If I’m being transparent, I use Facebook and Instagram ads quite heavily in my own business. You may even be reading this right now as a result of the marketing I do there.
But I think it’s time we have a real honest chit chat about why you shouldn’t just rely on Zuckerberg to advertise your products or services.
Because if you’re not a social media manager, you may not have a fair dinkum about why certain marketing platforms should be used, and others not.
And it’s SO easy to get sucked into the scroll. We all do it, probably way more than we’d like to admit (talking to myself here!), so at an intuitive level it makes sense to advertise where we spend time ourselves.
BUT…
The reality is that different online platforms behave and perform differently.
As such, they require different strategies. Different expectations. Different measures of success.
And they will work differently depending on what stage your business is at.
Facebook (and I include Instagram when I say this) is fantastic at creating demand from nothing.
You’ll be innocently scrolling through to see what your friends and fam are up to and BAM! Suddenly the most beautiful dress in the entire world pops up and before you know it, you’re handing your credit card details over to a business you’ve never heard of before.
That’s the dream scenario (both for you and your love of beautiful dresses, and the business who sells them).
Zuckerberg? He gets paid whether you like the dress or not. Because with Facebook (and again, I’m including Instagram here) you pay for the impression regardless of whether someone clicks or interacts with your ad in any way.
Maybe you actually hate dresses (I relate) but you see the ad anyway. You’ll see 4-10,000 ads Every. Day.
Not all from the meta-verse, but there’s no denying that our feeds are saturated.
As an advertiser, it can get quite pricey to be paying for eyeballs on your ads, and with the privacy changes that Apple have implemented, it’s also become harder to rely on the results that FB gives you from your campaigns.
So. In a nutshell, FB is good (great even!) for getting in front of people that have never heard of you before.
Or never purchased from you.
But because you’re paying for impressions, you may find it to be quite expensive.
So, instead of relying on just Z-Berg to promote your business, let’s turn our attention to the other big dog in online marketing – Google Ads.
The artist formerly known as AdWords. G-Ads, PPC, SEM – it’s all referring to the same thing. Advertising within Google.
What Google is very good at is advertising your products or services to people who are already looking for them.
Maybe I really need a beautiful dress, so I head to my fav search engine (Google, like most of the population) and I type in something like “beautiful red evening dress”
Well, imagine if you’re a business who happens to sell beautiful red evening dresses. Like some of the above.
Google has connected you to a buyer who is looking for exactly what you sell. It’s a match made in heaven. And it’s easy money in your pocket.
And yes, there are some technical aspects to Google Ads that can be off-putting at first glance. But imagine if you sell the MOST beautiful red evening dresses, and you’re not even in the running to sell to me, because you’re not advertising where I’m looking.
It would be devastating.
My two cents?
If you have the budget, do both. Get in front of people who may not have heard of you before in FB (and IG). And also get in front of people who are actively looking for you in Google Ads.
If you can’t do both, do Google Ads. Capture all the revenue you can from people who are already interested, and grow from there.
And if you’ve like many many others who have already put G-Ads in the ‘too hard’ basket?
You might be interested to know that a few years ago I took my many many years of successful Google Ads experience and created a 12 week course, where I hold your hand and walk you through how to set up a profitable Google Ads account.
My team and I are available to answer all your questions along the way, with good bants thrown in for free!
The doors are open as the next round is kicking off at the end of May, so take your marketing strategy to the next level this year – stop relying on the scroll and secure your spot here.
