Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads: Which is a Better Option for your Dropshipping Store

Gone are the days when marketers would only have a handful of advertisement platforms to explore. Now, with the advancement in technology and digital marketing, it has become easier than ever to reach out to our audience.

For instance, people often get confused between advertising platforms like Facebook and Google. Therefore, in this post, I will compare Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads from different perspectives to help you pick a preferred marketing channel.

Google Ads 101: The Basics

Before we draw a detailed Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads comparison, let’s understand some basics. Google Ads has been around for a long time and serves searched and non-searched based Google-owned platforms.

Let’s say you sell women’s shoes on your online store. Now, you can bid for related keywords (like “buy women’s shoes”) to display your ads on search pages. As a result, you can redirect the audience from Google to your store. Besides that, you can also share the location of your store or its phone number to get more leads.

To do this, you can simply take the assistance of the Google Ads Manager. Please note that you follow a “pull” marketing approach here as you are pulling your leads from Google to your website.

Facebook Ads 101: The Basics

Just like Google Ads, let’s quickly uncover the basics of Facebook Ads. Using this dedicated tool, you can run advertisements on Meta-owned platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

In this, you can simply set up a dedicated budget for your marketing campaigns and select your audience’s demographics. Now, based on its research and analytics, Facebook will automatically target your key demographic audience with ads. These ads would be in the form of photos, videos, stories, and so on.

To help us recognize these ads, a “sponsored” tag is mostly displayed at their top. These ads are often customized and will largely depend on your browsing experience, age, location, gender, and other parameters. Since Facebook automatically pushes these ads to its customers, it follows a “push” marketing model.

Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads: Detailed Comparison

Great! Now when you know the basics of both these platforms, let’s perform a realistic Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads comparison.

Size of the Audience

This is the most important thing that most advertisers look for while selecting a platform. The good news is that both Facebook and Google are giant platforms with a global reach. While Facebook has more than 2 billion monthly active users, Google is used by over 3 billion people every day.

I would recommend having an advertising strategy in mind beforehand and evaluating your target audience. In this way, you can easily understand which platform is mostly preferred by your audience.

With Facebook Ads, you can reach out to Meta-owned platforms like Instagram and Facebook. On the other hand, Google Ads can be used to run advertisements on YouTube and Google search, which has a bigger audience base.

Targeting Audience

Don’t make the rookie mistake of assuming that the bigger the size of the platform, the bigger your target audience would be. Remember, you need to make some marketing efforts to filter your leads and customers from billions of Google and Facebook users.

Therefore, when you compare Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads, try to identify the platform that is mostly used by your target audience. To further help us, both platforms provide inbuilt features to filter our target audience based on numerous parameters.

The rule of thumb is quite simple – if you don’t know who your target audience is, then running Google Ads would be better. This is because you are targeting specific keywords typed on Google and not the people who are searching for them. For instance, if you sell baby products, then the searched keywords could be typed by new parents, friends of parents, grandparents, other relatives, and so on.

On the other hand, if you have specific details about your target audience, then Facebook can be a better option. This is because Facebook provides more granular results that will let you target specific customer personas instead of a larger pool.

Backend Technology and User-friendliness

If you are just starting with digital advertising, then it is recommended to spend some time learning these platforms. Both, Google Ads Manager and Facebook Ads Manager are quite easy to use and have extensive learning solutions available.

With the help of Google Ads Manager, you can set up all kinds of ads for Google search, YouTube, Play Store, and other platforms. Just make sure you follow the guidelines of the ads manager in advance. Later, you can simply use Google Analytics to measure the overall performance of your ads.

Compared to Google Ads Manager, learning the ins and outs of the Facebook Ads Manager is relatively easier. You can come up with different campaigns and set up budgets for each ad/campaign. There are provisions to track the ROI of your Instagram and Facebook ads, all included in a single place.

Visual Elements and Ad Placements

Since Facebook is a social platform, its ads are just more visually appealing. When we compare Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads, we discover that the former has an open rate of 90% and a click-through rate of 30%. The improvement in the overall visual aesthetics of Facebook ads is one of the major reasons for the same.

Facebook lets us run ads in the form of pictures, carousel images, videos, stories, and other visually appealing elements. You can choose to run ads on both Facebook and Instagram from one place.

While Google is trying to come up with different ad formats, its text-based search ads still remain the most popular option. They provide just a snippet of your business with other details and a backlink to your website.

Besides that, you can also run direct sales ads on Google that would include a thumbnail of the product and a “Buy Now” call to action. Though, if you want to include more visual elements, then you can consider running ads on YouTube instead.

Costing and ROI

Needless to say, how much you spend on these platforms should be a decisive factor in your marketing plan. When we compare Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads, we discover that Google provides a slightly better ROI. The average cost-per-click for Google Ads is less than $2, but it can be more than $5 in specific cases. Though, the exact number would largely depend on the bidding value of keywords.

On the other hand, running Facebook ads can get a bit expensive with an average customer acquisition cost of around $10. In some cases, brands have to spend more than even $100 to acquire customers. The exact value would vary on numerous factors, but Facebook seems to have a higher ad cost than Google overall.

Other Factors

Apart from that, there are a couple of other factors that you should consider while comparing Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads. For example, buyer intent is another primary factor to consider while selecting a preferred platform. Facebook is mostly used to create brand awareness while Google can help you improve the purchase intent of your audience.

Similarly, you can also consider your overall familiarity and experience with any platform. Both platforms also provide some unique ad placements – like Facebook offers Messenger ads while Google offers shopping ads.

Explore DSers to Make the Most of your Online Store

With the right marketing and advertising platform, you can easily reach out to your audience. Though, if you want to have a product-rich online store, then consider exploring DSers. It is the official AliExpress dropshipping platform that is freely available and is super-easy to use.

• DSers offers thousands of suppliers in different categories so that you can easily pick the right product for your store.
• The tool also offers a unique Supplier Optimizer feature that will let you handpick the most profitable supplier for any product.
• There are tons of advanced features like an automatic update of order statuses or tracking of syncing numbers.
• DSers has tons of other resourceful features like bundled products, variant making, stock management, and more.
• DSers is the official AliExpress dropshipping tool that is fully compatible with Shopify, Wix, and WooCommerce.

Over to You

This brings us to the end of this extensive post on Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads comparison. In nutshell, while Google Ads follows a “pull” service to attract your leads, Facebook Ads implements the “push” marketing model.

Therefore, I would recommend exploring both of them and setting specific budgets in advance to get better results. Also, you can consider exploring DSers to find the right products to sell and manage your store like a pro.