Webshop advertising – Google Ads or Facebook Ads?
If you want to strengthen the products of your start-up or existing webshop with online advertising (i.e. you run an e-commerce store), the question may arise as to where to launch a webshop ad, which of the two largest online advertising platforms to choose, Google Ads or Facebook Ads.
In this blog post, we’ll cover aspects of this decision, and we want to support the advertising decision with useful information.
Attention:
Platforms we won’t cover in this article: LinkedIn ads, Pinterest ads, TikTok ads, Quora ads, Waze ads.
How are Google ads and Facebook ads different?
For webshops, it’s a good idea to use a clever combination of Google and Facebook ads to maximize synergy.
Both online advertising platforms have different strengths, so by using them together, we can really make the most of their potential.
The strength of Google advertising lies in the power of Google search, which means that we can reach our potential customers exactly when they want to buy the product we offer, that is, they are in the final stages of the buying decision process and they are likely to purchase in a short time. Google Ads was originally a paid search advertising system that helps people find your business.
There is no such thing as a search ad on Facebook. Facebook is basically a so-called paid social advertising system, i.e. originally a social platform that offers an extra advertising feature. The nature of a Facebook ad is like a display ad, not a search ad, meaning it proactively shows users of our webshop products, meaning it helps advertisers find potential buyers. However, don’t think that Facebook displays irrelevant ads!
The power of Facebook as an online advertising platform is based on data obtained from the so-called audience network, that means it’s based on interest and purchase data retrieved from individual Facebook users from webshops using Facebook pixels and Facebook logins. Facebook often knows if we want to buy a hair dryer just like Google and shows us similarly relevant ads!
How do we target the entire decision-making process before purchase with webshop ads?
Webshop shoppers go through a decision-making process before the purchase is made in the selected webshop itself.
Facebook advertising is typically much stronger in targeting the first stage of the buying process (awareness).
Google Search and Shopping ads are clearly the most effective in targeting the final stage of the buying process (decision making), but in some cases, such as if a person has previously visited a product on your webshop, they can also get great results with Facebook retargeting ads.
Just to make things even more complicated, with the right expertise and best practices, as well as up-to-date advertising system knowledge, whether we run Google or Facebook ads, the repertoire of the two largest online advertising platforms can find the most appropriate ad format, campaign type and advertising solution, e.g. Targeting the first step in the purchase process is also possible with YouTube and Google Discovery ads (and we’ve already refuted our earlier claim that Facebook ads are better for this purpose).
Google and Facebook ad targets for webshop
Both Google’s and Facebook’s advertising systems offer highly sophisticated and detailed ad targeting options for webshop advertisers.
As mentioned earlier, Facebook, like Google, has a wealth of data crumbs about users, not just through feedback from other websites, but also through data provided voluntarily by users within the platform (e.g., moves, marriages and other life events, tracked pages). Related ad targets are also available in the Facebook ad system for webshops. If you know your target audience very well, Facebook Ads can be a good choice.
If you want to advertise primarily to potential customers in the final stages of the purchase decision process and do not have your own data assets that we can use for sophisticated advertising solutions (e.g. remarketing lists of webshop visitors who have viewed products but have not yet purchased), then Google Ads may be the better choice (you can run Google Search ads or Google Shopping ads). But you can think not only of search ads, but also of Google Display ads, for which you can even use a completely customized so-called custom interest segment targeting to reach those who have previously searched for similar products or websites like competing webshops.
Forrás: People illustrations by Storyset
Expected costs for a Google ad or Facebook ad
In the case of Facebook Ads, the entry limit is much lower and the expected specific cost of the ads is higher than for Google Ads. This means you can advertise on Facebook with significantly lower daily advertising budgets if you focus on one or up to two main campaign types. However, it is important to know that in case of catalog ads – which is a webshop advertising format offered by the Facebook advertising platform specifically for advertisers with a wide range of products – and in case of advertising a single product using conversion campaigns, you pay Facebook not for ad clicks, but for ad serving.
Google search and shopping ads can be much more expensive than Facebook ads. Just think about it: when you appear with an ad on Google search, you struggle with a scarce resource along with many other advertisers – for potential buyers already in the decision-making phase of the purchase process – which can drive up click prices! However, for Google search and shopping ads, you only pay for ad clicks, not for ad serving as you do for Facebook ads. Still, in most cases, it’s worth fighting for these clicks in the Google search ad competition because there are the most potential buyers!
Reach and target audience sizes on Google ads and Facebook ads
Needless to say, Google search is the world’s leading search engine, which goes hand in hand with Google’s own browser, Chrome, which is used by billions of people worldwide and has a share of well over 50% in Hungary.
Google’s so-called Display Network covers more than 95% of the world’s websites, this is the proportion of owners of websites in the world who choose the so-called display ad slots for Google advertisers (obviously through Google AdSense for extra revenue from ad impressions and ad clicks).
Facebook also has a multi-billion user base worldwide and millions of users in Hungary.
Both platforms therefore have nearly the same user base.
Another significant difference is that on the Google Network, almost all potential ad age groups (18-64+) are available (young people, for example, specifically on YouTube), Facebook is used much less by the very young age group (14-24).
Ad formats for webshops
Facebook offers webshop advertisers unique ad formats, such as catalog ads or other visual ad formats, such as a collection-type ad or a gallery-type ad using a product catalog.
In the case of Google Ads, the so-called shopping ads are designed specifically for webshops and in most cases can run at a much lower cost per click than Google search ads (although Shopping also appears on Google search, but also on many other Google advertising platforms, such as Google Display Network, YouTube and Gmail, and the Google Discovery feed). And the new Google Performance Max campaign is already optimizing ads within a single campaign across different Google Networks.
Predictability for Google and Facebook ads
In the case of Google advertising, Google offers a number of useful tools to help you plan your monthly advertising spend and how much you can expect from that amount (e.g. performance planner, keyword planner, reach planner).
There is no such sophisticated planning tool available for Facebook ads other than the estimated audience size and expected results you see when setting up your ad series. We have the option to set a daily advertising budget, or alternatively, to set a so-called “lifetime” campaign budget.
Summary
If you want to increase the traffic of your webshop with online advertisements, you should choose between the two largest online advertising platforms (or even cleverly combine the two channels to aim for maximum results).
Both leading online advertising platforms offer unique solutions, whether in terms of campaign types, ad targets, or ad types.
You are doing the right thing when choosing the right online advertising platform based on your e-commerce business goals, available financial and material resources, and on the phase of the buying process you want to target.