Good Facebook Advertising Vs. Google Advertising Essay Example

Introduction

Advertisements are meant to attract people, seep deep into the brain with the desires and wishes to get the goods; it does not only aim to impart information to public, advertisement holds a broader view (Leo Burnett). The three pointers linked with advertisement are what is being sold, what its functions are and how to purchase it. Keeping this as a core purpose, the platform that attracts most public is more likely to achieve this target in a shorter span of time. The two most leading platforms which are at constant internal conflict are Facebook and Google. With Facebook having more than 800 million users; and the demographic, psychographic and geographic ad targeting methods, it is ranked higher than Google for doing ads.A site which is visited more frequently by people of all ages and profession serves to attract more public than a site which is specifically used as a search engine.

History of Online Advertising

Online advertisement or internet advertisement was strictly prohibited in early ages of the internet. None of the company and none of the website were allowed to display commercial ads on internet.The first online marketing was allowed through e-mails in1978. Then in 1990, display ads were introduced which were online advertisement banners at the bottom of the screen. The search ads were started in 1998 by GOTO.com and then by Google under the ‘Ad Words’ advertisement search program in 2000. Advertisers are increasingly interested in social media as a means to advertise their products, and so Facebook is drawn much attention of these advertisers_ enjoying the advantage of having enormous users it has. It is ironic that when both these sites were introduced they were strongly against advertisements but with time it was realized that to make more business and to get more popularity, the advertisement is the best option. They both began to advertise products but with different strategies.

Facebook history

Facebook was originally the name of a book given to students of college and university in USA to get to know the senior students so that they can seek help from them. Then it paved its way to becoming a website for social networking among the students. In 2006, the popularity spread and this was the time when anyone with a valid user email ID within and outside USA could make an account on Facebook. The prime mission of Facebook is to connect people around the globe and to make them connected to the activities and products all over the world.

Facebook Advertisement

Facebook advertisement has numerous benefits over Google or any other internet website. Recently, business advertisement managers are shifting from Google to Facebook at an increasing rate for advertising their products. It is a platform which is favored by all: small and large scale companies, home businesses, and advertisement for sale or purchase of old goods, from parlors to accessories to clothing, photography ads and much more. It gives an easy view to the public as ads relating to their interest are automatically shown more. It allows a very economical place for advertisement with the benefit of attracting the majority of world population. Facebook appeals social media to adopt a non-traditional way and a more creative style to advertise and promote products. Facebook has greatest market popularity and market share than any other social networking website. Facebook offers good mobile and business friendly features, so it is more successful in marketing products. Dave Gilboa who is a co-founder of an online eyewear company, WarbyParkr, said that they are more eager to advertise o Facebook because it is the platform where most of the customers will be found, and their target demographic population is spending most of its time on Facebook (Dave Gilboa speech to Reuters).
Facebook advertising page works on very easy going steps. It emphasizes that a business person or advertiser, to be more specific, knows how to carry out their tasks to achieve a goal. Likewise, Facebook knows millions of people all across the world. It attracts advertisers by declaring that as Facebook has so many users so this is the best platform where products can be introduced to public, that is, ‘Facebook connects business with people’ (Facebook advertising page, https://www.facebook.com/business/). Facebook allows local and international online sale, promote apps and raise awareness about brands.

Google Advertisement

Google Plus is a social networking site and is used by people of different languages. Google allows a robust and professional ground of doing ads and an already popular company will turn to Google for advertising. Google has an advantage of using traditional marketing techniques and promotions and has an advantage over Facebook of market segmentation.

Hunt vs. Hike metaphor

A Hunt versus Hike metaphor is used for Google and Facebook advertisements. This means that people specifically are on a hunt on Google, which could be a hunt for information or a hunt for the product. Users are more serious while searching through Google so it is more likely that they will purchase a product or click an ad. Whereas, the users on Facebook are like they are on some hiking; looking at the life of others, chatting, mourning or excited over little things, sharing pictures and life events. So, many critics believe that ads on Facebook are worthless as no one will even notice or bother to look up the ad while busy in their activities. This is however not the fact. New businesses, local or home products, books, pets and many more ads, when displayed on the wall, do attract users. They are using Facebook in their leisure time and are not doing any serious work, so they do click on an ad. Facebook has the advantage of showing ads to users who are already interested in that or similar activities so it is very likely that they will look for it in the ad shown in their news feed.

Influence of users on advertisements

The best advantage Facebook has is that it includes over 800 million users worldwide. Among these 72% are females and 62% are males. It includes people of all origin and all age groups with the majority being 18 to 29 years old. Facebook focuses on business and marketing through a different angle that is social media and is very successful in achieving its goals. With so many people using a same platform, enables advertising companies to make the most business.Google announced in 2012 that its social network includes 400 million users and among this more than 100 million active users visit their site monthly. However, despite this claim by Google, this site does not attract advertisers and they consider it a ‘ghost town’. Google has failed to make business at a rate Facebook can. A survey was conducted by Nielsen Media Research that a user spends no more than six minutes and forty-seven seconds on Google, whereas, on Facebook more than 6 hour is spent by a user. Reuters conducted a survey in 2012 and included 100 most popular brands in their survey. They found that of these 100 brands 72 were there on Google and 87 were there on Facebook. They further evaluated the percentage of active visitors, and the results showed that 40% of the brands present on Google were not visited actively.It is generally believed by most of the companies now that Google is used by a limited number of people, so it is not a better option to advertise there (Dan Nguyen- Tan, vice president of sales and marketing department, Public Bikes).

Ad targeting methods

Advertising departments of companies apply different segmentation tactics. These include geography, demographics, psychographics, benefit sought and usage rate. Facebook allows these strategies to be applied very conveniently and gives benefit to the companies. Demographic factors include age, income, ethnic background and gender. Facebook allows the advertisers to demographically target the ad very precisely. These are very accurate, and these ads can be tested for different age groups. For example, ads can be created specifically to attract new graduates, newly wed or engaged or ads for parents, etc. Google also allows demographic tactic, but it is much generalized and only on the display network. Facebook allows geographic targeting strategy of advertisement. Cities, countries and state or province can be specifically approached for advertisement. For example, if some company wants to advertise about its products in a nearby locality or within that city, the company can show their ads to people of that area through Facebook. Google does not give this opportunity to the advertisers. Facebook has an advantage over Google to psychographically attract people. It is considered more important to see what the nature and interest of a person is. Facebook gives advertisers the chance to play with the psyche of people; they design ads that would draw their attention rather than what the person is exactly searching for.If a company wants to advertise on cooking utensils, then Facebook will show their ads to people who are interested in cooking and cooking programs which are seen through their likes and recent activities. So, in this way easily approachable customers will benefit the business. Advertisers can approach people according to their behavior like travellers, gamers or technology lovers.

Shopping ads on Facebook and Google

Facebook was developed with the background of better pictorial and video uploads and improvement in this sector is a continuous process. In this era, people are more interested in shopping by looking at pictures and videos as compared to details in texts. Although Google started the concept of shopping ads online but as Facebook is well-advanced in displaying pictures and videos, it has taken advantage in this sector. Gaffney stated that advertising companies are more interested in designing ads with pictorial publicity so that the customers get more inclination to buy their product by looking at the picture rather than just the text (Gaffney, analyst at Adobe Digital Index). He further elaborated the advantage Facebook has in targeting customers than other sites, and it is, therefore, more likely that Facebook will take over most of the business of shopping ads.

Facebook mobile ads are better than Google ads

The ads on Facebook news feed are giving great business to the companies. Recently, more people are using internet through their mobile phones and tablets, and lesser number are using desktop. The Facebook mobile app allows better advantage for ads too. These ads are displayed in the same manner as they are done on the desktop, so there are not many issues in attracting users to these ads. The picture ads in Facebook news feed are much better than Google text ads and these pictorial ads when seen through mobile app has given Facebook a boost. Elliot said in favor of Facebook that it shows the ads in the same style as other activities are shown on Facebook, so it is very convenient to mix the regular activities on the Facebook wall with some of the ads. In this way, the user does not even notice much difference in posts and the ads can catch their attention as some usual activity. Google has to design a different ad for desktop and a different one for mobile which is of great disadvantage. Critics argue that it is not fair to compare Facebook mobile ads with Google mobile ads. They give a reason that Facebook worked on mobile advertisement sector from the scratch and Google is making its way in this sector and very soon it will gain a better position. However in America this ratio of the mobile ad market is reverse; Google has better mobile revenue of around 52.1% as compared to 14.9% of Facebook (eMarketer).

Multiple ad views

Facebook shows ads on the news feed and in the right ad column multiple times. Users do not search for the ad again and again, but it appears automatically on their wall or in the news feed. This is very beneficial for marketing a product. By looking at the same product or company, it creates a liking and familiarity for that thing in the subconscious mind of the user. Later, when they actually need that thing they can instantly look up for that ad and purchase it online. The users may also see the product in the market and with the familiarity they have developed, they purchase that thing. Google shows those ads which are searched by the users and the turnover to purchase the product is fast as people search for the purpose of buying mostly. This when compared to Facebook is still inferior in marketing and publicity of the product.

Conclusion

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has declared that the news feed of Facebook contains one out of twenty stories on ads. Facebook is continuously working for betterment in its advertising sector. In March, 2015 Facebook introduced a more user-friendly and advertising friendly newsfeed and redesigned the whole setup for this change. Google is visited by maximum number of people and Facebook comes second in rank but this is an overall estimation of the services provided by Google. Google is surely one of the best websites and gives information about just everything but Facebook has a better position when it comes to ads. All the companies want the publicity of their products, and the best means of this is at present achieved through Facebook. As far as ads are concerned, one can compare the Facebook with Television. Just like this technology was and is used worldwide and the advantage a company gets by showing ads on TV, similarly Facebook is the only internet platform at present which has maximum number of visitors daily and so advertising on Facebook is far a better option. Google serves as a much sober and logical place to advertise, and it is meant more for those companies which already have a reliable and popular name in the market. New setups and business can never get their recognition through Google as unless a person is not aware of a certain company how will they ever search for it, let alone purchasing.

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