Are You Spending Your Marketing Budget Wisely? Paid Search vs. Paid Social Ads

Ready to start advertising your business? Great, but should you use Paid Search Ads, or Paid Social Ads?

Let’s start off with the obvious: both are beneficial.

Door to door sales is a thing of the past, and if we learned anything in 2020 it’s that if your business needs a strong foundation to withstand the unknown, it’s not enough to buy a billboard, you really need to know who’s looking and understand their level of interest within your service.

To begin with pay-per-click advertising, it’s imperative you understand what it is and the benefits of utilizing these platforms.

What is Paid Search?

Google describes paid search as working “to drive traffic to your website through relevant ads.” When a user uses Google, for example, they will enter SERP (the search engine result page), which at any given point will have a list of results for searches that a user has identified an interest in. A company can have both organic or paid results appear on the results page; however, there are limitations and restrictions on both.

Organic search won’t cost you a dime, but it will cost you your time. To even be placed on the first page on Google without ads requires an extensive amount of SEO work, constantly optimizing content on various websites, and rebuilding your business online strategy monthly. To help support your business you can hire an SEO agency or consultant. Other investments would be SEO tools, like Ahers or SEMrush. With all of this extensive time being put in, paid search can instantly generate results. Just as quick as a post goes up, it can generate leads. Like social ads, each platform grants approvals within 24-72 hours. This quick turnaround helps maximize your business’s brand.

Paid search also provides a substantial amount of data. Information like:

  • Location
  • Age
  • Gender
  • KPI metrics
  • Keywords
  • And More

 

 

What is Paid Social?

You’ll notice that paid social has a lot of similarities to paid search. They both support other channels, have expansive data, and accommodates every budget. However, Social has more active users interested in that one search at once.

Unlike paid search, social targets specific individuals based on their engagement with pages, posts, and other users. Considering Facebook and Instagram have a combined 3 billion user count, advertisers have the opportunity to invade users’ newsfeed with the same ad on an average of 3x a day. Social advertising has been compared to other forms of advertising like billboards and TV commercials. These mediums aren’t waiting for users to find them. but instead presenting their services in hopes the message resonates with them. What makes social stand out, is that within the platform businesses can actually track performance, making it easier to determine how people are connecting with your message, so you can further adjust your ad and/or targeting.

 

Where should you invest? 

Everywhere – ideally. Understandably, this model isn’t practical for most companies. Although we do have a solution, and that all depends on how you answer these questions.

  • Where is my target audience finding my business?
    • Do you have a specific service? They’re probably researching someone in their area – best to be on paid search and utilize Google’s free features like Maps.
    • Does your business benefit by utilizing photos? Social will be a better model for your business since those users are browsing similar items.
  • Are you trying to keep costs down?
    • Social’s cost-per-click (CPC), are usually more attainable to manage because of how broad their access to brand awareness is. Less competition in upper-funnel tactics.  However, there is a higher risk because those won’t guarantee more leads, only more impressions.
    • Paid search CPCs may cost more, but due to the accuracy of their lower funnel tactics, will present a higher chance of sales/leads.

 

What paid channel is right for me? 

We haven’t been subtle that you should be utilizing all possible channels. With that being said, identifying what works for you right now is what matters.

When identifying the right channel for your business we look for what you are offering, how would an audience receive your message and your marketing goals. That’s why it is vital that you have a basic understanding of how each platform can benefit you and your business.

Need extra help? Contact us. As a full-service boutique marketing agency, we work together with brands to define and refine their “inner-awesome”, spark connection and inspire action.

Posted in Marketing, Paid Search, Paid Social, PPC and tagged ,