A lot of businesses wonder which of the many pay-per-click platforms to use. Which one is the best? Should we use Google, Facebook, something else?
Many people for instance tell me they advertise on Facebook simply because there are hundreds of millions of people using it. However, that is not a good reason to use a certain platform. You may think a Porsche is the best car you can buy, and it very well might be for certain things. But if your job is to haul cargo, a Porsche is not the ideal car.
The choice of platforms to advertise on depends on your goals and objectives. Search engines are always best to start out with because people go there to find things, including what you may be selling. It’s all about reaching your audience.
Social media sites like Facebook are used more for generating awareness and if you can target your audience, so much the better. But not all platforms do this well. Therefore, part of your decision to use a platform or not is how well you can target your audience.
For instance, I had a client selling power tool parts. When someone needs a part to fix their circular saw, they go on a search engine to search for that part. Usually they need it now. Advertising on Facebook, you need to target those using circular saws, if that’s even possible. If successful, you are then hoping they need to fix their saw. It’s unlikely they need to at that precise moment. Thus, you hope that when they do need parts, that they remember and think of you. For this, you need to constantly advertise on the platform. If they are not on Facebook but other social media sites, or none at all, you can’t reach them.
So advertising on Facebook for this business is not ideal, not unless there is a group discussing circular saws and then you are still only creating an awareness that can be fleeting. The best advertising in this case would be to use search engines.
I always tell clients that Google, being the largest and most well known search engine, is where you should be advertising at a minimum. People go there to search and you want to be in front of them when they do.
Of course, Google is not the only search engine. It does control most of the market but you may be leaving 20% or more on the table. I therefore recommend to also use Bing, cover most of your bases. Then, cover all the bases by advertising on social media sites, if it makes sense.
The big advantage with Google is that they offer many options. They have search of course on their search engine. They also have a vast ad network of at least a few million websites to advertise on, should that make sense for your business.
Another option is Yelp. People go there to review and do research on businesses they are thinking of using. Yelp has their own advertising platform and it makes sense to advertise there to lure away those checking out your competitors.
Restaurants would do well to advertise on Waze, since many people use the platform. It can be used for geo-fencing advertising where you can promote those physically close to your business. A B2B business would be advised to use LinkedIn.
So which platform or platforms to use is not an either/or decision. There are of course standards like Google but they can be a few more depending on your type of business. It only makes sense to cover all your bases and use multiple platforms, providing you’re not stretching your advertising budget too much.