Facebook is everywhere and the fastest growing demographic on this social network mammoth is, interestingly enough, users aged 35 – 54. No longer is it simply a “young person’s” forum to chat with friends about what happened last weekend, or share photos from a recent holiday. Facebook and the Social Advertisements that can be created by any willing internet savvy advertiser, are fantastic ways of promoting a business, drawing attention to a campaign, raising money for a worthy cause or selling products online and more.
However, the question is whether Facebook and its army of Social Advertisements has the potential to outrun the advertising power of search engines like Google and the well versed system of PPC Advertising managed by PPC Management Companies, such as Webrageous Studios.
In reality, there is a great deal to take advantage of regarding Social Advertisements on Facebook and the rest of this article will take the opportunity to go through some of those advantages. However, from a careful study of both Social Advertisements and PPC Advertising, it is doubtful that, despite its incredible growth and popularity, Facebook will outrun the advertising success of Google overall; at least not in the near future anyway. Let us explain why we think this is…..
Advantages of Creating Facebook Social Advertisements
The main advantage of advertising through Facebook Social Advertisements is that niche markets can be targeted better than, dare we even say, anywhere else on the web. Facebook users load up their profiles with huge amounts of useful information ranging from gender, age and nationality to personal interests, favourite books and educational history.
The keywords used to form a Social Advertisement tap into these highly defined demographics and focus the efforts of an advertising campaign in a way that conventional PPC Advertising through Google, for example, simply cannot do. It’s not possible to bid on a keyword in the same way that advertisers bid on keywords through Google Adwords, for example, but it is possible to target a specific demographic by analyzing the data available provided through profile information and in this way, smart keyword choices can be made.
For example, if wanting to sell camping equipment during the British summertime, you can use profile information to find keywords that are going to target the British demographic who express interests in outdoor activities through their profiles during the months of July and August. Not a particularly exciting example, but you get the point.
In addition to the excellent possibilities for niche targeting, Facebook Social Advertisements use click-through-rate (CTR) in just the same way as the more established PPC Advertising. The higher the CTR is from a given advertisement, the less money Facebook will charge. The advertiser is rewarded for creating a popular advertisement, just like in PPC Campaigns and therefore solid management of Social Advertising Campaigns can become profitable.
When considering Campaign Analysis, Facebook even provides software to be able to track the campaigns and analyze data automatically generated in order to make important improvements to better focus each advertisement in turn. Even though this software is by no means any kind of match against the likes of Google Analytics, for example, it is a useful tool and another big plus to place on the positive side in favor of Social Advertising.
In addition, by creating a fake Facebook profile which mimics the demographic profile of your target audience, it becomes easy to see what kinds of advertisements are being shown to your target demographic and the keywords being used by other advertisers and thus it is possible to gain a sneaky insight into potential competition as well. (Clearly, this is a blatant manipulation of Facebook’s network, but due to the grand scale of the site it is difficult for them to keep track of behaviour like this).
Reasons Why PPC Advertising is Still Better Than Social Advertising
However, having spent all this time praising the benefits of Social Advertisements on Facebook, it is fundamentally clear that established PPC Advertising through Google Adwords, for example, still provides a better forum from which to advertise successfully.
Why?
The answer is fairly obvious actually….. Facebook users are not on Facebook because they want to buy something or because they are looking for a service. They are not predisposed or ready to begin clicking on advertisements and making conversions. Facebook users are on Facebook because they want to interact with friends, groups, pages or because they want to find possible new contacts to add to their already bulging contact lists.
On the other hand, an ordinary internet user, inserting a keyword or keyword phrase into a search engine like Google, for instance, is actively looking for something. They are ready to buy, ready to click and ready to convert; much more than the average Facebook user will ever be. Targeting is highly effective on Facebook without a doubt, but the CTR is always going to be higher with a PPC Advertising Campaign (one that is managed properly, of course). With a higher CTR, if the subsequent website landing page is also good, an advertiser stands more chance of achieving that all important conversion using PPC than using Facebook Social Advertisements.
In addition to the higher possibility of a conversion, PPC Advertising is also simply far more advanced. It is steps ahead of Facebook because Google Adwords, for example, has been in the internet advertising business a lot longer than the likes of Facebook. During this time, many important features have been developed to aid the advertiser improve their campaigns. Tools including Conversion Optimizers and Google Remarketing are just some of the features not available to the Social Advertiser on Facebook. In this sense the PPC Advertiser will always have the upper hand and PPC Advertising will always be the stronger internet advertising forum.
It’s also more difficult to control Social Advertisements in comparison to PPC Advertisements. With Google, an advertiser can decide when to have their advertisement impressed on the search listings (this can be narrowed right down to the hours within which advertisements are shown). A PPC advertiser can also bid for keywords and bid however much or little they want to. They can set a daily limit or work their campaign in such a way as to ensure that their advertisement is impressed in the 3rd position on a Google search because this position, over a long period of time, has proven to secure the most amount of conversions.
On Facebook, tighter controls exist over how much money an advertiser can spend, particularly at the beginning of a campaign, and the position of advertisements on the site is not even an option. With such control and variety available to the PPC Advertiser through Google, Facebook and its Social Advertisements really cannot compete.
Facebook Social Advertisements vs. PPC Advertising Concluded
On a final note, it is undoubtedly true that the likes of Google Adwords is a tricky business and that many advertisers find the whole process incredibly difficult to comprehend and keep track of. Google masterminds are working away every day to dream up even more advanced tools for PPC Advertisers to make use of in their campaigns and this can sometimes be overwhelming. Facebook Social Advertisements are far simpler to manage and a niche market can be targeted with incredibly ease thanks to the network’s detailed profiling.
However, Facebook users are online to connect and interact. They are not looking to buy or sign up. Google Search users are on the hunt for something and are prime candidates for PPC advertisers who manage their accounts well or, who better yet, speak to an experienced PPC Management Company, like Webrageous Studios, and get the professionals to manage their PPC Campaigns for them. PPC Advertisers get higher CTRs and achieve more conversions. If you’re advertising to convert, rather than just to get yourself exposed, ditch the Social Advertisements and pour all your efforts in Google’s winning PPC market.
