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PPC should I go with Facebook or Google?

  
  
  
  
  
  

Googe and FacebookPPC can be one of the most profitable forms of advertising and marketing channels, but only when done correctly.  With Facebook recently announced they hit the major milestone of 500m users, following hot on the heels of the news that, in the US, the site has overtaken Google for the first time should you start to look Facebook as another medium for your Pay Per Click.

For PPC the first measure you should always look at is the potential opportunity and the size of that opportunity.  Many people look to the CTR or the Click Through Rate to gain an understanding this potential opportunity.  The average CTR you would expect to see from a Google advert would be around 1.27% and if you compare this against the Facebook rate of around .09%, it appears that Google does provide an great opportunity to get found my your target market.   To paint it a different way people are 14 times more likely to click on your advertising on Google than your Facebook advert. 

So if this is the case why do companies use Facebook for advertising?  Facebook takes the traditional pay per click advertising model to a more targeted level Facebook has the ability to tap into the user’s profile, as well as the extra amount of personal information a user typically adds to their site every day and uses all that information to make it possible for companies and business to target groups of people at an extremely granular level.  With Facebook it is possible to go further that the basic demographics such as age and gender.   Facebook lets business targeting people on the basis of their favourite movie, snack etc.  Facebook enables you to build your target audience group and advertise to them specificity.

So would I be right in saying that Facebook build a brand and Google gets you found?  If you are still unsure about PPC check out our beginner’s guide on Pay Per Click.

Comments

A better comparison would be Google's Contextual network to Facebook's ads - people on Google are targeted because they're searching for a specific keyword which you have chosen as relevant to your site. Facebook ads are shown based on a profile of your typical customer, but they're not actively looking for you, or even interested in clicking out of Facebook at that point. The mind-set of the customer seeing the ads are completely different, and the way you're targeting the customer is also completely different. In general, your conversion rates will also be higher in Google, but Facebook could potentially be part of a larger view-through conversion down the road.
Posted @ Tuesday, August 31, 2010 11:41 AM by Tessa
Comparing AdWords to Facebook is like comparing grapes to watermelons, in my opinion. We are talking about two entirely different animals here.  
 
Facebook ads can be incredibly successful for businesses of all kinds with the right approach.  
 
I agree with you that Facebook ads are more targeted, but I disagree that Google is still the only way to go.  
 
Tessa (the comment above) makes a very good point about the Google display network being similar to Facebook.  
 
Something to keep in mind, however, is that Facebook users are having fun, engaging with family and friends, and playing Mafia Wars. If our ads are going to be successful, we have to compete on a very high level. 
 
Interesting debate. Thanks for the post! :) 
Posted @ Friday, October 08, 2010 4:36 AM by Jennifer Sheahan
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