Author: John Hammond

Is Facebook Advertising Different from Advertising on Google’s PPC Platform?

Yes it is..

And at this point in time many advertisers are getting it wrong.

Get it right and not only will you get cheaper clicks but also an avalanche of targeted traffic to your business and website.

Recently Google stated that the only company they fear in their internet domination is Facebook.

Why?

Because Facebook is now bigger than Google with over 500,000,000 registered users, that’s right there are more people registered on Facebook than there are men, women and children in the USA. Imagine the potential of this market place to advertisers?

Before we even consider this it is worth analysing the development of Facebook and their data collection techniques. What I find intriguing about Facebook is the data that is compiled on each individual is given over freely by that individual and in great detail too.

When people register on Facebook they are happy to list their main interests, the TV programmes and movies they love and the books they read, the activities they enjoy and even what religion they are associated with. All this data and information means that the advertiser is able to laser target their marketing campaigns.

Let me give you an example, lets say someone has listed Star Trek as their favourite programme, I would assume there are many ‘Trekies’ the world over registered on Facebook or even a Facebook group or a Fan Page that is dedicated to the Final Frontier itself! Ok?

Let’s say I am a promoter of Star Trek Conferences, what I can now do is place an advert up on Facebook and advertise to all of the people who have listed Star Trek as one of their favourite programmes. (I will go into this in more detail later on) but you get the idea?

What this means to Google is that there is now a rival platform where advertisers can spend their money and at this point in time get cheaper clicks. The price of Facebook Advertising is one twentieth the cost of advertising on Google at the time of compiling this article.

However there is a major difference in the type of paid advertising you should execute on both platforms. Google as we know and love it has the two advertising opportunities of Google Ad words and Ad sense..

Ad words is where we can bid on some keywords and put up our own advertising either in the top 3 positions or on the right hand side of the page when someone enters a Google search, Ad sense is where we can incorporate our advert into Googles Content Display Network. Now the key to remember here is that this advertising is search based, we are trying to identify keywords that people are searching under within the Google so that we can have our ad appear in front of them.

With Facebook we have much more detailed data on an individual and in fact on many individuals, but there is not a complex search system on Facebook. What Facebook will do is place your ad in front of people relating to the interests, activities, TV programmes and movies that they have detailed in their personal profiles. So the Keywords to search under within Facebook are the detailed words within the personal profiles of people who have registered on Facebook.

Facebook advertising allows the advertiser more characters within their advert and also and more importantly a picture that can be displayed with the advert. This is where Facebooks advertising differs to Google.

Even though Facebook advertising can be executed with keywords which are peoples interests or activities that they have already told us they are interested in and we can utilise, the picture we place with the ad turns Facebook into ‘Display Advertising’ rather than Google’s ‘Search Advertising’. So the choice of picture and the impact that picture has on the viewer is of paramount importance.

So let’s go back to our Star Trek Conference example.. what picture do you think would immediately say ‘Star Trek?’ For me it would be a head and shoulders picture Mr. Spock making his Vulcan greeting sign.. you know the one where he splits the fingers of his hand. This would almost instantly grab the attention of a Trekkie.. pair that with a headline of ‘Wanna Meet Mr.Spock? I know I could be onto a winner!

So think about the niche you are in what picture depicts that niche and what image might you use to stand out from the norm to get noticed within that niche? Start to look at ads that are running on Facebook and look for images that stand out for you to give you some ideas.

What we must take further into consideration now is that Google has proclaimed that in the future they will really only be interested in big corporate clients who have over $100,000 a month to spend on their PPC search advertising, the knock on effect for the small internet entrepreneur is that clicks in Google will cost a lot more and there will be possibly even more hurdles to jump through to get a good quality score with your advert.

All you have to do is compare how easy it was to advertise when Google was in its infancy, essentially anything was OK, where as now advertising with Google is much more complex and of course the dreaded ‘Google Slap’ sits prominently waiting for its next victim!

So yes advertising on Facebook is definitely different from advertising on Google. Facebook is ‘Display Advertising’ whereas Google is ‘Search based’. When we talk of Display think magazine style advertising..

A picture paints a thousand words, research magazines and make a note of pictures that stand out to you. Look at adverts that include pictures within them and decide why that picture has been placed with that ad, then incorporate this strategy into your Facebook advertising.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/is-facebook-advertising-different-from-advertising-on-googles-ppc-platform-3920505.html