Which is Better? Google Ads or Facebook Ads?

Google and Facebook are the two main giants of the online advertising industry.

Many businesses have been leveraging them to gain brand awareness, generate leads and increases sales.

However, since we all have limited ad budgets and resources, which is better for your business?

The truth is, it depends on what you want to achieve.

Let’s first look at the main differences between Google Ads and Facebook Ads.

Differences between Google Ads and Facebook Ads

1. Targeted Audience
2. Buyer Intent
3. Attention Span

1. Targeted Audience

Google Ads: demand driven audience

Facebook Ads: interest driven audience

One of the biggest differences between Google Ads and Facebook Ads is its targeted audience.

Google Ads prioritizes on keyword searches on search engines.

Businesses pay to have their text advertisements featured on Google search engines so users can be exposed to their business depending on the type of keyword they search. Because of that, these users are demand driven because they are actively looking for immediate solutions to their problems.

On the other hand, Facebook primarily targets users’ demographics, interests and interactions to display ads to an interest driven audience who are more likely to engage with your ad. These users are not actively looking for any products or services at the moment.

In short, Google Ads helps you to find new customers while Facebook Ads helps new customers to find you.

2. Buyer Intent

Most businesses lean towards to Facebook ads for their businesses as they generally have a lower cost per lead than Google Ads.

However, a lower cost per lead doesn’t necessarily lead to more sales.

Leads generated from Google ads have much higher buyer intent than leads generated from Facebook ads, as they are demand driven. Since they are looking for an immediate solution to their problem, they are more willing to make a purchase than interest driven audience.

Our years of experience in lead generation campaigns have proven that Google Ads usually provides an overall higher return on ad spend unless you manage to produce a viral, visually appealing content for your Facebook Ad.

3. Attention Span

Another big distinction between Google Ads and Facebook Ads is the attention span of users.

As audiences from Google Ads are searching for solutions to their problems, they are more willing to spend more time reading the content to see if the solution provided address their problem.

That is why a great website design is extremely important for Google Ads campaign. You need to have a landing page with great copywriting to explain how your product or service can rectify problems for your audience.

On the other hand, a recent research found that Facebook users are spending only an average of 2.5 seconds on a piece of content on desktop (1.7 seconds on mobile).

Depending on the length of your ad copy, It is unlikely for users to finish reading within 1.7 seconds.

While landing page experience is also important for Facebook Ads, a higher priority has to be placed to produce visually appealing content to first capture users’ attention.

So Which is Better?

End of the day, it depends on what you are trying to achieve.

To start with, if your product or service is new to the market and has little search demand on search engine, we would recommend you to place a heavier emphasis on Facebook ads to educate its interest driven audience.

Google Ads are great for direct campaigns such as lead generation and ecommerce campaigns, ie people who knows what they are looking for.

Facebook Ads are great for indirect campaigns such as brand awareness and funnel campaigns, ie people who needs time to understand benefits of a product or services.

What do you think? Share your comments with us below.