Eternal battle or steadfast allies in sales generation?
It depends.
Needless to say, for a number of technical and performance reasons, I prefer Google Ads to Meta Ads, hands down.
It's important to stress one point now: both platforms work and generate results if handled by professionals, but most of all, it depends greatly on the product you are selling.
Meta Ads can deliver outstanding results in the B2C e-commerce sector for products priced below €150.
Why?
It's very simple – it's called impulse buying. That's why when I help out digital marketing staff, we focus campaigns on the days when our target gets their paycheck and at times when the little ones are asleep. We want our target to have the means and the calm to be able to make an impulse buy.
In some very specific sectors, Meta Ads lead generation campaigns also offer compelling results.
Of course, Meta Ads does offer a lot of visibility, impressions, views, interactions... all words too far removed from my favourite word: conversions (click here to read the article The Importance of Measuring Conversions in Google Ads).
Meta Ads has tried – and failed – to make it possible for anyone with a business to advertise on their own. Over the years I've seen it all – promoting a hotel in Lisbon on Instagram when I was already on my trip to Lisbon, remarketing products I had already bought, products for scuba diving in mountain locations... a complete mess.
It's also true that with very small budgets, local businesses can promote themselves in the area and showcase their products, dishes, etc. on Meta products (Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network, Messanger, etc.). Some of my clients have active Meta Ads campaigns solely and exclusively for brand or product awareness.
But of course, all marketers who have experienced, like us, the 2013-2018 social media wave know that Meta Ads (formerly Facebook Ads) has lost strength, interest and performance for various reasons such as generational changes, changes in purchasing power and shifting interests in general.
When someone is scrolling on Instagram or Facebook or any social media platform (let's include LinkedIn and Twitter/X), they are not actively searching or in purchase mode.
When someone is searching Google for a hotel in Istanbul, a gardener for their garden, an interior designer, what to do today in their current location, they are already in purchase mode. Their mind and predisposition are already in a place to generate the lead, purchase or booking, even before the ad comes up.
Why?
Because they are looking at Google right now for an answer to their need. Not yesterday, not tomorrow. Now.
That's why the conversion rates of Google Ads campaigns are unrivalled in the world of digital marketing.
Another element that we've detected over the last few years, talking to other experts at the various Meta and Google HQs in Dublin, Ireland and in the countless video calls we make, is that there is a very interesting segment of the population that does not use social media, and it tends to be a segment with high/very high purchasing power and a natural predisposition for shopping, novelty and travel.
I provide support, when necessary, in analysing and creating Meta Ads campaigns for my customers, installing pixels and measuring the results as a mere support to the main campaigns – which are, without a doubt, Google Ads campaigns.
The choice to specialise in Google Ads is neither personal nor a matter of taste – it's about choosing a platform where you have complete control over all elements of your campaigns and where you can measure results down to the smallest detail.
People who contact us are not looking for millions of video views or thousands of interactions on a post. They are looking to increase revenue and generate quality leads, bookings and sales – what we call conversions:
And yes, we have generated 375,000 conversions for our clients through our Goole Ads agency account at Biriwuanga.
On to the next conversion with Google Ads!
Dean.