The Demise of Google AdWords
Is it possible we could see that headline in the news any time soon?
Advertising using the big G, Google, can be done by either paying for traffic in what’s called a Pay Per Click advertising campaign which Google brand as AdWords or through the search result naturally showing up in search results through search engine optimisation (SEO).
As the name suggests, Pay Per Click is where the advertiser which is usually the website owner pays Google for each click that it receives from displaying the advert to an internet user that searches for the keywords that they choose when they set up their campaign within their AdWords account.
Developing a successful Google AdWords campaign is both a science and an art and can take months and even years of tracking and testing different keywords, headlines and variations of adverts, so you can get the best return on investment for your advertising spend.
The other method of getting traffic from Google is using the free traffic that comes from the organic search results. Now I know you like the sound of that! Who wouldn’t want free customers coming to their website, right? EXACTLY! However, there is a potentially steep learning curve and implementation period going through a tedious and slightly technical process known as search engine optimisation (SEO). This process serves to enhance your organic (natural) search engine rankings. This is achieved by keyword research and using those keywords as the page title, description and keywords for your web pages and other various elements of your web pages such as audio, video and images.
You could be forgiven for saying that sounded like gargled rubbish. Yes, there is a lot of jargon with search engine optimisation and it can seem as though you need a degree in Computer Science or something to understand all the jargon. However, like anything, it simply takes implementing some key strategies that will optimise your websites ranking in Google searches that relate to your offering’s keywords.
So step aside Google! There’s a new kid on the block which now has more traffic than Google. So who is this “new kid on the block” and how can they help me?
Great question! Some say that Facebook offer a superior PPC advertising medium than Google, but I’m not so sure. There are distinct advantages and disadvantages to both! Allow me to explain…
Google allows you to target use of keywords as the trigger to determine whether the prospect is qualified or not.
Facebook allows you to display an advert based upon the user demographic according to the details that they select on their profiles.
If you want to target people by certain specific keywords, then Google may be your best option whereas if you want to target a certain demographic of people, then Facebook would seemingly be the wise choice. The only true answer is to test the keywords and advertising to see which PPC advertising medium offers you the best return on investment for your marketing spend.
Whilst Google is the #1 ranked website on Alexa.com, Facebook.com is the #2 ranked website. The difference being that when people arrive at Google, they leave Google quickly once they find the page they’re looking for, so it can be considered a starting place. Facebook is a place where people stop for sometimes incredible periods of time social networking with others.
The demise of Google AdWords could be the unthinkable headline of the future if Google don’t watch their backs. My Google AdWords advice is to do thorough keyword research first using a high quality tool such as Market Samurai to ensure that you’re not paying over the odds for highly competitive terms which will soon drain your budget without a good return on investment.
You should also read Google’s terms and conditions thoroughly as they do not allow you to send traffic directly to squeeze pages or affiliate offers. You are likely to be banned from using Google AdWords for a long time for this.
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Wayne – Provocative headline led me to reading the artice, but as an ecommerce merchant that sells mundane products, I think the answer is no, I need to reach potential customers when they are searching with purchase intent. While it is painfully expensive to pay for clicks on Google, I’m getting highly targeted traffic. Facebook advertising does not offer me the capabiility to reach my target audience when they are searching with purchase intent.
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Hi Randy,
Good comments.
Google PPC can be expensive especially if you’re not certain of your metrics such as acquisitions costs and lifetime value of your customer.
Google possibly has more buyer traffic than Facebook if you use buyer keywords in your PPC campaigns.
However, you should be aware that there are extremely cheap ways of getting traffic and building a list from your Facebook ads.
Your focus should really be on driving traffic to build a list and then sell from there. For this purpose, Facebook is much cheaper to acquire a lead if you drive traffic from your ad to your page INSIDE Facebook and then market to the list you build from there.
Wayne Lambert invites you to read How To Get More Fans on Facebook – Part Five
We’ve noticed a similar thing on Facebook – it is highly dependant on the market and intent. It’s great for building awareness, getting branding developed and making a level of contact, but poor for people that are looking to buy a left handed blue widget NOW.
The two are complimentary, and may even be used by the same company or product at different stages in it’s life cycle, as long as the ROI can be shown – however you measure that!
Again, Facebook ads is a better way of building a list of prospects based on demographics and likes.
Google traffic can be laser targeted as long as the keywords are buyer keywords. Most markets are ultra competitive in Google AdWords and therefore very expensive.
Google Images ads are extremely cheap though at the moment since hardly anyone knows about them. They are like Google AdWords ads were in about 2005.
Whoops, I said too much already. :)
Wayne Lambert invites you to read How To Get More Fans On Facebook – Part Six
Hey Wayne,
I think Facebook is a huge threat to Google. Google is missing the information that Facebook has. With Facebook, you can target people that have confirmed they “like” something and they are very responsive to that in my experience.
Facebook is also much more versatile and can be used for list-building as well as sales, like you said. Great article – I was just talking to a friend about this showdown a few days ago.
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Interesting ideas as an advertising medium Stephen.
My ideas are that Facebook is great for targeting based on demographics whereas Google is great for keywords.
I still prefer SEO over both mediums personally although it is a long term strategy. Keep building content, optimising regularly and one day Google sees your site as an authority site and rewards you with rankings, traffic and pagerank to boot.
Google+ looks very interesting as Google will be starting to collect a database of demographic data too, so they will then have demographic data and a search engine, so advertisers can then target keywords and demographics together.
Yes, they have a long way to catch up with Facebook’s 700 million users, but they can advertise it from the Google homepage, Gmail and YouTube to get exposure to billions quickly.
They can also advertise on TV to get the masses on board like they are doing with Google Chrome.
Will be interesting Stephen.
By the way, I think you’re doing a good job of building your community on your blog. Keep at it!
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“If you want to target people by certain specific keywords, then Google may be your best option whereas if you want to target a certain demographic of people, then Facebook would seemingly be the wise choice.”
That statement is the best way to explain which campaign you should use.