Mountains or beaches?

Tea or coffee?

Were Ross and Rachel on a break?

These are some tough questions. And will remain debatable. 

Similarly, in marketing, there exists a question that is similarly debatable. 

Facebook ads or SEM marketing? Which is better?

And the ultimate question of where to put your money?

However, who is correct? 

The response truly comes down to what we call “purchase intent”.

Do we need to think about our outlook when we Google something versus our intent when we are on Facebook? For instance, assume you are away and searching for a fine dining restaurant, would you go on Facebook or Google? Eateries, hairdressers, coffeehouses, and so forth would improve SEM more than Facebook because they’re “search-based” organizations versus “display-based”.

What is SEM Marketing? 

Search engine marketing, or SEM, is perhaps the best method for developing your business in an increasingly cutthroat commercial place. With many organizations out there all competing for similar eyeballs, it’s never been more crucial to publicize on the web, and search engine marketing is the best method for promoting your items and developing your business.

Search engine marketing’s biggest strength is that the advertisement is shown to people who are looking to buy that product and are highly motivated to do the same. They are ready to buy at that precise moment. 

This is exactly why search engine marketing has such amazing results on its side and can make your business grow manifold.

What Are Facebook Ads?

It’s difficult to look past Facebook’s scope. With almost 3 billion active users, that is a ton of individuals seeing Facebook promotions every day.

We’re always talking about being targeted with your marketing though, so reach is just one part of the equation. Effective advertising doesn’t reach everybody, it contacts the ideal individuals, and this is the place where Facebook is amazingly helpful.

For detailed targeting, Facebook is almost unparalleled. It knows such a great amount of information about its users, and this data assists advertisers with contacting the right users with the right message.

Advantages of SEM Marketing and Facebook Ads? 

Let us look at the advantages of these two more specifically 

SEM marketing

• High purchase intent (people are looking for the product to buy)
• Cheaper costs per purchase (because of the higher purchase intent)
• Search-based (users looking for you).

Facebook Ads

• Hyper targeting (the ability to target is unmatched)
• Closed Loop: It’s all in one place. You see the ad; you click through; you buy. All within the app. It’s native.
• User base frame of mind: If your ads are compelling, you’ll do well because users go on Facebook to be entertained

Cases When SEM Marketing May Be a Better Option For You

What do you want to achieve? 

If the answer is quick sales, then probably SEM is a better option. Let us take an example of an ad for a gym. 

Here, this ad will be seen by people who are already looking for and searching to join a gym. This part makes the campaign more relevant because it showed the ad to people looking for something similar, therefore they have the potential to buy at that second

Think about it, you would search ‘gyms near me’ or ‘best gym membership deals’ on Google and not on Facebook right?

Cases When Facebook Ads Marketing May Be a Better Option For You

If you are looking for brand awareness, recognition, and a wider audience, then Facebook ads would be a better option. The audience will look at your ad if it is entertaining enough, that’s the reason people come on Facebook, right?

Take an example of Adidas ‘run for the oceans’ campaign. This particular event was popularized via Facebook. They had compelling pictures and they used social media to make sure that their campaign gained momentum. 

Now again, think of the scenario. If you didn’t know about this campaign, you would never google it right (like the gym membership example above)

In this case, Facebook works the best. It creates a buzz and gets people talking about a particular topic. 

Which is Better Facebook Ads or SEM Marketing? 

Both Google Ads and Facebook Ads are extraordinarily strong promoting platforms that cater to basically every kind of business. While assessing every arrangement’s assets and potential applications, it’s also obvious that the two stages ought to be seen in a complementary way, rather than the indifferent ‘this vs that’ way. 

Certain people demand contrasting Facebook Ads with the Google Display Network and keeping in mind that the two stages share a few similarities, the manners by which the two stages have developed independently of each other shows that Google and Facebook ought to be utilized together, not in opposition.

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