Ask HN: Adwords or Facebook Ads for Small Biz?

[Houston]

If a small biz owner came to you and only had the budget to run ad campaigns through Adwords or Facebook, which ad platform would you suggest they delegate their budget to?

In my opinion, I'd suggest the Facebook ad platform. Why? Because, the small biz owner has complete reign over the area their ads get displayed thanks to the ability to target Facebook users not only by state, but by city, as well; along with complete reign over who sees their ads within those regions thanks to the handful of targeting options Facebook's ad platform offers, like age, gender, marital status, and the like.

The only drawback to their platform is that is it display-centric, rather than search-centric like that of Adwords. While you can target keywords, or "Likes," on Facebook, they really don't hold a flame to the ability to target keywords on Adwords, specifically keywords like, "buy [item]," "chinese restaurant in [city]."

Undoubtedly, a lot more can be said about the merits and shortcomings of both. So, any input on this matter is greatly appreciated.

[imjonathanlee]

I'd say it really depends on the target audience. I think google adwords are definitely more relevant in terms of the exact keywords searched, but facebook isn't bad either. Facebook would be better if it were to target people in a specific location geographically that would most likely spread the word to their friends if the ad interests them. It also depends on the business- would your small business be something that friends would share to each other about? How did the existing clients find out about your small business?

[Houston]

Re: "Facebook would be better if it were to target people in a specific location geographically." Wouldn't that be the case for all small businesses?

It's almost instinctual for people to want to share things that have played a part -- large or small -- in adding to their quality of life. That being said, I don't think it depends on the what type of service the small biz offers, nor the audience that it panders to. Especially not the latter because whether you're selling aardvarks or zyzzyvas, if someone enjoyed their experience purchasing said aardvark or zyzzvya, they'll naturally be inclined to share.

That being said, I'm not exactly sure your last question fits into the equation. Even if the small biz generated most of its clients through mediums like direct mail and the like, that fact alone makes little impact on if the small biz should advertise via social media platforms like Facebook.

The question really boils down to whether or not Facebook ads (being that they're display based) is a better option for small businesses over Adwords, due to the inherent fact that Adwords allows the small biz owner to target specific keywords that essentially act as pre-sell for whatever product or service they offer.

I see a lot of small businesses advertising on Facebook, but mostly for businesses that are no where near where I live. A lot of people would quote the fact that there aren't many small businesses advertising on Facebook as evidence that Facebook is not a good platform for generating customers. I'd say that's more because people are unaware of how to successfully create Facebook ad campaigns to generate those customers than anything.

[unlikelygeek]

My company has used both for a while now and Facebook provides substantially better results for us. What sort of business you are advertising and your target audience will dictate what works best for you. It's been our experience that it will take a few weeks either way for the algorithms to settle into a pattern that works well and any big changes will throw everything off.

[Houston]

Appreciate your input, unlikelygeek.

Question: Can you elaborate on what you mean by, "It's been our experience that it will take a few weeks either way for the algorithms to settle into a pattern that works well and any big chances will throw everything off"?

[unlikelygeek]

Sure,

Recently, we had a FB campaign doing pretty good. We set up a $1000 per day limit and were getting about 5,000 impressions. Since we were getting a really good click through rate on those ads, we doubled spending the following day. Our expectation was that we would get around 10,000 impressions. What happened though, is we still only got 5,000 impressions. Our campaign (unchanged) went from serving at $.20 to $.40 that day.

FB does an excellent job of putting your ads in front of the right people, but it does better with fine tuning as opposed to big changes at one time.

[Houston]

Facebook is a tricky nut to crack.

I have a few questions (and these will go off track of the topic at hand, but can possibly help you): Are you split-testing ad images and ad copies?

What happens is that once you put up an initial batch of ads, Facebook will begin sending impressions. However, it doesn't spread the impressions equally. 1 to 2 of your ads will receive all the impressions.

They don't really respond well to fucking with your campaign once you set it up and the initial run of impressions have been sent.

It seems that this is what you're experiencing.

[ffumarola]

What does your small business owner do? I think that is the most important question.

Are they a commerce company? Adwords. Are they a comedy club? Facebook.

I have experience with both ad platforms, and they are good for VERY different things.

[Houston]

Thanks for the response, ffumarola!

Got some questions, though. In your opinion, why is Adwords better for a commerce company and Facebook better for a comedy club?

The reason I ask is because I could see a way for commerce companies to leverage the Facebook ad platform in such a way that it becomes a better option over Adwords. Namely, you can leverage Facebook's ad platform in ways you can't with Adwords. For instance, you can achieve comparatively lower CPCs by creating a Facebook page for the company, and then use the Facebook page as not only a funnel towards whatever the company wishes their prospective customers to do, but as a way to closely interact with their established customers.

But, again, I can definitely see where you're coming from. I guess the question boils down to where Facebook falls into the context of expanding a business.

So, open question to all: What type of companies are better suited for delegating their online advertising budgets to Facebook, and what type of companies are better suited for delegating their online advertising budgets to Adwords?