Monday, November 12, 2012

Google AdWords vs Facebook Ads


Google AdWords

There are numerous things that are different, and a few things that are the same with Google AdWords and Facebook Advertising. The payment model is the exact same for both advertising services. Both operate on either a CPM, which stands for click-per-thousand impressions, or a CPC model, which is cost-per-click. Advertisers set up a budget that they are willing to spend per day, and set an amount that they will spend per click or thousand impressions. Google pioneered this advertising model and now Facebook uses it as well.

According to a Google AdWords video (GoogleBusiness, 2009), advertisers can quickly make changes to ads and campaigns at any time. This is great because it allows advertisers to make real-time changes when needed. For example, say a certain keyword is performing better. The advertiser may want to raise the CPC and daily budget for this keyword so that more people click through the ad. Advertisers can start and stop ads and campaigns at any time.

There is no minimum budget for Google AdWords, so businesses can spend as little or as much as they would like (GoogleBusiness, 2009). This is great because it enables businesses of all sizes, large and small, to be able to afford advertising with Google. It used to be that only big businesses with big advertising budgets could afford advertising, but now anyone can because the cost to advertise with Google AdWords is so low.

It is easy to reach large or small audiences with Google AdWords based on the keywords you choose to advertise with. You can reach millions of people in the U.S. and around the world. Ads can be geo-targeted based on a user’s location on a local, national or international level. For example, your audience can be as specific as people searching for dog toys within 20 miles of San Francisco (GoogleBusiness, 2009).

Google AdWords gives advertisers quick access to campaign data, so that smarter advertising decisions can be made.

Facebook Advertising

Like I stated above, Facebook shares a payment model with Google. The CPC and CPM models are how advertise pay for ads on Facebook. Just as with Google, advertisers set a price they are willing to pay per click and a maximum budget for each day.

On Facebook, advertisers can advertise a Facebook page, an app, an event, a group or a website (FacebookTutorial, 2010). Facebook also offers ads called Sponsored Stories, which is when the advertiser promotes likes or check-ins in their friends’ timelines (Facebook Marketing, 2011). This allows marketers to really promote the word of mouth recommendations happening all the time on Facebook. The Sponsored Story appears at the top of the feed, so it is more likely to be seen by the user.

Marketers can target over 1 billion Facebook users by country, state, province, city, age, sex, interested in (males or females), relationship status, languages spoken, likes and interests, education and work, connections on Facebook, and friends of connections (FacebookTutorial, 2010). Because people post so much personal information on Facebook, these targeting options can be very useful to marketers who know exactly who they want to target and their characteristics. Google does not have this wealth of demographic and psychographic information like Facebook does, and this is one advantage Facebook advertising has over Google. Google’s ads are based on a person’s intent when searching for different keywords; Facebook’s ads are based on its deep knowledge of each user’s personal interests, likes and preferences.

References

GoogleBusiness. (15 June 2009). Getting Started with Google AdWords. Retrieved on 11/12/12 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx2L6EGa9DY

FacebookTutorial. (5 April 2010). Facebook Tutorials – How to Advertise on Facebook. Retrieved on 11/12/12 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jOBDIql4yc

Facebook Marketing. (25 January 2011). Introducing Sponsored Stories. Facebook. Retrieved on 11/12/12 from http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10100328087082670

No comments:

Post a Comment