As a business, you know how important it is to have a strong online presence, and one of the most effective ways to do that is through B2B pay-per-click (PPC) advertising on digital platforms.
PPC advertising is an effective, measurable and data-driven marketing solution that can systematically improve lead generation efficiency and strategically increase your visibility on Google, and other online channels. Many brands plan to grow their revenue with the help of PPC agencies and PPC services like Google Ads management in order to see direct results.
With respect to choosing paid media channels, Facebook Ads versus Google Ads is a dilemma that all brands encounter. These two channels create the most effective platforms for finding customers. So which is best for you: Facebook Ads or Google Ads?
Unfortunately, there is not a straightforward answer to this question. The truth is: it depends on your goals. But in general, for campaigns that focus on awareness or reach, Facebook Ads are the best channel. For campaigns that focus primarily on conversions, Google Ads is a better option.
Both channels have their own set of advantages and disadvantages that need to be taken into consideration before making any decisions. In this article we will provide an in-depth diagnosis of both Facebook Ads and Google Ads so you can make an informed decision about which channel would work best for your B2B brand’s marketing campaigns.
Keep reading to gain a deeper understanding on PPC campaigns and topics such as cost per click (CPC), smart bidding, ad formats, audience reach and much more so you can determine which channel offers the most potential for success with your current goals.
Paid search campaigns are paid ads that appear on the search engine results pages (SERPs) when users enter relevant keywords into search engines. The purpose of these campaigns is to make your brand visible on the first page of results and improve your click-through rate (CTR).
Paid search campaign management requires an understanding of how to do keyword research for PPC, what is the best bidding strategy, and how to optimise your ad copy and landing pages to improve your Quality Score.
To maximise the potential of paid ads, PPC management like the Google Ads management service also requires a series of PPC analysis tools to collect data in a timely manner. This data helps PPC experts to adjust the ads and track conversions.
Paid media channels are the platforms that people use to plan, create and manage their paid ads. For digital marketing, the two most popular paid ads channels are Google Ads and Facebook Ads. They each have a big following and approach the marketing problem from different angles. The choice boils down to the purpose of your campaign goals and your buyer persona.
PPC advertising campaigns were created in the halls of Google. As a result, their Alphabet companies have grown into massive traders on the market and influenced our technology and culture. This influence is evident in Google Ads, formerly AdWords, and how pervasive its advertising campaigns can be.
Thanks to its massive number of active internet users, Google as a services provider holds the power of determining the rules of online marketing, including SEO and PPC. Google Ads, as the PPC platform, provides a series of PPC tools to help you create a high-converting ad.
Besides its competent tools to support your needs, from creating an ad to planning your bidding budget, another strength only Google Ads possesses is the multiple display platforms of the Google network. With Google Ads, your ads can be seen on YouTube, Gmail, Google Calendar and many other Google inventories.
For B2B marketing, an area of marketing that requires many touchpoints with a professional and high-quality message, Google Ads improves brands’ chances of closing a deal by greatly increasing their exposure across different platforms.
With Google Ads, your PPC ad campaign can run on:
In today’s fast-paced culture, most internet searches are conducted on mobile devices like phones or tablets. Google Ads has a solid platform that works well on mobile devices, giving them more reach. These mobile platforms contain smaller graphics and text only. Furthermore, the newest Google Analytics 4 released by Google also supports data collection and performance tracking across different devices, making your PPC analysis more reliable.
Google is not only the biggest search engine in the world, but it also owns a vast display network including YouTube, Google Calendar, Gmail and Google Maps. Not only does this mean you can quickly create multiple touchpoints for potential consumers, but it also creates strength for online and offline integration. Consumers are likely to search for cheaper options while in-store when shopping and find your online shop. Alternatively, they may be recommended your product while using Google Maps.
Google Ads has revolutionized PPC advertising by introducing machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) features. These have enabled businesses to more effectively target their audiences, optimize campaigns for better results, and gain insights into what works best for their specific needs. The changes make it easier for PPC experts to create high-performance ads using less time and money.
Some of Google Ads' machine learning-based features are:
Smart bidding is a set of automated PPC bidding strategies that use ML to optimise conversions or conversion value in real-time. It enables advertisers to optimize their campaigns for better results and improved ROI.
Machine learning techniques are used to analyze campaign data in order to adjust bids for each auction and tailor them to the right audience. The goal is to ensure that each ad receives the most impressions and clicks, while keeping cost per lead (CPL) low.
Smart bidding automatically adjusts bids based on different signals including device type, location, day of week, time of day, user demographics, keyword searches and more. This provides an advantage over manual bidding as it ensures that the right people are targeted at the right times with the optimal bid amount.
Tools such as Target CPA (cost-per-acquisition), Enhanced CPC (cost-per-click), Maximize Conversions, Target Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) and more are available in smart bidding. All of these features enable advertisers to select goals for their campaigns and have Google Ads adjust bids accordingly in order to achieve those goals.
Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) are the latest addition to Google Ads' suite of automated tools. They are AdWords ads that use ML and AI to dynamically create multiple variations of an ad, based on user search queries.
Unlike standard text-based ads, which require manual crafting for each keyword variation, RSAs generate ads tailored specifically to user searches in real time. This takes the guesswork out of creating and managing PPC campaigns and can dramatically increase impressions and clicks.
RSAs work by combining two sets of headlines and descriptions created by the advertiser. When a search query is made, Google Ads analyzes the keywords used in the query and creates variations of an ad that match it. These variations are then tested against one another in order to determine which version will perform best for any given query. By using machine learning algorithms, RSAs can continually optimize an ad’s performance over time according to its success rate with different combinations of headlines and descriptions.
This helps ensure that ads are always relevant to the intended audience and maximizes return on investment (ROI), allowing advertisers to track performance across multiple devices such as desktop, tablet, or mobile phones so that they can adjust bids accordingly.
Google Ads local campaigns allow businesses to target people based on their location, radius, or area code. It also allows you to use geographic modifiers such as city or state names in your keywords and ad text.
This makes it easier for businesses to narrow down their target market and focus on people who are likely to be interested in their products or services.
Google Ads local campaigns provide great insights into how different audiences interact with ads by showing how many times an ad was seen and clicked within a certain geography. This helps advertisers better analyze their audience’s behavior and determine which areas may be more successful than others when it comes to conversions.
Performance Max Campaigns uses ML algorithms to analyze data from each ad auction and automatically adjust bids in real time to maximize performance.
It works by analyzing factors such as device type, location, user demographics, keyword searches and other signals from each auction. This information is used to determine the optimal bid amount that will ensure that an ad receives the most impressions and clicks while keeping cost per lead (CPL) low. The algorithm then adjusts bids accordingly in order to achieve the desired goal, whether it’s maximizing conversions or achieving a certain return on investment (ROI).
This approach allows advertisers to stay one step ahead of their competition by constantly adjusting their bids based on up-to-date data. It also eliminates the need for manual bid optimization, saving time and resources while helping you get better results with less effort.
Performance Max Campaigns also give you greater control over your budget by allowing you to set a daily budget cap so that your costs never exceed what you can afford.
Facebook is one of the biggest social media platforms in the world that shapes how advertisers operate social media marketing. Facebook Ads is constantly innovating in the PPC world. Facebook was one of the first companies to develop dynamic ads, which are ads that change automatically based on what products or services a person has viewed on your website.
Facebook Ads also allow you to target people based on their interests, demographics and even behaviour. As a social media platform that helps people communicate and interact digitally, its strength in finding similar audiences and groups is its biggest advantage.
Some of Facebook's newest features include:
Because of the nature of its platform, Facebook Ads is a community-based PPC platform that gives businesses the ability to target a very specific audience and similar groups. This makes it a powerful tool for businesses that know their customer base well.
People can spend hours on Facebook, which is another hidden benefit. The majority of the public has become so used to constant marketing that they don’t realise they are being sold to until they have made a purchase.
There are other PPC channels available, but the two most popular are Google Ads and Facebook Ads. Different PPC channels have different features that suit businesses of various sizes, industries and goals. Some other channels include:
Using one of the other PPC channels is never a bad idea. Using more channels means more brand exposure and higher chances of engagement. It also comes with a higher budget and time investment. Knowing what is the best choice for your campaign goal and business budget is crucial to a smart paid advertising plan.
There could be no debate about whether Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads works best in the digital marketing world. People run campaigns designed to attract customers and promote a product or service using the two platforms. While the two things might seem related, there is a bit of a gap between them that could confuse the uninitiated.
A few things you should know about your campaign before making your choice are:
These three points are a great place to start when choosing between Google Ads and Facebook Ads. Once you know your goals, you can get into the difference between the tools. It’s important to know that there are also circumstances that require you to use both platforms.
Facebook Ads and Google Ads are both powerful PPC platforms that help businesses generate quality leads and increase revenue. As the two of the most popular platforms taking the majority of market share in PPC, Facebook and Google Ads set the tone for how paid advertisement should look in modern marketing. However, there are still some differences between the two platforms.
Both Facebook Ads and Google Ads are PPC advertising platforms with a competitive bidding system, but they work in different ways. Paid social advertisements that appear on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and the extended Audience Network are known as Facebook Ads. Paid search advertisements that appear alongside Google's search results are known as Google Ads. With Google Ads, you can show your ads across all Google inventories like Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Maps and YouTube.
With over 1.73 billion daily active users and roughly 5.8 billion search queries every day, Facebook and Google have a huge presence. Facebook has an estimated 1.73 billion daily active users, while Google processes around 5.8 billion searches daily. Mobile advertising revenue accounts for almost 90% of Facebook's ad income.
However, your target audience is a mélange of people who use both platforms. As a result, basing your decision only on the size of your audience isn't advisable. To make effective use of your ad campaigns on these platforms, you must first be aware of two things: product orientation and target audience activity.
If your product is a new release, for example, Facebook may be a more practical option for building an audience group.
In terms of buyer intent, Google Ads has a leg up on Facebook Ads. If a person is in need of products or services, they tend to look for help by searching on Google. When potential customers are searching for your target query, your ads will be shown and bring them to your website.
On the other hand, people use Facebook to communicate and interact with others. While ads on Facebook can be effective, the platform is not typically the first stop for someone who needs to buy a product or service.
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Generally speaking, Facebook ads are slightly cheaper than Google Ads. Because of the mechanism behind each platform, the ad impression is higher with Facebook than Google. Therefore the cost-per-click (CPC) for Facebook Ads tends to be cheaper than Google. However, more factors affect the cost-per-acquisition (CPA) of paid campaigns. A lower CPC isn't always better if the impression you get isn't what you are targeting.
There are four different types of campaign formats with Google Ads: search ads, display ads, YouTube campaigns and app campaigns. With different formats, you can present your ads through texts, images and videos on the platform you want from the Google network.
Google Ads is also equipped with multiple options for ad extensions to create a more comprehensive ad. The extensions can be in the form of videos, images, call buttons, links to specific pages on your website or even your business’s location on Google Maps.
It can be easily customised based on the needs of brands. For instance, the phone extension and location extension are the perfect tools for PPC campaigns run by local businesses to attract people in need within the region.
Facebook Ads, on the other hand, are more graphic-focused, and you can present your ad image with less text. Facebook's ad types are link ads, image ads, video ads, slideshow ads and carousel ads. Continuously introducing new ad formats helps to avoid ‘ad fatigue'. This is a significant benefit if you are running an eCommerce business and selecting the appropriate platform.
Both Facebook Ads and Google Ads provide targeting (retargeting) features. You can target prospects on both platforms by location, gender, age and economic status, among other criteria. However, when it comes to more advanced targeting choices, Facebook offers more options. Beyond the aforementioned targeting options, Facebook allows you to develop audiences based on a variety of activities and hobbies. This is very useful for a business that has a narrow niche.
Google Ads takes the advantage of its powerful machine learning and presents a new type of campaign, Performance Max. This campaign is designed to help businesses get the most out of their investment by using automated bidding and ad placement strategies. The tool has been proven to be successful in many B2B marketing examples for expanding your target market.
Google Ads is the best platform for B2B paid search campaigns because it meets the user’s search intent and offers valuable content for audiences. If you want to quickly generate leads and boost conversions, Google Ads should be your go-to platform.
However, because of changes in user habits, audiences need to have more touchpoints and engagement with your brand in order to convert. Strategically collaborating with both channels can bring you a faster and more effective result, depending on your campaign goals and needs.
When deciding which platform to use for your B2B marketing campaigns, think about your business goals. If you want to increase brand awareness or build an audience group, Facebook Ads may be a better option. If you're looking for immediate results in terms of leads and conversions, Google Ads is the way to go.
Remember that the tool you use is specific to the job. If you end up using one that suits you most, you can receive a higher ROI with less budget waste.
As a general rule of thumb, create campaigns that focus on one goal at a time. Once you have successfully utilised the platforms to achieve that specific goal, you can move on to the next campaign. Trying to accomplish too many goals at once will only result in a lower ROI.
To start your PPC campaign, you need to set up an account and prepare your budget with the choice of platforms. After that, determine your target audience and craft the perfect message for them. The next step is to select the appropriate ad format and launch your campaign.
The tools you need at the start are as follows:
The success of your PPC ads relies on how well you measure their performance. By analysing the data, you can determine whether your campaigns are effective and make the necessary changes to improve them.
Tools you need at the measurement stage:
PPC ads need to be monitored and optimised on a regular basis to ensure they are effective. Try different ad copy, images and targeting options to see what works best for your business. Keep track of your metrics and make changes accordingly.
Tools you need at the optimisation stage:
Running and managing a paid ad campaign takes a lot of work. The good news is that you have the option to hire a PPC agency. Agencies are packed with knowledgeable marketers who can help your campaign succeed. Each PPC management company has its own strengths; make sure to research how to find the best PPC agency for your campaign and fact-check with their B2B marketing campaign examples.
Some things to consider when searching for a PPC management company are:
Choosing a PPC management agency is an essential piece of the PPC puzzle. Of course, you can have a successful campaign without them, but their knowledge and know-how carry considerable weight and determine the outcome of the campaign before it has begun. So be careful and always do your homework before jumping in.
The Google Ads ad network is the most popular due to its reach in terms of the volume of searches done on Google and the number of websites on the Google display network.
The answer, in a nutshell, is traffic. The quicker your team can acquire performance data, the faster you'll be able to make adjustments to optimise bids, page design and ad copy. When click volume is insufficient to evaluate performance accurately, many businesses abandon PPC because they do not generate enough leads.
Who we are: With over 25 years of experience, SnellMedia has created thousands of successful B2B Google Ads campaigns for clients primarily in SaaS, Manufacturing Automation and Healthtech. Book a 30-minute consultation with a senior, Google-certified member of our team today. During the call, we’ll answer any Google Ads-related questions you have and audit your account to provide your marketing team with valuable feedback they can implement to double or maybe even triple your lead generation.
