No matter how many leads, prospects, or sales we generate for a client with PPC marketing, we always get the same question: “should we be doing Facebook or Twitter ads”?
We get it. Everyone and their dog (and their dog’s friend) either has a Facebook, Twitter, and/or LinkedIn account.
But here’s the difference:
- People use search engines to search
- People use social media to be social
If you’re looking for the best deal on a North Face men’s down jacket, for example, would you use Google or a social media site?
The Google AdWords platform is designed to give you the best possible experience when you’re looking for a product or a service.
Companies are bidding on keywords you’re using, creating landing pages and websites tailored to your searches, and building an optimal web experience for you to find what you’re looking for.
Google is the yellow pages of the internet. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, are the print ads of the internet (when it comes to advertising).
That being said, there are still ways to use social media sites with the Google AdWords platform.
Specifically: retargeting.
If a prospects clicks on your Google ad, lands on your website or landing page, but leaves before “converting”, you can use a site like Facebook for retargeting ads.
Here’s how that works (courtesy of MDG Advertising):
If you have had success running ads on social media platforms, drop us a line. We’d love to hear about success stories 🙂
While I agree that search intent is important, targeting is something you’ve largely ignored. Search is fantastic when you want to advertise to people actively searching. The problem is the difficulty in qualifying your target audience with search because janitors and CEOs can both use the same queries. LinkedIn Ads is fantastic when you want to target people who fit demographic criteria (largely helpful for B2B, but if you nail your personas, it’s helpful there too). The clicks are more expensive, but the audience is more qualified.
With smaller budgets, it makes sense to choose whichever platform is a better fit, but otherwise, it shouldn’t be either/or.
While I agree that search intent is important, targeting is something you’ve largely ignored. Search is fantastic when you want to advertise to people actively searching. The problem is the difficulty in qualifying your target audience with search because janitors and CEOs can both use the same queries. LinkedIn Ads is fantastic when you want to target people who fit demographic criteria (largely helpful for B2B, but if you nail your personas, it’s helpful there too). The clicks are more expensive, but the audience is more qualified.
With smaller budgets, it makes sense to choose whichever platform is a better fit, but otherwise, it shouldn’t be either/or.