will help to build a strong marketing strategy for your Business.
