Online Advertising in a New Era

Online advertising is an integral component of any strategic IMC plan, yet there is often confusion surrounding which advertising options are truly the best choices.  Online advertising is big business—“online display ad spend in the U.S. will reach $12.7 billion thisyear and will grow by 17% annually to be worth $28 billion by 2017, with CPMsalmost doubling in that time to $6.64”.  In today’s vast sea of choices, the two front-runners whittle down to Google Adwords and Facebook Ads. 

Google Adwords and Facebook Ads have several similarities that might make it seem like a toss up, but upon closer inspection, it becomes apparent that each platform has distinct advantages, depending on your goal.  For instance, a business must first establish its objectives, and depending on what those are, one platform might be better suited than the other.  “Your answer willgo a long way to determining which channel is a better fit. The reason isfairly straightforward: the Web audience doesn't search Google and check theirFacebook Profile—excuse me, Timeline—in the same way”.

If your objective is to increase brand awareness, then Facebook Ads might make more sense.  “Facebook session tends tolast much longer than the typical Google search, the former be a better matchfor building brand awareness or getting a specific message across”.  Facebook Ads also allow you to target very specific groups of people with the ability to use geo-targeting, demographics, and even specific interests or birthdays to define who sees your message.  Facebook also offers several advertisingchoices, ranging from display ads, sponsored stories, Facebook “like” ads, and Facebook offers. All of these choices tend to be more affordable than Google Adwords, making these ads appealing to small and midsize businesses.  If you choose to use Facebook Ads, make sure you understand the differences between each type of ad because it will impact who sees your ad and how much you will pay (as you can see in the chart below):

On the other hand, if your business goal is to sell a specific item or drive website to a certain website, then Google Adwords might make more sense.  “Facebook isn't strong in pure Web searches;Google has the clear advantage there, and as a result could be the better fitfor driving actual clicks and conversions around specific products”.  Google Adwords excels in providing metrics that demonstrate actual ROI, making the investment understandable and measurable.  Google Adwords also helps improve your SEO—something that Facebook ads cannot do; “While working on your site’s SEO, you can put resourcesinto an AdWords campaign and start getting impressions and clicksimmediately. Because it’s so speedy, it’s also a good way to test whether agiven keyword or audience is worth pursing via organic search – if it convertswell in AdWords, you can deduce that it’s worth trying to rank for in SEO andbuild out your content in that area".

Overall, both Google Adwords and Facebook Ads offer viable online advertising solutions capable of reaching large-scale audiences.  Both platforms offer metrics for evaluating success, but that’s where the similarities end.  Understand why you are advertising, what you are trying to achieve, and then evaluate which platform can help you get there.  Here is a great infographic outlining some of the key differences—which platform do you think has the advantage?