Do you run ad campaigns on various platforms?
Google Ads and Facebook are two of the biggest advertising options in the industry, and many businesses use both for their ads. Together with Amazon, these three giants received a whopping 64 percent of the overall digital spending share in the United States.
If you use both Google Ads and Facebook, you might be guilty of treating each platform as a completely independent method and a direct competition of the other. Moreover, if you are working on a tight budget, you might have even considered giving up one of them when they don’t perform as well as expected.
But that kind of thinking is not beneficial to anybody working in digital marketing. Instead of viewing them as rivals, the best approach is to treat each platform as an integral part of a whole. You get the best results when you make them work to complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
Taking a Look at Google Ads and Facebook’s Different Fortes
The main difference between these two advertising heavyweights is how they help your business find new customers. Google Ads uses pay-per-click (PPC) advertising via target keywords. You can find your target consumers because they are searching for a keyword that matches what you have to offer.
On the other hand, Facebook connects you to your target consumers based on their online behavior. This is also called interest-based targeting. Facebook’s data can come from other businesses or celebrity pages users have liked, their demographics and interests, prior purchases and their activities on the platform. This can allow you to target your potential consumers on a more emotional level, which will be covered in more detail below.
Another striking distinction is that Facebook allows you to create more visual ads. As a result, more opportunities exist to show off your logo and colors and use photos and videos. With Google Ads, you are mostly limited to plain text on the search results page. However, you may have a little more room to use graphics if you advertise on their Display Network, which shows your ads as banners on their partner websites.
As for audience reach, Google Ads seemingly has the upper hand in this scenario. This is because Google’s search engine has become indispensable to daily life and handles millions of search queries daily. However, Facebook makes up for this by allowing businesses to set specific demographics or preferences for their target audience.
How Can I Make Them Work Together Better?
It’s crucial to grasp the areas in which each platform excels. Now that that’s out of the way, you can move on to the next step and work on your blended approach.
But if you’re new to all this or the idea of juggling multiple platforms seems daunting to you, there’s always another option. You can look into working with an established Google Ads agency like GrowMyAds that can step in and work its magic. These agencies have teams of skilled digital marketing specialists with the expertise to develop, monitor and improve your ad campaigns using real-time data.
But if you feel ready for the challenge of building the perfect synergy between your Facebook and Google Ads campaigns, read on below. We’ve combined four simple but brilliant ways to make these two advertising platforms work better together.
Use One To Appeal to the Heart and the Other to the Mind
As mentioned earlier, Facebook gives you more room to be flexible and creative with your ads. For example, you can develop graphics and videos that can induce excitement or other positive emotional reactions in the user. And you can save the more technical aspects of your product or service for your Google ads, such as specs or prices.
This will make both of your campaigns work perfectly together. Your target audience may first see the ad on Facebook and quickly become interested because of the emotional appeal. Their next step is likely to find out more about the product or company by Googling it. You can take a more logic-based strategy with your Google ads to get them to trust your product’s effectiveness beyond emotions.
The other way around is also possible, with your emotion-based ad being the final push to convince the target user and close the deal. This is an excellent example of the synergy and benefits you can get from maximizing the strengths of various platforms.
Fun Fact: One of the most effective emotional marketing techniques companies use is the FOMO or fear of missing out strategy. This taps into a human need to not miss out on a great opportunity, and Facebook ads can be the most suitable platform for this approach. FOMO marketing can appear as limited-time offers, emphasis on how everyone is buying this product, or a discount that only the first few customers can get.
Once these potential buyers are engaged, keeping them so is the tricky part. One way of maintaining their interest is installing e-Commerce chatbots or similar AI tools. This assures customers you’re always there to assist them without burdening your workforce.
Find Lookalike Audiences via Facebook and Apply on Google Ads
Facebook provides businesses with a useful option to upload data about their existing successful customers to target similar people. Because of these similarities in interests, demographics, or behaviors, there is a higher chance that these people will be converted. This is called a Facebook Lookalike Audience.
It can be as easy as generating and uploading a customer or email list. You can also do this by setting your custom audience. Filter people who have engaged with your content in a specific manner, like visiting your website in the past month. You can then apply the same data to your Google Ads, narrowing them down to your target audience. Or if you have gathered substantial data from your Google Ads, you can provide it to Facebook for better Lookalike results.
Follow Your Target Audience Across Platforms With Retargeting
Most of the time, a target consumer does not get converted the first time they see an ad or come across your brand. They will look around various platforms or do their own research before buying anything. But their first encounter with your brand is not a waste at all. In fact, this is the perfect opportunity for any business using both Facebook and Google Ads.
Use the retargeting option provided by Google Ads to follow around a potential lead who has visited your site using cookies. Your ads can then be shown to them again on Facebook or a partner site on Google’s Display Network.
An example of a retargeting ad can be a product they added to their cart but didn’t check out. This can also work inversely. You can have the option to exclude users who have visited your site via Google if your priority is to reach new people via Facebook.
Remain Consistent With Your Branding and Message To Leave a Mark
If you use the retargeting strategy above, consistency is the best way to make it even more effective. By creating a memorable impression on your target audience, they can easily recall your brand after seeing it again when they get retargeted. This can be done by remaining consistent in your messaging across all your platforms.
Ask yourself what emotions, values, or personality you want to convey with your brand. Are you a friendly, home-grown company or a no-nonsense, data-driven tech solutions provider? This must also reflect in the tone of your posts, ads, chatbots and communications with clients and potential customers.
Another aspect you can develop to support your brand consistency is the visual part. Create a simple but meaningful logo and font, a striking color palette, a catchy slogan, or a call to action that complements your brand identity.
Doing this can build good brand recall among your target audience. Ensure that every instance they encounter your brand on any platform helps to build your identity and message. If you want to know more, check out these tips and techniques on how to build brand consistency, as well as some examples from successful brands.
Different branding ideas from each team member may clash, which is a normal part of every conceptualization process. However, business owners can work on unifying their teams towards a common goal with a fun yet meaningful design exercise called the marshmallow challenge. Give it a try to make their brainstorming sessions more productive.
Final Thoughts
There is no single marketing platform that can cover all your bases. Your best bet would be to diversify where you place your ads and capitalize on each platform’s varying strengths. As always, testing and monitoring are key for any digital marketing specialist. Unlike traditional marketing methods, like print and TV, these online platforms provide you with real-time access to metrics and data. Don’t let this privilege go to waste; use this to your advantage so your business can always stay at the top of the game.