Which Online Advertising Platform Will Best Help Drive Results?

Thinking about online advertising, but aren’t sure which platform to use? The two top platforms today – Google AdWords and Facebook Advertising – each boast their own unique benefits that should be taken into consideration before making a media buy. 

Google AdWords 

This advertising platform boasts the ability for marketers to set their own budget; reach consumers via geographic, demographic or psychographic targeting; make advertising changes at any time; and measure the effectiveness of each advertising dollar spent.  According to Larry Kim (n.d., para. 10), Google AdWords works best when trying to sell a product: 

Our research shows that Google is the better choice for display advertising because it has superior CPC performance, improved ad targeting options, and an enormous array of ad formats that Facebook lacks.  

Facebook Advertising 

Like Google AdWords, Facebook allows marketers to select their own budget; target consumers according to location, interests, online behaviors, age, etc.; change advertising at any time; and measure effectiveness. Kim (n.d., para. 7) believes this venue is best for brand building efforts:

Facebook sessions usually tend to last much longer than a normal Google search session, which would make Facebook preferred for building brand awareness or sending a specific message.

A Side-By-Side Comparison

With the C-suite's increasing focus on measurable results, it makes sense to choose the advertising platform  most closely aligned with marketing goals and objectives. The following infographic by e-Intelligence (2013) offers a side-by-side comparison of the two platforms using a number of important metrics, including global online market share, unique monthly visitors, time spent by visitors on each platform and average click through rates.

As the visual shows, Google is clearly ahead of Facebook when it comes to global online ad market share and unique monthly visitors; however, Facebook visitors spend significant more time on that platform. What’s particularly interesting about the latter observation – time spent on a platform – is that that the greater the time spent somewhere, the more time a marketer has to engage with the visitor. This is extremely important for brand-building activities.  

Check out this white paper by Microsoft Corporation (2010) that supports this observation by showing a connection exists between online ad engagement and brand impacts – both on and offline. The white paper highlights the impact of “dwell” rates and “dwell” time on ad efficiency, visits to the brand site, traffic, engaged visitors and more. Dwell is defined on page 5 as “the level of active engagement with the ad.” 

Additionally, e-Intellgence’s infographic also shows that while Google Ad Words has a higher click-through rate, Facebook advertising boasts a higher revenue ratio: For every $1 spent on Facebook advertising, an advertiser realizes $3 in revenue compared to $2 for Google Ad Words. 

This article by Steven Matsumoto (2010, para. 1) offers marketers some tips to “help you make more educated decisions about where to spend your precious marketing dollars” – particularly when it comes to advertising. Matsumoto offers a formula for calculating return on investment for advertising dollars spent so no matter which platform you choose, you can determine what revenue results your ad spend is generating.

Let Your Goals Drive Your Choices

Since these two advertising platforms offer some similar functionality but boast different benefits, which platform you ultimately choose to invest in is best based on desired results. By letting your goals and objectives drive your advertising choices, you are in a better position to know which one of these two platforms can best help drive your results.

References

e-Intelligence. (2013, May 7) Google vs. Facebook: The battle of online advertising. Retrieved Nov. 9, 2013, from http://visual.ly/google-adwords-vs-facebook-ads

Facebook. (2013). Advertising. Retrieved Nov. 9, 2013, from https://www.facebook.com/advertising

Google. (n.d.). AdWords. Retrieved Nov. 9, 2013, from http://www.google.com/

Matsumoto, S. (2010, July 12). Basic advertising ROI calculation. Retrieved Nov. 9, 2013, from http://biznik.com/articles/basic-advertising-roi-calculation

Microsoft Corporation. (2010).   Dwell on branding: Proof that online ad engagement drives better brand results. Retrieved Nov. 9, 2013, from http://advertising.microsoft.com/europe/WWDocs/User/Europe/ResearchLibrary/ResearchReport/Dwell%20on%20Branding%20Research%20Report%20Apr10.pdf