With Facebook going public today, everyone is talking about it’s value. A marketing client of mine who uses Google ads asked me this week if I thought he should try Facebook ads.
My advice was to stick with Google and here is why (using similar examples to keep his situation discreet):
His restaurant makes good money hosting wedding events in his banquet room: bridal showers, rehearsal dinners and wedding receptions. The idea was to target people in his area who’s status just changed to “engaged.”
Makes sense …
Except when you consider how differently people use Facebook from Google. Facebook and Google grab the consumer at different points in the decision/buying process.
Facebook ads target the consumer in the earliest point in the process. They just announced their engagement and are caught up in the bliss and attention that brings them – mostly on Facebook.
They might even click my client’s ad while caught up in all that bliss … why not: it’s fun!
But at that moment, they are not in the buying mode. They click the ad – my client pays for that click – and then they move back to all the cudo’s and comments from their friends and family.
Days … weeks … or even months later, the euphoria dies down to attention to details. They have already clicked our ad, so it will not re-appear. That’s okay, because now that they are ready to buy … the search begins.
Where do people search? On Google. Sure enough, if a couple googled banquets, wedding receptions and a few other relevant terms in a 30 mile radius of my client – his ad pops up first.
Not only that … but his search engine link is at the top, due to excellent SEO tactics.
- Facebook is great at identifying my interests or changes in life (social based)
- Google is great at identifying my need when I’m buying (giving me direction)
Both have extreme value, but for my client Google is better.
I personally love to travel, but just don’t have the time at this stage of my life. So every Facebook travel ad that pops up on my persona page is wasted when I click on it … and I do, because I dream about future travel.
Yet when I have to go to Long Island this weekend for a kid’s baseball tournament – My Google search found me a great hotel and some cool local things to do while on LI.
So how do both have value?
Facebook can plant an idea or seed in my head. A big honeymoon destination place like Sandals or Niagara Falls would benefit from Facebook advertising. The entity as a whole should use this strategy.
But an individual attraction on the Bahama’s or in Niagara Falls would be best to stick to Google.
- Facebook knows you … and can wet your appetite.
- Google knows the market, and can tell you where to eat.