Facebook versus Google for Inbound Marketing or PPC
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Thu, May 20, 2010
2010 is a great year so far for Facebook. This year they have already generated more traffic in one week that Google and surpassed Yahoo in terms of ads displayed. In fact their ads revenue jumped by 54% between Q4 2009 and Q1 2010. So for people who use Google Adwords and look to get found on the web they now have two options. Google or Facebook, which one would should you chose?
Google or Facebook comes down to what you want to achieve first. Is it brand awareness or just simple sales? This affects your budget and your ad content. Speaking of budget, the first difference between them is that Facebook is cheaper that Google. Before you start wiping out your wallet for Facebook remember that it is cheaper for a reason. Facebook has a lower click through rate so you have to take this into consideration.
Then against this Facebook does have better demographic targeting. With over 400 million users, they have much deeper and more relevant demographic data than Google does. It is possible to actually target the user's age, gender, and geographic location much easier than on Google.
When comparing Google against Facebook you have to remember that people tend to spend more time on Facebook that Google. With the average Facebook user spending over 20 mins online, this gives you more face time with the users and increasing the opportunity for creating brand awareness from the advert alone. Nielsen only recently published a report showing that that ads on Facebook users' homepages resulted in a 10% ad recall increase, a 4% brand awareness increase and a 2% increase in purchase intent.
So Facebook or Google, in my opinion try out Facebook adverts. Even if you get zero clicks to your website you still will benefit from the brand awareness. If you require any further help with Facebook ads check out the recording of our webinar on Facebook for Business.