Should I advertise my small business on Google or Facebook?

When you have an attractive website online that is ready to convert visitors into fans and loyal customers, then the problem remains of how you bring them there in the first place. Of course, having your website address prominently displayed on your business cards and brochures is a must, but investing in paid advertising may be unavoidable if you want to raise brand awareness, run special promotions, or be on the first page when shoppers are searching for the products or services you offer.

Your marketing goal will help answer the question of whether you should advertise online and whether to choose Google or Facebook or both as your advertising channel.

What objectives do you have for your campaign? Is it leads, sales, brand awareness, or something else? You can already move in the proper direction by knowing the answer.

How to advertise with Google

Advertising with Google involves specifying under which keywords you wish your ad to appear. When someone searches for the ‘best plumber in Avondale’ you can be pretty sure they have a problem that needs fixing. If your ad appears on top with the solution they prefer – ‘affordable repairs’, ‘guaranteed work’ or ‘7-day service’, chances are high that your ad will get clicked.

With pay-per-click payment, you are charged only for ads that get clicked on and so deliver potential clients to your website. You then only need to make sure your website confirms the claim you made in the ad, by listing affordable prices, spelling out your quality guarantee or providing after-hours contact details, if your ad is advertising plumbing services.

You get what you pay for

With any ad campaign, your goal is to maximize your return on ad spend (ROAS).

With Google Ads, you’ll have to look at keyword competition and keyword price. If the keywords you’re targeting have high cost-per-click (CPC) and you have a small budget, it may not be the best place for you to invest your money. If you want the ROAS to work, the ad should have a low cost per click (PPC), which means the ads will drive a high Return on Investment for your campaign. That’s what the PPC is for.

Keep in mind that you need to ensure your ads are optimized for conversion.

Playing Facebook’s strengths

Facebook advertising can return the highest return on ad spend and that is not only because on a PPC basis it is cheaper than Google.

According to a 2021 Statista report, Facebook is the most popular social media site, with over 2.7 billion monthly active users. In addition to having a big audience, the platform also provides marketers with the ability to target users based on their demographics, habits, life events, and hobbies.

That’s one advantage the platform has over Google Ads – it’s much more detailed in who you’re able to target for your ads. Facebook Ads are excellent for contacting customers who are near the top of the sales funnel (i.e., great for brand and product awareness).

Google ads payback

According to a 2019 Google estimate, a company may expect to make $8 in profit for every dollar spent on advertising. Let’s examine why that would be the case and how the platform might benefit small businesses.

Google search ads have the highest CTR at 1.55% when compared to display ads and Facebook ads. This is likely because Google prioritizes ads based on relevance.

Reaching people with high purchase intent is easy with Google Ads.

Google or Facebook?

One is not necessarily superior to the other when it comes to Google Ads and Facebook Ads. You’ll find that each one offers distinct elements that can be helpful to your business at various stages of its growth once you take your goals, budget, and target audience into consideration.

While Google Ads run search and display ads, Facebook Ads is an advertising platform used for sponsored social campaigns on Facebook. They both run pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements, but they do so on different channels and frequently target users at various phases of the buying process.