Google AdWords Vs. Facebook Ads: Which One Should You Pick?

The study conducted by the company incorporates a head-to-head comparison of Google’s advertising business to that of Facebook on criteria including ad reach, ad revenue and ad performance in 2012.

Below are a few highlights from the research:

Reach
Both Google AdWords and Facebook ads have voluminous reach, with the former owning about 44.10% of the global online ad market share, whereas the latter with a mere 3.10%. On the contrary, Facebook ads outclassed AdWords in the US online ad market in the last quarter of 2012.

Revenue
Facebook still lacks far behind in terms of online ad revenue due to the fact that Google owns the world’s largest online ad network. But interestingly, the average revenue from top ten advertisers was relatively higher for Facebook (3%) than Google (1.02%).

Performance
The average global Click-through Rate (CTR) for AdWords (2.00%) was over twice as high as the Facebook Ads (0.05%). On the other hand, the Cost per Impression (CPM) on Facebook has started gaining the momentum.

Although the numbers suggest that Google currently offers the digital advertisers more value in terms of ad formats and results, Facebook cannot be dismissed at all given the total number of users and the average time spent per unique visitor. Which one’s a better fit, ideally depends upon your organization’s overall advertising objective and approach.