Facebook Ads vs Google Ads: Which Should You Be Using?

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Google ads vs Facebook Ads
Managing Director Benjamin Paine at Digital Nomads HQ

Written by: Benjamin Paine

Managing Director at Digital Nomads HQ

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Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads: Which Should You Be Using?

Deciding between Facebook Ads and Google Ads comes down to which is best for your business, your target audience and your digital marketing strategy. It’s important to understand the pros and cons of using each platform, but it’s also important to realise that the two platforms are not competing with each other – you don’t have to pick just one.

In fact, you can benefit from both simultaneously. But that begins with understanding what each one offers and the needs of your business.

Understanding Google Ads

Overview of Google Ads

Google Ads gives you the opportunity to reach your target audience on search engine results pages (SERPs), YouTube and other partner sites via a pay-per-click (PPC) model. The concept of PPC marketing is when advertisers bid on relevant keywords (search terms)in order to get ads in front of users searching for related terms. Google Ads are a great way to drive search traffic to your website or specific product and service pages. It’s no secret that Google is the most popular search engine in the world, so this is undoubtedly the best platform for achieving PPC marketing goals. You can build comprehensive Google Ads campaigns with a data-driven approach that allows you to assess, track, analyse and adapt your campaigns for continuous improvement.

Key Features and Functionalities

Powering your Google Ads search campaigns with advanced targeting options like location-based targeting and audience segmentation allows your business to reach the ideal customers, which in turn improves critical metrics like conversion rates. Marketers also have the ability to diversify through different formats like Google search ads, display ads, video ads and Google Shopping ads; tweaking their strategy to suit business goals, target audiences, etc. The performance tracking metrics also enable constant evolution through strategies like A/B testing to uncover the best results and ROI.

Advantages of Google Ads

High Search Intent User Targeting

Being able to target users who are actively seeking for specific products, services or information is perhaps the greatest benefit of Google Ads. Marketers’ biggest challenge is often getting the marketing content in front of the right people, but Google Ads ensure that pre-engaged consumers are seeing the content thanks to targeted keywords. This significantly increases the likelihood of conversion and is arguably the biggest tick in the “pro” column for Google Ads when asking the question of “Google Ads vs Facebook Ads”.

Extensive Reach Across Search Networks

The range of search networks, with partner sites and different platforms, gives marketers the chance to reach a broader audience, including reaching their target audience at different stages of the marketing funnel (awareness, engagement and purchase intent). A multi-channel approach is also a fantastic strategy for increasing brand awareness and brand presence.

Measurable Results and Analytics

As discussed when looking at understanding Google Ads, measurable results and analytics around core marketing KPIs is incredibly beneficial for marketers. The data provided is extensive and real-time, meaning performance metrics like impressions, clicks, conversions and ROI are all easy and accurate to track.

This opens the door to sustainable development and continuous improvement in your Google Ads marketing. Marketers can always be learning and achieving better results.

Disadvantages of Google Ads

Higher Competition and Bidding Costs: The bidding model of Google Ads and PPC inherently drives average costs up, particularly in competitive industries. This comes from the rising average cost of keywords, which can make it too expensive for smaller businesses trying to balance budget constraints and ROI in highly competitive keyword bidding environments.


Complexity in Campaign Management: The complexity of Google Ads strategies demands specialist knowledge. That forces expert management of this department , which can be financially restrictive for smaller businesses. Attempting to execute Google Ads campaigns without specialised PPC departments will likely lead to poor ROI, missed opportunities and sub-optimal results.

Understanding Facebook Ads

Overview of Facebook Ads

Meta’s online advertising platform is known as Facebook Ads, although this incorporates social media platforms Facebook, Messenger and Instagram. The sheer volume of users (billions of monthly users for each mobile app) creates a vast reach for brand awareness, lead generation and sales conversions. For best practice, marketers would use a combination of Facebook Advertising campaigns, including engaging image and video content as well as taking advantage of features like stories and carousels. Facebook Ads use cost-per-click and cost-per-impression models, with the choice giving marketers a more flexible budgeting option when comparing Google Ads vs Facebook Ads.

Key Features and Functionalities

Facebooks Ads also advanced targeting options to help achieve your Meta marketing goals, including demographics, interests, location and custom audiences. The Lookalike Audiences feature is a particularly advanced option whereby marketers can target potential customers who are similar to their existing customers, streamlining their advertising strategy. Similarly to Google Ads, Facebook Ads provide campaign performance metrics for A/B testing and real-time analytics so that marketers can monitor and optimise their campaigns.

Advantages of Facebook Ads

Advanced Audience Targeting Capabilities: Being able to target precise audience segments is one of the most beneficial features of Facebook Ads, allowing marketers to reach the most high-interest potential customers based on factors like gender, behaviours and location.
This creates a much better ROI than the more scattershot digital advertising approach of targeting broad audiences with content, reducing ad spend while improving conversion rates. When push comes to shove, that’s a more effective advertising strategy.

Visual Content Engagement: Users are more likely to engage with visual content, which is a particularly high percentage of Facebook and Instagram content. This provides active users with the opportunity to really stand out by creating outstanding content with strong visual elements.

Effective Brand Building and Community Interaction: Building brand persona is perhaps the best use of Meta marketing. Social media marketing is a great way to increase brand awareness and brand reach while building and fostering genuine relationships with the target audience. Likes, comments and shares all boost reach and interaction, which feeds increases in brand engagement and even an emotional connection with potential customers.
Leveraging the targeted ads to offer content that gives users value without asking for sales in return is an effective long-term brand building strategy.

Disadvantages of Facebook Ads

Lower Intent User Targeting

This is where the question of Google Ads vs Facebook Ads leans more in favour of Google, with Meta Marketing relying primarily on factors like demographics and behaviour to target users. On the other hand, Google targets users based on immediate Google search intent. For example, social media advertising like Meta marketing might target people aged 18-30 who like soccer with ads for football shirts. However, marketers using Google Ads will actually target potential customers with the Google search query “cheap football shirt”. That usually means Google Ads are better for conversion rates.

Potential Ad Fatigue Among Users

We’ve all been there: browsing social networks and feeling a bit sick of seeing so many ads – particularly when it feels like you’re seeing the same ones over and over again. Unsurprisingly, this can lead to lower engagement and overall ad performance over time. Marketers can combat this by constantly creating fresh content and avoiding user frustration with repeated ads (leading to wasted resources), but there is a risk of damaging relationships with users and prospective customers.

The Right Advertising Option for Your Business Objectives

Assessing Business Goals and Campaign Goals: This is the first and, arguably, most important factor to consider when deciding on Google Ads vs Facebook Ads for your advertising efforts and marketing goals.

Do you want to capture high user intent search traffic for direct conversions?

Then Google Ads is your friend. Do you want to build brand awareness, reputation and engagement?

Then Facebook Ads is the way to go.

Evaluating Advertising Budget and Resources:Resources and budget are also critical to deciding your marketing platform. Google Ads are generally more expensive in the PPC model, meaning they’re better suited to higher-budget companies and campaigns. Meanwhile, Facebook Ads and general Meta marketing is more affordable on a cost-per-click and cost-per-impression basis.
It’s worth noting that the complex nature of Google Ads demands precise keyword management from a team of experts, which can be more expensive as an investment in your marketing. On the other hand, Facebook Ads (along with all social media advertising efforts) need additional investment in keeping content fresh to minimise risk of ad fatigue.

Case Studies: When to Leverage Each Platform

Google Ads: Understanding when is the best time to utilise each digital marketing option and how to optimise your strategy for each is a critical skill for marketers. As you can see in the case study for Symmetry Orthodontics, the right strategy can enable targeted advertising in a cost-effective Google Ads solution.

Google Ads proved to be the most appropriate option for a business targeting consumers with very specific needs which would be mirrored in their search intent.

There’s no hiding just how complex the strategy needs to be in order to achieve such strong results, but it’s important to remember that execution is equally crucial in a results-driven Google Ads campaign.

Facebook Ads: Moving over to Facebook Ads, you can see in the case study for Junction Moama that local engagement was a critical part of the strategy. Therefore, Meta marketing became the clear choice for enhancing brand presence in order to drive reservations in the long run.

Our decision on the platform and strategy of this campaign was informed by the unique, specific needs of the business. As a restaurant – particularly one with a major selling point being their picturesque location – local marketing clearly makes more sense, since only people within a certain distance of the restaurant will make reservations.

Factors like this might sound straightforward, but they can often be overlooked in the decision-making process when marketing isn’t executed by experts.

Leveraging Both Platforms

If you’re looking to improve your marketing across the board, improving every facet of your marketing funnel, a combination of both Google Ads and Facebook Ads is your best strategy. Google Ads enable you to increase those direct conversions, but you can turn that sales-driven approach into an all-encompassing strategy by boosting brand awareness and brand engagement through Facebook Ads simultaneously.

Conclusion: Making an Informed Decision

Rather than deciding between Google Ads vs Facebook Ads, combining both platforms gives marketers optimal results. 

However, we know that it isn’t always viable or affordable to have an in-house dedicated Google Ads marketing team or to commit a large portion of their limited budget for advertising efforts to Facebook Ads.


That’s why leaning on the specialist resources of a digital marketing agency like Digital Nomads HQ for outstanding advertising services can be invaluable for a business like yours. 

As the winner of the Business Services award in the Large Business category of the Sunshine Coast Business Awards 2024, we believe that no agency offers better digital marketing services than DNHQ. 

In fact, we have an entire team of experts dedicated to Google Ads and PPC as well as a team for Facebook Ads and Meta marketing.
Feel free to get in touch and find out what we can do for your business. We’ll always be happy to help!

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