Facebook made waves when it launched search advertising for the first time this week. Facebook had been promising a unique departure from the search advertising mainstream, and it seems they delivered on that promise. Despite the anticipation, many were disappointed to find that the new advertising scheme is not all that much different from other forms of Facebook paid advertising, despite the fact that Facebook has updated the appearance of results and allows them to appear in the search bar.
AdWords has long been the standard for advertising, but Facebook promised to roll out easy-to-use ads that would dramatically increase market share for social media targets. Unfortunately, this turned out to be only half-right; Facebook users will certainly get to see sponsored ads, but the ultimate differences in AdWords and Facebook may tilt the scales in favor of Google.
Bulletproof Digital can help you decide on the best way to spend your advertising dollars with our social media marketing services. Talk to us today about which forms of advertising would be best for your business.
The Differences Between AdWords and Facebook Marketing
The differences between the two giant advertisers are numerous, and hinge on a different approach to advertising on the part of each company. Here are some examples of differences in the two advertising types:
| AdWords | Facebook Marketing |
| Targets keywords and phrases. Allows you to change your SEO at will so that you can always meet the challenge of the next keyword trend. | Targets specific entities including Pages, Places, and Apps. However, does not link outside Facebook for content. Users can target demographic groups such as current “friends,” all people in a certain age range, or all those who have Facebook accounts. |
| Offers text and a variety of extensions that allow users to customize keywords for search terms | Offers an image and up to 70 characters of text that link to Facebook only. Text is the only characteristic that the user can alter. |
| CPC | CPC or optimized CPM |
| Lands on your page—you can specify which page to link to each ad | Lands on your Facebook page, place, or app |
Facebook’s biggest drawback may be that nothing happens outside of Facebook as far as Facebook is concerned. To get the ability to link to other sites, including social media sites, you will have to go to AdWords or a similar web-based advertising strategy. However, if the majority of your users are on Facebook, it makes sense to use Facebook advertising since you may not care about linking to outside sites.
Bulletproof Digital is a premier provider of advice and help about web management to Orange County’s businesses. If you are looking for conversion rate optimization or any other assistance with your company or individual website, be sure to talk to the experts at Bulletproof Digital about your needs.
