Sarah: Hey, hey. Good morning! Okay, we're going to talk about Facebook Ads versus Google Ads and the difference. What's better for your business? What's going to give you a better return on your investment? We're going to break them both down today, so stay tuned.

Glyna: Morning!

Sarah: Good morning! We were talking about keto before the broadcast.

Glyna: Maybe we'll just continue to talk about what we were talking about. Facebook and Google ads are very important, but it's not as fun as keto.

Sarah: That's the truth.

Glyna: All right. Well, welcome to Marketing Mix, everybody. Every week, we try to talk about different types of digital marketing. We're mixing it up a little bit with tips, trends, reviews, and sometimes some Q and A.

Sarah: That's right. Never know where it will take us. But before we get started, want to make sure that you know that every week we go live on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. You can also subscribe to our great and informative podcast, Marketing and a Mic. And you can also follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn. And don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel. We are constantly putting out really informative, helpful videos, all in the name of digital marketing.

Glyna: Yes.

Sarah: So, you must check it out. Okay, so we are talking about a really important topic today, and that is Facebook Ads versus Google Ads. Now last week, we talked a lot about Facebook Ads, and we broke it down in the process, and kind of who, what, where, when, why, all that kind of good stuff. But today, we want to dive a little bit deeper and kind of share a little bit more about Facebook Ads versus Google Ads. There's certain types of businesses where Google Ads would yield better results, and then there's some incidents where Facebook Ads would give you a better result, kind of based on your product and your service and what your intent is. We're going to break it all down, very, very simple for you. Let's start at the beginning, which is: What are Google Ads? Okay, Google Ads are those paid advertisements which appear in the search results on Google. So when a customer types in their search inquiry, you'll notice that the first few search results that pop up will have the word ad next to it. And Glyna's sharing her screen right now to show us. These are your sponsored ads, meaning these are the ones that are placed in front of you intentionally by the advertiser based on the type of search inquiry you typed in. Anything below that is sort of the organic results, but all these that pop up at the beginning that have that little ad in the left corner there, those are called Google Ads, so that's the advertisement paying Google to be placed there when the customer searches, and it kind of matches up with what they're searching for.

Glyna: Yeah. That's exactly right. And it's funny because people always go, "Oh, you mean those little things at the top that have the ad by them?" It's like, "Yep, that's exactly right." And a lot of times, let me look down here, sometimes they're down here too. If you see you only have two slots at the top, and you have three here, so it's very, very competitive. It's very hard to appear in those places unless you know what you're doing.

Sarah: You know what you're doing. So, that kind of leads us to number two. How do they work?

Glyna: Yeah. All right. See if I can break this down, A, B, C. Yeah. That's a good question. Well, it's a little bit more tricky than Facebook ads because you have to really know what you're doing. But basically, Google Ads is Google's auction. That's the way I like to say it. I showed you those five spots. All of the businesses that are out on Google and trying to do Google Ads, they're all competing for that area. They are bidding. It's kind of like a bidding war. They're bidding to get one of those top spots because let's face it, if you're not in those top spots, you really shouldn't be doing it. We run into people all the time, which I just don't understand, you think you'd go out and search and make sure that you're showing up. But we run into people all the time that are paying for Google Ads, which is very expensive, and they're not showing up in those top spots. Anyway, it's an auction. Basically, you think about: What would people be searching? What keywords, like for instance, plumber, obviously people would be searching for plumber. And we would use all different kinds of keywords that people might search. I need a plumber, plumber near me, those kind of things. And then when somebody clicks on the ad that you've created, you're going to pay Google for that click, so that's what the pay per click means. That's what Google Pay Per Click, it's called all kinds of things, Google AdWords, Google Ads, Google Pay Per Click, all the same thing. Basically, when someone clicks on your ad, you have to pay. But you're paying for the ability to show up on the first page and in a prominent spot so people can pick your business.

Sarah: Correct. You can plug in those keywords that you think are going to be the most relevant, but it goes a little bit further than that. Your bid is kind of combined with a quality score that's assigned to you by Google, and it's really their assessment on the level of quality of your advertisement. So to win the bid, you really have to make sure that your ad is seen. You need to optimize your quality score that Google gives you as much as possible. So before your head pops off, I'll just kind of break that down real basic. There's a lot of factors that go into your quality score, but it's your keyword search, as we talked about. It's your ad relevance, which means: Does your ad have the most relevant, useful information that the customer is searching for? Your click-through rate, which we could kind of dive into that a little bit more, your landing page quality. So, Google will take it a step further and they'll say, "Okay. You've got a really nice, fancy, informative ad." But when they click through that call to action and it leads them to your website or your landing page, is that also of quality? Is that also kind of tying in, so it's not taking them to a garbage end spot that's really of no use to them? And then the other thing is kind of your overall count performance. What's your history? What's your reputation? If you are continuing to put out quality stuff, then they'll rank you a little bit higher in that. So really, it just comes down to: Is your ad giving the user all the information that they want? And does it match up to the landing page that you're leading them to?

Glyna: Yeah. Exactly. That quality score is huge. And if you're running Google AdWords, and you've never heard the term quality score, you definitely need to call us because again, I run into people all the time. They're like, "Oh, yeah. This is easy. I'm just going to throw some money, create this ad, throw some money at Google, and try to get in the spot where people can find me." It's so much more than that. It's so much more than that. And we've even had situations where we've taken accounts over from even other companies, other marketing companies, and because Rob and his team really know about these things that make up the quality score, they're able to drive that cost down per click, which is huge. I mean, plumber, we can go back to our example. You may pay $25 when somebody clicks on your keyword or your ad for plumber. That's a lot of money, especially if people are finding you, so you want everything to be playing in your favor, for sure, for that quality score. We have some people joining us this morning. I want to say good morning to Cindy. We have Gay Chambers this morning. Hello, I like your little smiley face. Mary Maze Beasley, Steve Johnson, and LaVon, everybody joining us this morning!

Sarah: Our morning crew, we love it. Thank you!

Glyna: Yeah, the early birds. All right. So we have all this quality score stuff, and if it still doesn't make sense to you, that makes sense. It's really difficult, but the whole point is the cool thing about Google Ads is that it's instant on and instant off. So you can turn it on, and it'll start working immediately if you know how to do all this stuff correctly. So how much do I pay? How much do I pay per click? And this is the question that everybody always asks us because it's very important. You have to be able to set a budget, and that's the good thing about Google AdWords as well, or Pay Per Click, whatever you want to call it, is you can set a budget, a daily budget, a weekly budget, whatever because if people get out there going crazy on a $25 ad and a click, you want to make sure that you have a budget and a cutoff, so that once you've reached that, it doesn't drive up your cost. So that's definitely one of those things that people learn the hard way, unfortunately. But cost per click, again, your quality score really comes into play with the cost per click. You have to be relevant. You have to make sure that Google thinks your ad is useful. And the more people click on it, the more action it's getting, they're going to say, "This ad is worth us showing in the top areas," so, if done correctly, and all of those things, as Sarah mentioned, it can be quite affordable. We can get it down to that, again, depending on your category.

Sarah: Right, exactly. And you really want to make sure that you've got somebody that knows that system, that they know all the ingredients, that they know how Google works, because otherwise, you're just going to be wasting a lot of money, and you don't want to be doing that. So let's get down to the nitty-gritty. What is the difference between Facebook Ads and Google Ads? And they really are different. And I would like to say that it's kind of, the top level of it is the main difference is the behavior of the customers. So, it may sound like how we're explaining this with the pay per click and all that, that they seem very similar in how they work. But the difference really comes from the behaviors of the customers. Facebook Ads are centered around the impulse buy. Now it's important, the impulse buy, whereas Google Ads are more centered around customers with intent. And we're going to explain that a lot more, but you just kind of look at it as: How do you search? When you're searching on Google, you're searching with intent. You know what you're searching for. Facebook, you're not really going on for Facebook for your searching. We'll break that down a little bit more, but that's really how the customer behaves, whereas Facebook is more an impulse buy, and Google is more customers with intent, so designing your ad around that's really important.

Glyna: Yeah, exactly. And let's see. We also have Gayle joining us, I think I saw. Hey, Gayle!

Sarah: Good morning, Gayle!

Glyna: All right. We got some Marketing Mix people today. Yes. Okay, so when we meet with somebody and we're consulting with them on what kind of ads to do, that's the way we have to think about it, exactly what you said. Number one, let's think of an HVAC company. I know we have some other examples here too that I'm going to get to. But an HVAC company, if your air conditioner goes out, you're probably not going to go scrolling Facebook to try to find an HVAC or a heating and air contractor. You're going to go straight to Google and you're going to find them there, so that's an example of you've got to think about who and how people are looking for what you do. So as Sarah mentioned, if we talk about when to use Facebook Ads, if you can pull off the impulse buy, in other words, if you have something that will attract people's attention away from them scrolling, looking at their kids, looking at Sarah's kids, whatever, then Facebook Ads would be very well suited for you because you have to think, I almost call it intrusive advertising as well because people come on Facebook to have fun, I mean, to relax. And really, they're not thinking about business and all that, even though we see those ads popping up all the time. But your ad has to have something that will attract their attention away from relaxing and away from scrolling.

Sarah: Right, and make them think, "Hey, I could use that," or, "Hey, I need that." They're not intentionally looking through as they're scrolling, but then your ad pops up and it makes them think, "You know what, I'm interested in that," and they click on it.

Glyna: Exactly. And it can target people too. I mean, that's another thing about Facebook Ads, is if your demographic is on Facebook, in other words, the people buying your products are on Facebook, then that might be something good. You gave me an example of anybody that sells baby products, we could actually target pregnant women, a certain age group, those kind of things. And that would be something that would catch their eye. So again, it's got to be something that would catch someone's eye for them to go, "Hey, I need that."

Sarah: Right. You find that demographic of they're going to be new parents or whatever it is, and then you target your ad, so they'll scroll through, they're going to need baby products. But they're not shopping for them on Facebook, but then your ad pops up.

Glyna: Well, that's exactly right. And with the, sorry to interrupt you, but the HVAC, going back to something that simple again, if your air is out, you're not going to Facebook to try to find somebody. But if let's say that one of our HVAC customers is advertising one of those air scrubbers, we've mentioned this before, or the air purifiers during this COVID stuff, and it claims to help with the COVID-19 germs, then Facebook would be a great place to put that because it's on people's minds, and they would be like, "Wait. Wait a minute." Catches their attention. And I could go on and on, but I'll be quiet.

Sarah: Well, Rob uses this great analogy about Facebook Ads, and it's like that candy bar when you're in the checkout lane at the grocery store. And when you're in that checkout lane at the grocery store, you're not thinking, "I'm going to pick up a Kit Kat," but you see it, and it's talking to you. And so you impulsively grab it, so I think that's kind of a perfect analogy. Okay. When to use Google Ads, and what do we mean by customers with intent? So let's talk about another example. If you need new tires, you're not going to search on Facebook for that. You're going to go on to Google, you're going to intentionally search where to buy new tires. So you think to yourself, "What products or services, as a business owner, what products or services do I offer that somebody would turn to Google to find?" Service industries are the perfect example for that. When your AC's on the fritz, the first thing you're going to do is start Googling AC repair companies near me. Just think about that in your mind, and again, you want to design your ad around that, of I want to, in my ad, speak to every single thing that customer is looking for when they're searching for that product or service.

Glyna: Exactly. That's exactly right. And again, if you are the business owner or you're the person that's going to be paying for these ads, there are other things to consider. What is your objective? That's the main thing. And we talk to people all the time. What are you wanting to accomplish? If you need people to find you and buy your products, and it's something that's not an impulse buy, you would want to look at Google. If, just like we talked about, if it's something that would catch people's attention, Facebook would be great. Also, Facebook is very, very great at helping you build brand awareness. And we do this all the time for people. Let's get your name, your information out in front of as many people that like what you do as possible. So we can do the ads with the intent of getting more likes to your page, getting more comments, shares, all of those kind of things. And you can really find a lot of success on Facebook for branding. And we have a lot of people that just want to do that.

Sarah: Right, right. And you're just kind of putting yourself out there more and more, so you become top of mind to that customer. Other factors to consider, if your goal is to target ads specifically to the consumers you want, and reach customers exactly where they're looking for your type of product, then Google Ads is the answer. So if you find that people are going to turn to Google more than Facebook to find or search your product or service, then it's a simple no brainer. Go with Google Ads. If you want to accomplish actionable goals, like clicks to your websites, calls to your business, Google Ads is much better for these objectives. And then you're just going to have to really design a very hearty ad that's got all the bells and whistles, a really good call to action, all that kind of stuff. So it's really about impulse or intent when you think about it.

Glyna: It really is. And it could even come down to the cost. Years ago, we put everybody on Google AdWords just because it was not as expensive as it is now. Unfortunately, in the last few years, Google's driven up their prices on the clicks. Even if you know what you're doing, it tends to be a lot more expensive than Facebook. So if you have a product or service that could go either way, Facebook is definitely a better option because it's always less expensive as far as cost per click goes. When you're paying every time somebody clicks on your ads, that's very important. So we help you weigh these things out, again, that's why we're a full-service marketing company. We have all kinds of options. And we can definitely point you in the right direction. But the cost is a huge factor sometimes when it comes to making that decision of which way to go, or if it's even for you at all.

Sarah: Right, yeah, absolutely. And yeah, our shameless plug, we would love to talk to you about any of that because pay per click campaigns can be extremely effective and can really help put you not only on the map online but get customers clicking and calling and all that kind of stuff. So if you need help with that, we'd love to have a conversation with you. And just go ahead and message us for what you may need. And, ding, ding, ding, right below, there you go!

Glyna: Fusiononemarketing.com. You can find us there for sure. And thanks for tuning in today. I know it was a little short segment. But again, we'd like to answer questions that people are always asking us. And hopefully, that made sense about which way you should go. And again, as Sarah said, hit us up if you need more info because it is a little confusing. And don't forget to tune in this Friday because we will have another Biz Talk segment, and we will have David Allen with JD Allen Services, so come on by, and we will see you then.

Sarah: All right. Don't forget to share our broadcast.

Glyna: Yes.

Sarah: Share our broadcast and mention Fusion One Marketing. We've got that great "Live Scream Giveaway" contest going on, so like, share, share the love. Until next time, see you all.

Glyna: Bye.

Sarah: Bye.