Are You Sidelining Google For Facebook?

Facebook becoming mouthpiece of everyone in online arena, 500 million members and keep growing. The stats show visitors spending average 20 minutes on facebook. Facebook overtook Google as the most visited site in US with 8.9% and Google 7.2%. Frankly, they are huge market so are you sidelining Google for facebook for these reasons?  My advice is never put all the eggs in one basket, let me tell you why.

I am straight to the point, one of the reason is based on revenue result, Google make $24 Billion on 2009 and keep growing the other hand facebook made $2 Billion on 2010 increased revenue from 800 million on 2009. But this alone not the reason I said so, there are a few of them. Not because millions of eyeballs watching us could bring good result for our business. Social media is not the best place to advertise just any kind of services and products. But it doesn't mean you should ignore facebook, you just need to do proper analyses before dive into social media marketing.

There are argument about facebook newer platform includes psychographic information, attributes relating to personality, age, values, attitudes, interests and lifestyles is putting Google behind. Of course if you can display your ads to a targeted demographic, your click-through ratios will improve. It's will definitely bring marketers in front of more targeted prospects.

Now let's we talk about Google, How they can earn higher revenue with lesser user than facebook? What the magic they do to turn viewer into revenue? Google wins because Google's advertising is closely aligned with the user?s primary activity, which is to seek topics and click links. Google is oriented around topical queries, relevance is decided by algorithms that measure over hundreds different factors.People go to Google to research everything they're looking to buy. If somebody is searching for "how to make online money" then you know exactly what they're after at that moment.

Why facebook with huge flow of traffic could not pull big revenue? In my view facebook user isn't likely to be actively hunting for something. They are killing time or socializing. As a result, Facebook is less accommodating to direct sales and difficult to determine which phase the buyer turn to sales funnel. Facebook is more suited to brand building and awareness campaigns. It is more to relationship building. So you have to adjust your marketing approach accordingly.

Regardless of whatever marketing strategy, there are three questions you need to ask yourself for targeting your prospects.

1. who you are targeting?

Facebook

You able to get very specific with your keywords, filter by location, age, interest, group and cause involvement.

Google

You have the ability to place your ads based on what someone is searching for. You have a chance to make instant sale! Ready to buy customers.

2. How about a test campaign?

You can compare and test both platforms as little as $50 each placed in PPC or CPM advertising on Facebook and Google. At face book you chance try as low as $1 for a day. But I suggest $50 are usually enough to reveal the difference in impact between specific and general targeting for your audience.

3. Which PPC model will brings best result for your business?

CPC - Cost Per Click advertising allows you to pay for each click your ad receives. If you agree to pay 20cent for each click, five clicks will cost you $1.

CPM - Cost Per Thousand allows you to purchase a set amount of impressions. An impression is a single instance of an ad appearing on a web page. If your ad appears 10 times, that's 10 impressions.

Remember that Click Through aren't everything. Even a not clicked ad which has been viewed can play an important role in promoting your page by way of exposure and branding. Many marketers overlook the potential of CPM advertising. Targeted advertising  will greatly increases the overall effectiveness of your ads.

Here are some extra ammunition to decide choosing between  Facebook or Google for your effective marketing strategy.

Ads Placement

Facebook - Direct to users right on their profile page.
Google - Ads are placed based on Google algorithm, precisely targeted webpage, undisclosed websites

Market Saturation

Facebook -  It's a growing platform, so fewer advertisers, low competitor and low cost.
Google - One of world's top-producing online advertising networks, high competitors and higher cost than facebook.

Please don't carry away with hype promotions, do your research. Google vs Facebook agenda doesn't really a big matter as far as marketing is concerned. Both marketing avenue will bring good value to you if your marketing strategy is executed wisely. Both are valuable to marketers and need to be approached in different ways.

Did I convince you that you should not sideline Google for facebook? Well, whatever your argument would be, please spread your view below in your "Comment". Thank you

This Post Originaly Posted at One Dollar Corner Dot Com

Rammes Perumal

Your Online Marketing Solution Partner