If you’ve done some research on online advertising, chances are you’ve come across two of the most common options: Google Ads and social media ads. But which one is better for your business? Should you focus on one or the other? To find out whether Google Ads or social media ads are best for your business, it’s important to understand a few key advantages offered by each option. Let’s dive in!
Advantages of Google Ads
Google Ads are more conversion-focused than social media ads. What a conversion means to you depends on the industry you’re in, and could be anything from a product sale to a new lead. Google Ads typically tend to be used toward the lower end of the sales funnel when people have already heard about your company and are considering making a sale. Here’s how Google Ads can benefit your business:
Quickly Generate Leads
If you’ve already got your name out there and have an idea of the type of audience you should be targeting, Google Ads can prove to be an efficient way to target warm leads and drive traffic to your site. How well you drive traffic depends on a number of factors, however, including the keywords you bid on, the competition for those keywords, your website’s user experience, and ad relevancy.
When done correctly, a Google Ads campaign can provide an effective way to quickly boost inbound website traffic compared to organic marketing like SEO.
Cast a Wider Net
An important advantage of Google Ads is that you’re able to advertise on a variety of Google-owned platforms, including Google Search, YouTube, Gmail, and Google’s Display Network. This significantly increases your potential reach when compared to single-platform options like social media ads.
While it’s not as simple as selecting all platforms and launching your campaign, having the option to advertise on different platforms certainly helps broaden your reach.
Laser Focused Audience Targeting
With so much data and audience information at your fingertips, Google Ads offers one of the most customizable online advertising solutions when it comes to targeting your audiences. This is due in no small part to Google’s ever-changing, AI-powered algorithms designed to accurately identify user preferences and intent, among other data.
By allowing you to fully customize your audience targeting, a properly configured Google Ads campaign drastically increases your chances of achieving your business goals.
Advantages of Social Media Ads
Social media ads are great for raising awareness and getting your brand’s name out there. They help you develop a community of loyal followers, as well as attract new potential customers. Here’s how social media ads achieve this:
Increase Brand Recognition and Awareness
People need to know about your brand before they can trust you with their hard-earned money or respect. Social media ads are great for communicating with potential customers when they’re unwinding and have more free time to spare since they’ll be more likely to take the time and click on an eye-catching ad to learn more about you. This allows prospective customers to learn more about you, what you stand for, and whether they would consider your brand.
Generate and Enhance Brand Loyalty
Behind all the great businesses is a loyal customer base. Social media ads enable you to expand your brand’s reach and create a connection with your audience, building a sense of familiarity and trust that could eventually turn them into paying customers. They’re a great way to engage with both potential and existing customers and offer incredible opportunities to interact with and reply to your audience via comments.
Develop A Community Around Your Brand
Whether you need a community around your brand really depends on what kind of business you’re in. Nevertheless, if your brand could benefit from a community, social media ads offer an amazing opportunity to leverage one of the most effective online channels to build one. What’s more, once your community starts taking off, it’ll begin to grow organically thanks to word-of-mouth referrals.
The Bottom Line
Now that you know more about the advantages of both Google Ads and social media ads, it’s important to understand that you need a balance of both awareness and conversion-focused advertising to grow your business online. After all, potential customers are more likely to click your conversion-focused Google Ad if they’ve already seen or heard about your brand via a different channel, such as social media.
In conclusion, there really isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” solution when it comes to picking online advertising platforms, and to stay ahead of the competition and ensure steady growth, you’re best off using a combination of Google Ads and social media ads. Reach out to the Three Marketers today to find out more about how combining Google Ads and social media ads can help take your online marketing to the next level.
