Display advertising vs. search engine advertising - which is better for you and your business?

Two big players in online advertising - Google Ads and Facebook Ads

You're probably aware that Google Ads (formerly known as AdWords) and Facebook Ads are the two big players in advertising, especially when it comes to paying for advertising on a pay-per-click (PPC) model. Both can be important drivers of business, and many agencies use both simultaneously to maximize their results.

In the following article, we will talk more about both solutions and explain when to choose one or the other, as well as outline strategies for a hybrid solution.

Google Ads - the leader in online advertising

Google is the world's most popular and widely used search engine and is considered the de facto leader in online advertising. More than 3.5 billion search queries are made on Google every day. This gives advertisers access to an unprecedented number of people who are actively searching for goods and services.

Paid Google Ads ads focus on choosing the right and relevant keywords and using text-based ads. Advertisers using Google identify the best keywords—the most likely words and phrases that users will type into the search engine—in the hopes that their ads will appear in the search results for those queries. Every time a user clicks on an ad, the advertiser is charged a certain amount of money, hence the term "per-click advertising" mentioned earlier. Dealing with pay-per-click advertising and ad optimization are complex topics, but essentially paying to find the right customers on Google based on relevant keywords.

In addition, there is the Google Display Network, which offers advertisers more visual ads, such as banners. It covers approximately 98% of the global web. This makes it a great choice for advertisers who want to achieve marketing goals that may not be as conversion-driven as PPC ads, such as building brand awareness with banners.

There are many factors to consider when it comes to Google ads:

1. Ad rank and quality score

When setting up a Google campaign for the first time, you should pay the most attention to your Quality Score (QS). The higher your Quality Score, the lower your costs and the better ad placement you can get.

2. Location

Be sure to set the geographic location where your ad will appear. Google's primary goal is to show searchers the most relevant results, even if it's a paid ad.

3. Key words

Keywords are equally important for paid ads and organic traffic. Google matches ads to search queries based on keywords chosen by the agency or marketer. Don't skip this step - choosing relevant keywords is very important.

4. Compliance with requests

Google needs to know if the ad is shown only for exact queries or if the ad can be shown even if the search query is only somewhat related to the content of the ad.

5. Title and description

Writing a good ad copy is known to be important. That's why it's important that your ad text matches the searcher's intent and matches his keywords - this means that your ad content must use just the right keywords and phrases.

6. Ad extensions

Ad extensions are free and are a great way to provide users with additional information about products or services.

7. Resubmission of advertising

Reposting an ad is a good way to remind people who have previously interacted with the ad in some way, but haven't yet taken the big step of looking around the page or making a sale. This is an effective way to get customers, because many people need to "digest the matter a little" before making a sale and repeatedly see the output of marketing aimed at them (image, text or other advertising).

Facebook Ads are in a great second place

Compared to Google Ads, Facebook Ads is a newcomer. That said, Facebook has been refining and improving its advertising solutions for several years now. Today, Facebook Ads is the pioneer of paid social media advertising and the platform has become a central part of many companies' digital marketing strategy.

Facebook ads can be considered somewhat similar to Google Ads. Both platforms are used by advertisers to market their business online, but that's where the similarities end. Unlike Google's click-through search, which helps businesses get new customers using keywords, paid social network advertising helps users find businesses based on users' own interests and online behavior.

When it comes to the main difference between Google Ads and Facebook Ads, you can think of it this way: Google Ads helps you find new customers, while Facebook helps new customers find you.

Facebook Ads come in a variety of formats, including image, video, slideshow, and other outputs. In addition, they can be presented to very specific target groups.

Facebook advertising campaigns also give agencies a lot of flexibility, especially when it comes to budget, allowing different factors to be taken into account:

• total amount to be spent
• daily budget
• performance-based payment

In addition, you can choose how Facebook will bill you - either based on the number of views or clicks.

As you know, Facebook Ads cannot be ignored. If you know how to use them to your advantage, it is possible to achieve business goals very effectively. After all, Facebook is the second largest seller of digital advertising in the U.S. behind Google by revenue.

So which is a better choice? A hybrid solution is also an option

In general, it can be said that if a company has a specific goal that needs to be fulfilled, then it makes sense to use search engine advertising based on specific keywords. This is a good tactic to attract customers with specific wishes to your product or service. Visual advertising works better when the customer has already visited the company's website - after that, it is the right time to start showing the customer visual advertising on social media channels according to the content of the visited website. Visual ads are also suitable for simply raising awareness.

Of course, Google Ads and Facebook ads can also be used together or alternately. We outline three different strategies that can be implemented.

1. Building brand awareness through paid social media ads and then driving sales through search results

Facebook ads are a fantastic way to increase brand awareness, especially when using Facebook's Lookalike Audiences demographic feature. Using this in conjunction with user data on Facebook allows you to target existing and potential customers.

Research shows that social campaigns using Facebook ads lead to a 34% increase in brand-related searches on Google. It often happens that a person who sees an ad on Facebook also goes to Google to find more information about a product, service or brand. This will increase organic traffic and save you money on pay-per-click ads. What's more, you now have the opportunity to remarket yourself to a user who has already visited your website and read the information there - or even bought something.

2. Using Google Ads data to target Facebook audiences

Google Analytics provides demographic information, allowing Shopping Ads to gather valuable data to deliver Facebook ads to people most likely to be interested in your product or service. In doing so, the following data are important:

• Sex
• Household income
• Time when a person responded to a Google Ads ad or visited a page
• Audience to remarket content to

The most relevant is to re-show your ads to people who have already visited your website. It is also worth taking into account the information provided by Facebook's "Lookalike Audiences" function and, if the data is appropriate, deliver ads to people even if they have not actively searched for your brand.

3. Prospecting on Facebook for good results on both platforms

The same technique works in reverse when using Facebook's Lookalike Audiences feature. It's good to use your ideal customer data as a basis for the Lookalike Audiences feature to target potential customers. Google Shopping can use the same data provided by Lookalike Audiences to reach more of the right people through click-through advertising. Thanks to this approach, relevant information reaches the right people both on Facebook and Google Shopping.

In conclusion, Google Ads and Facebook ads can be used together and interchangeably to increase brand awareness and click-through rates. By combining the two platforms, you can strengthen your marketing campaigns, increase brand awareness and make better sales. However, when planning the strategy, the specifics of the consumption behavior of the users of both platforms must also be taken into account.

Used sources:

1 https://agencyanalytics.com/blog/google-ads-vs-facebook-ads 2 https://www.wordstream.com/facebook-vs-google 3 https://www.bidnamic.com/resources/how-to-use-facebook-ads-with-google-ads