Comparing Google AdWords & Facebook Advertising

            After viewing informative YouTube videos on Google Adwords and Facebook advertising, both seemed to offer users streamlined and easy-to-follow instructions on how to create a campaign.  AdWords lays out how to get started on your first campaign in four steps: 1) Choose your budget; 2) Create your ads; 3) Select keywords; and 4) Enter your billing information (Getting Started with Google AdWords, 2009).  Facebook lays out a very similar process where users begin with choosing a budget and continue creating the campaign from there.  Both allow you to access your account at anytime as well as the ability to start or stop running an ad at any time.  Also, AdWords and Facebook both use keyword bidding.

One main difference between the two was immediately evident was the way users are able to target their ads.  Google AdWords allows users to target Google searches in order to reach audiences most relevant to their ads.  AdWords also offers geographic targeting where you are able to target internationally, nationally, by region, state, city, etc.  According to the YouTube video, Getting Started with Google AdWords, this can be as “specific as users searching for dog toys within 20 miles of San Francisco.” AdWords doesn’t use any Facebook user information to target ads.

On the other hand, Facebook only uses the information provided on Facebook user’s profiles.  User location, demographics, likes and interests, education, work or workplace, and connections are used for Facebook ad targeting.  Connections are broken down into three categories, which include: 1) Users already connected to your page, event, group, or application; 2) Users who are not already connected to your page, event, group, or application; and 3) Users whose friends are connected to your page, event, group, or application (Facebook Tutorials-How to Advertise on Facebook, 2010). 

            I personally prefer the ability to target by search with Google AdWords.  Between the targeting capabilities offered by both tools, I feel like this is likely to be accurate form of targeting regarding relevancy.  I also think AdWords allows for more specific targeting.  Because of this I would most likely (but still depending in the audience, brand, and product/service/idea) use AdWords when there is a more specific target audience because the relevancy of the ads would help increase the likelihood of a click resulting in a sale. 

            Facebook ‘s targeting seems to be broader in terms of the ability to define a very specific target audience based on users recent inquiries outside of the Facebook network.  Because the ads are targeted using information only provided from user profiles, it may be difficult to provide relevant information because there is no way to tell how long it has been since someone updated their profile information.  Due to the lack of specific targeting compared to AdWords, I would use the Facebook advertising tool for targeting a broader audience and increasing brand awareness. If I was to use Facebook advertising to drive sales, I would only target current Facebook fans for my brand because they are already aware and engaged.

References:

(2009, June 15). Getting Started with Google AdWords [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx2L6EGa9DY

(2010, April 05). Facebook Tutorials-How to Advertise on Facebook [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jOBDIql4yc