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• From The Studio

Google Ads vs Facebook Ads - Which is best for your business?

Google and Facebook are dominating the online advertising industry, and with good reason. Facebook currently has more than 16 million active South African users logging in at least once every month, while Google drawing in millions of searches every day. When it comes to digital audiences, it doesn’t get any better than these 2 platforms - the marketing powerhouses of the digital age.

So how do you take advantage of these platforms for your business? Let’s look at some of the factors that should help you make a decision.

Try to use both.

When you’re starting out in digital marketing, every business is different, what works for one may not be what works for yours. The best way to find an effective marketing method for your business will always be to test, test, and test again. Sadly, this isn’t always possible for every business. Time, resources, and budgets are limited, in which case you will probably have to make a choice. But if you can, try to test both platforms.

What are you selling?

Let your product or service guide your online marketing. Think about how your target market spends their time online and where the best place to approach them with your message is. We’ve already established that a good number of us are spending our time on both Facebook and Google, the question is, which of these fit your product best? Company executives and decision-makers may be on Facebook but they’re unlikely to engage with a business service during their Facebook time. This is why B2B businesses often find Facebook an unsuccessful platform for finding quality leads.

On the other hand, if you’re selling a product, is it one that a user would actively seek out through a search on Google? Or do your customers usually buy your product impulsively? If you’re answering yes to the latter, we recommend that you find out where your audience is spending their time in order to produce this impulse. Facebook is a good bet.

Think of your user.

In the digital space, the online user is the center of your universe. During the process of creating a digital strategy, you have to continually ask yourself how your online audience will experience your content in the space you’ve put it in. Is it easy for your user to find? Does it make it easy to find your product or service? Is it visually appealing? If you’re answering yes for both Facebook and Google platforms, your business is lucky to have two excellent, viable options for digital marketing.

Ultimately, both Google and Facebook are excellent options for marketing your business digitally. Both have adapted to their users’ behaviour and make it easier than ever to ensure your audience engages with your content or ads. If you’re still unsure about what’s going to work for your business, then your next step would be to invest in guidance from the right digital agency. Not sure how to find the right digital agency? Click here for more.