Facebook vs Google AdWords Test
 

Interesting results from a large test we recently did promoting a Hardware Store chain through Google AdWords and Facebook Ads.

A total of $45,000 was spent by the customer on the campaign. We split tested many aspects of the campaign , 75% of the expenditure was AdWords, 25% Facebook Ads.

Our results audited by accountants for the firm and analyzed by our advertising team found that the 25% of the budget spent on Facebook ads was 12% more effective in conversions and leads than the 75% spent with AdWords.

As a result, we are completely going back to the drawing board when it comes to recommending Google AdWords to our customers, it seems that for less money Facebook Ads provided better value by a wide margin.

It seems as a vehicle for getting your message to people who will actually take notice that Facebook are doing something right.

Adwords sucks :) I never used facebook, but on the cnbc or msnbc facebook show it looked great, much better, so no wonder you had better results, just wish they had adult ads :)

I might add, this year we have spent almost six figures with AdWords on behalf of our mainstream clients and we still only get Indian call center staff to speak to for support. Most don't know what they are doing and can't escalate issues, they usually tell you to use an email contact form.

I've never used Facebook either, so I'm curious, is their support better? I think people tend to underestimate the importance of a company's customer support until it's too late and find themselves in trouble because of a lack there of.

Thank you for sharing these results, by the way. Very interesting, and very helpful.

I have an account manager with Facebook ads who speaks great English :2 cents:

I never spent anywhere near that much on FB ads that being said the support sucks!
:Oh crap

What were the KPIs, how did you measure the success on FB vs. AdWords? Email list signups, sales, clicks, etc?

I can't go into specifics of the campaign for obvious reasons, however the generality for outcome was measured by direct action by visitors to the targeted site pages and redemption of a coupon which provided the customer with a free product for walking into their nearest store and not needing to make a purchase.

Got ya, yep that's all I was curious about. Thanks, great stuff man!

It's great to see this kind of useful, informative post. It takes me back to ten or fifteen years ago when at least half the posts were quality.

I have a theory about social media Marketing , especially where Facebook is concerned. Offers gain much more credibility when people tell their friends, people can share their experiences more easily.

Think of someone clicking an AdWords ad, visiting a site , redeeming a coupon.
Then compare that to someone clicking a Facebook ad, visiting a site, redeeming a coupon and then telling their friends in the same eco system as they originally found the ad.

Like them or hate them, Facebook is becoming a much more attractive advertising platform for some products because it is a closed eco system.

That said, there are still many campaigns we would only advise our customers to run on AdWords for various reasons, but the results of this particular campaign stood out for the remarkable return received from a smaller advertising investment on Facebook.

A couple of people have ICQ'd me about this thread, just to make it clear, for obvious reasons I cannot give specific details of the campaign, if I started handing out specific customer related details I'd have no customers. What I have posted should be enough.

I also tried facebook ads last year I think it was, and I did not have very good results from it at all the first time.

I think when using facebook ads you are better off sending them to a facebook page rather than an external site which I think was my main problem. I treid it again but sent the traffic to a page made up for the site and it worked better the second time. This was also for mainstream and I did not spend anywhere near the amount of money the OP spent.

Funny, for a mainstream client in the lodging business, Facebook ads ended up being a complete dud...COMPLETE.

Facebook "natural" traffic, far poorer than natural and paid search but we are still pumping it out.

thats interesting. Where you running them in AU or world wide?

we have a number of clients that we put on FB but noticed over the past 6 months, the cost has increased dramatically, to where in some cases AdWords is less.

the thing that is nice about FB is you can specifically target demographics, versus it is not possible on AdWords search (not content). a lot of traffic on Google is people doing research or getting information, not really looking for specific products or services.