

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

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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.

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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?

