Google Adwords Vs. Facebook Ads – Part Three! by @dylanbprice and @cpasharp via @intrapromote bit.ly/rN56uo

— Intrapromote (@intrapromote) December 14, 2011

Part Three: What to do with your Qualified Impressions

In our last installment of this series, we discussed how to lead the right people to your virtual door with qualified impressions; this week we will talk about bringing them inside.  How do our two platforms allow us to convert our qualified impressions?

Adwords:

Congratulations, your keyword list is narrowed down and driving traffic so that you are now receiving qualified impressions.  Now that you have qualified impressions, you have to accomplish quite a bit with the 70 characters that Google allows for ads.

(Editor’s note:  I usually don’t encourage run-on sentences (sorry Mrs. Engle) but in this instance it seems to sum it up well)  

You must 1) capture the attention of the reader while 2) including terms relevant to the search and 3) enclose the relevant terms in a phrase that entices readers to click all the while 4) making sure that your ad fits within Google’s rules.  Phew!

Don’t worry though; it’s kind of like Haiku so you’ll get the hang of it pretty soon.  A major help to this process is Google’s ability to run multiple ads in rotation so that you can quickly determine which ads are working better than others.

When these ads are written properly you are on your way to the next step in Google’s process we’re referring to as the “Qualified Click”.

Facebook Ads:

This is the Facebook Ads “wheelhouse”, where they really shine.  Facebook Ads are so non-invasive that any stand-out content is sure to get your target market clicking through.  The annoyance factor of many advertisements on the social networks of the past who shall remain unnamed… *cough* myspace *cough* …had the tendency to run consumers off due to the in-your-face banner-style approach.  One of the largest conversion factors from ye olden networks to Facebook was, in fact, the Ad display structure.

So – how do we pull them in?  Facebook gives many options to the advertiser for this.  You can incorporate video, images, and stories into your advertisements in order to accomplish the conversion.  These are broken down into two subcategories, Sponsored Stories and Facebook Ads.

Sponsored Story

Sponsored Stories should be used in conjunction with a typical Ads campaign in to take full advantage of users who
like your page through the traditional Ads campaign.  When a Facebook user likes your page, their friends will receive the Sponsored Story on their own homepage in a prominent Ad position.

Further, Sponsored Stories will also place your brand’s status updates in that prominent position for your targeted fans.  This is particularly useful when running a large marketing initiative through Facebook.

Traditional Facebook Ad

Facebook Ads is the creative spark in your Facebook Ads campaign.  This is where you can capture your audience with imagery, video and copy.

• Images will appear as thumbnails, so the best bet is to focus the image on one subject.
• Videos will appear in their own player, and will not receive a click-through to your Facebook page if the video thumbnail is clicked.
• Ad Copy titles will need to be 25 characters or less, and the body of the copy is limited to 135 characters.
  

  Facebook Video Ad

Once your creative has captivated your target user, you will need to send them somewhere.  Facebook allows for Ads to be directed to external URLs as well as landing pages within Facebook.  You will need to determine what your ultimate goals are for the Ads campaign in order to determine where to send your constituents.

If you choose to send your new fans to your Facebook page, we highly recommend that a custom tab is built to act as your “Welcome Mat” on your Facebook page.  Many options are available for creating these tabs, and combining a landing page with a social contest or other promotional material is a great way to kick-start a campaign!

These techniques can be as customized as you want to make them, and we don’t have the space to explore them all here, but we would love to discuss the ins and outs further with you and your team!

Are Facebook Ads getting the conversions?  How have you taken advantage of this customize-able system to increase conversions?  Next up in the series: “What a click means for your brand”.

Dylan Bradford Price, Social Media Strategist and Senior Campaign Director, joined Intrapromote in 2008 from an implementation and marketing background in all things geek: telecom, applications development and systems engineering. At Intrapromote, Dylan manages our client’s social campaigns, and is one of the architects for ongoing strategy and development of our client’s social media programs. You can typically find Dylan watching futbol and reading an epic novel series while grilling a gourmet beef tenderloin.

Follow Dylan on Twitter:
Follow @dylanbprice

Brent Sharp is our money guy. He makes sure we all get paid so we all like him quite a bit and shower him with baked goods whenever possible. He has been with Intrapromote since 2003 and he came to Intrapromote with a degree in business management and 7 years of experience in accounting. He also started up and worked with our paid search team for a while before returning his full attention to the day-to-day operational side of Intrapromote’s business. Need an Excel formula? Brent’s the man. While Brent isn’t the type of guy to enjoy long walks on the beach (although he’s never actually denied it), he has been known to jam out to random tunes in our headquarters and share theories on the latest shows around the water cooler. A geek among geeks, the thing that makes Brent happiest is when one of us turns in a budget proposal for review and we’re more than happy to oblige. Brent likes to blog about PPC news, search engine development and cool apps that he’s discovered.

Follow Brent on Twitter:
Follow @cpasharp

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