Producing Ads of Interest on Google & Facebook

Facebook and Google might be top of mind companies for social networking and searching, but both brands also offer worldwide-recognized advertising networks.

For advertisers looking to leverage either networks, the following ad differences should be closely examined: reach, revenue/growth, advertising performance, targeting, and ad formatting.

Ad Reach

“Facebook is the world’s largest social network comprising over 845 million monthly active users” (Ecommercecircle.com, 2012). Facebook is able to reach 51% of all Internet users (Ecommercecircle.com, 2012).

“Google is the world’s largest online display advertising network, comprised of Google properties including Youtube, Blogger, Gmail, plus 2 million other websites” (Ecommercecircle.com, 2012). Google is able to reach 90% of all Internet users (Ecommercecircle.com, 2012).

Ad Revenue/Growth

In the first quarter of 2012, the Google Display Network had $2.9 Billion in revenue, which excluded 7B in revenues from Google Search (Ecommercecircle.com, 2012).

The first quarter 2012 Facebook revenues were $1.06 Billion, which was 6.5% lower than the fourth quarter of 2011 (Ecommercecircle.com, 2012).

Advertising Performance

The difference between Facebook and Google Adwords all comes down to the click through rate. “The average CTR of an ad on the Google Display Network is 0.4%, which is almost ten times as high as a Facebook Ad” (Ecommercecircle.com, 2012).

Ad Targeting

Facebook is the better platform for advertisers to leverage if a brand needs to gain visibility, or interest with a new customer base. Once a brand forms a “like” presence on Facebook, a brand tribe forms.

On the other hand, Google Adwords is better for advertisers selling specific items because people turn to search engines for specific solutions (Thompson, 2012). If Google Adwords was leveraged, advertisers would be able to target the people looking for their products and services (Thompson, 2012).

Ad Format Differences

Facebook offers advertisers two ad format choices, either a Facebook Ad or a sponsored story. Google, on the other hand, offers advertisers options, which include: text ads, image ads, ads in videos, and ads in mobile web or games (Ecommercecircle.com, 2012).

Once a platform is chosen, marketers should focus on the goals behind the advertisements. Howard Luck Gossage offers this sound advice to online marketers, “The real fact of the matter is that nobody reads ads. People read what interests them, and sometimes it is an ad” (Thompson, 2012).

By closely examining both networks, a brand would be able to choose the platform that best suits the interests of their viewers. “The goal of advertising is not to gain the most visibility; it is to attract the most attention” (Thompson, 2012). Brands able to leverage an advertising networks full capability would be able to produce ads of interest instead of ads for the sake of visibility.

Resources

Thompson, Alexis. (2012). Facebook ads or google adwords: which one’s for you?

Retrieved February 4, 2012 from

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2012/07/26/facebook-ads-or-google-adwords-which-ones-for-you/

Retrieved February 4, 2012 from

http://www.ecommercecircle.com/files/facebook-vs-google-display-network.png