Let’s Sort out Pay-Per-Click Spend
As always – this one is for you, dear client. I know I mostly write nonsense, but recently we’re seeing an increasing shift towards paying for Ads online. It’s like the great unknown is waking up and realising that it’s true what the mega giants have been saying all along, Anyone can do this.
I want to put an opinion out there about Pay-per-Click Ads or PPC as it is commonly known, or just Adwords as it’s incorrectly known. (Google changed the name about three years ago to Google Ads – just to shake things up a bit).
What’s the problem then? We’ve all known that it’s easy to advertise on Google, we’ve known this for years. Equally, it’s easy to advertise on Facebook or Meta or whatever you want to call it on Social. In fact, I am starting to suspect that one of the main reasons all PPC advertising is starting to flourish is because of all these names it’s been given. Languishing in the background even Microsoft is doing it on Bing, whatever that is. Let’s start, then, by saying I am going to ignore Microsoft/Bing altogether, sadly. This is no offence to Microsoft, but a) one does not really get a result when spending on Bing, or particularly any traction and b) People who use Bing tend to do it by default on whatever computer they have because they are unaware they can change their Browser. No offence to the elderly, it’s not their fault, but perhaps I should save this topic for another Article.
Budget Split
The purpose of this article is to discuss the advertising budget split that might seem sensible for generating a bit of business. But let’s be focused here… why spend at all?
We’ve been building websites for 27 years now, might have to celebrate when we reach the big 30. But in the meantime of the many things we’ve learnt is that surprisingly in tough times we do well. As economies and the world we know collapse’s so people turn to marketing. It’s a sort of fundamental rule of the road. Any successful ‘small’ business kinda puts their marketing on the back burner while they work out how to deliver whatever it is they do.
It makes sense. Why spend money when you’re doing well? Most business owners know they need to keep up the pressure and think of tomorrow, but generally they are often overwhelmed and to busy to start thinking of next year’s Christmas Advertising campaign. Life just does not work that way.
However, run into a few problems, start losing money and marketing comes to the forefront and choices start to rear up. Spend or go cheap, capitalise on past experience or reach out to a new audience.
What I want to do is simply suggest why you should consider putting most of your budget into Google rather than Social Media.
Intent
This is the key lesson to learn from this article. what is Intent? It is the great WHY? in the sky. Why does someone do something online. I’m well aware that Intent has a perfectly normal meanting in the english dictionary, but as usual the word has been tranfigured online into something almost completely different.
Online Intent is the great descriptive word for the reason why people might do something online. Why are they doom scrolling on TikTok, why are they asking Alexa to set a Timer, why are they browsing the Intenet at 2am in the morning. These are the great marketing questions of the age.
And the job of Marketing is to provide the answers in the form of Adverts. However, we should bear in mind that Adverts is also a very loose term, something that is increasingly just called content. Another word marketeers have commendeered for online activity.
So next time you are thinking of boosting your Instagram post just think why would anyone want to click on it. And this s the great advantage of Google as it stands today, it may of course change in the future, but right now with AI on everyones mind we are entering a phase of who does what.
Who does what?
- Google – Masters of Intent. This appears to us to be the deal at the moment. Google organises the worlds Information, look anything up and you’ll find answers, need something, Google will know where to find it. And this means anyone who wants a problem solved will look to google and this is espcially true if you are looking for facts or to buy something, either a product or a service. Google tells people how to get stuff done.
- AI – Masters of Knowldge. AI is a glorfied school teacher on steroids, ask AI anything and you’ll get the answers. But you may not necessarily get the links. That’s important (and changing I suspect). But ask AI where to buy a specific product for a specific reason and it becomes more limited. Ask it to re-write your essay and AI is the clear winner. People visit AI to get authoritive answers to difficult tasks, but it will not do the task the task for you and actually pointing you in the right practical direction is still in its infancy.
- Facebook – Increasing irrelevant. Facebook is currently struggling to find it’s place in the world, previous the place to share photos with friends in a private manner, Facebook is less used, It reamins a good connector of friends, and indeed that is probably why people would turn to Facebook today, to look at what other people athey know are doing. The rest is time wasting entertainment, nothing wrong with that, but people do not land on Facebook to ‘solve a problem’. The intent is about their friends.
- Instagram – Masters of Brands. Originally set up just to share photos of your connections Instagram has veered wildly into allow you to follow your favourite bands and brands, whether shopping or listering, Instagram allows you to find out more about the people and brands you like buying from. You cannot compalin about anything, you cannot even really negotiate on Instagram, leave a comment and you’ll rarely get a reply of any use. What’s the Intent – why do people go on Instagram, the answer is mostly entertainment value, it’s almost like watching TV – so the Ads you do see on Instagram can run one of two ways. Either prolific and demanding or awareness and subtle to the point of not quite knowing what they want. Building Brand Awareness is probably the key to any low budget advertising on Instagram. People visit because they want to be entertained not because they are searching for something.
- TikTok/X/SnapChat – All have advertising capabilities, but let’s think about it – why do people visit these sources. Entertainment value slips in obviously, but mostly the more niche the channel two things happen. Firstly, more work is required by the Advertiser to make their Ads, TikTok requires Video for example. Secondly more analysis is required on the audience. Telegram is substantial Russian speaking. So a little like Bing – the marketeer has to consider the work/cost/benefit equation before entering these Channel. And the long and short of it, the more niche usually the bigger deeper pockets the advertiser.
I hope this sums up the why’s of why people visit these various channels, Google is for problem solving, Facebook for Friends and Groups, Instagram for Entertainment and Brand News, the rest more niche.
Rising Meta
Before I conclude my little exposé on how you should split your Budget between these different channels a wrd of warning. It’s easy to think that a significant part of your advertising should be based on where your audience are.
This is old school thinking, just people watch TV does not mean you should advertise on TV. Not any more. All the digital advertising platforms have easily enough viewers to give plent of choice and one can easily hone in on demographics, interests and locations.
Meta’s big selling point for Instagram and Facebook Ads is this is where the audience is and by the way this is where all the other Brands are too… I am afraid that’s nonsense. Advertising needs to be all about the goals and results. The days of spending £’000 on bill boards on the assumption that someone might buy something is over.
Something else I have never quite understood is why someone would choose to spend on and advertising campaign which has no reliable measure of goals.
What has happened, and it’s very clever, is that Meta has re-invented the Advertising platform that is complete hit and miss in terms of results because marketeers have wanted it. I’ll never forget hearing about the Agency that won the Social Media Advertising contract for British Airways and then had no clue how to spend the budget, in fact they couldn’t spend the budget it was so big. This is what Meta has latched onto, Instagram is great as it allows unlimited ad spend for zero result.
That’s harsh, but the effect is the same and true.
The Split – Our Recommendation
It’s all about Intent. Not yours, but your customers. Are you looking for Sales – then go with Google Ads, if people what to buy your product they will respond to Google Ads. If you’re looking for Brand Awareness – look to Meta and probably Instagram.
If you have limited budget – look to Google Ads, Google Ads has extremely defined results tracking that is beliveable, Instagram is a shot in the dark. If Budget is significant you may will run into issues with Google Ads, you may simply not be able to spend the required amount, especially if the product is niche, You may have to include Meta. One hint if this is your problem, go aggressive on Meta, people do not visit Instagram to buy something, but people will respond to impulsive purchases, it depends on your product.
Our recommendation overall is probably a 90/10 split. 90% Google and 10% Instagram, this works for the first £1000 per month spending budget… Also the spent on Instagram should be towards boosting Piosts, in this article have not dived into the whole different types of advertising on Meta. Instead I intending to try and kept this more financial and about intent. The why.
Google Ads you can run somewhat unattended. One advert will last for a long time, you can measure the results and adjust accordingly. You’re problem solving for people that may need your products or services. Google is also useful in a B2B sense as well. Google Ads kinda wins out on Budget just people people visit it to get their tasks done. If you have the answer you need to be found.
Instagram, is about brand, boosting posts firstly concentrates mostly on your existing followers, because it is a Post, it’s entertaining and not a hard sell, Adverts within Instagram tend to be scrolls past and frowned on by users, in fact, there some negative conortations with Instagram Ads.
The only real time Instagram Ads works well is for Brand Awareness – it gets your name out there. But again one has to be careful about building up large numbers of followers, a geninue customer that follows your account is a real source of engagement, they have bought product before they are likely to again. But people responding to an Advert encouraging followers are far less involved with teh brand – they may never become actual customers. The can become deadweight on the account if not careful.
There’s one Social Media Network missing from this article, please feel free to mention it in the comments below, it’s powerful, different and has an advertising platform all of it’s own. It comes into the split for very specific reasons as do all these digital marketing Pay-per-Click platforms. As always with NCompass we think about the Right Tool for the Right Job. So please think about Intent when considering how best to divide up the limited budget at your disposal.