When it comes to paid advertising for most small businesses and startups, there's two main places we advertise, and they couldn't be more different.
Facebook & Instagram
Google Search
Facebook & Instagram is what we call a "discovery" platform. Google Search is focused around "intent".
(Disclaimer: Yes, there's TV, radio, billboards, email, print, and a hundred others, but for most small businesses, social media and search is the first place we start because you can start with very small budgets and see immediate results.)
First, let's talk about Intent:
Intent is deliberately looking for something.
Think of the Yellow Pages: pizza restaurants, plumbers, accountants.
These are things you need right now.
Water is leaking through your ceiling and you need a plumber ASAP. Or, you're in the mood for Chicago-style pizza and don't know any off the top of your head, you'll do a quick search and see what comes up. Once you find what you're looking for, you take action right away.
Quick Results but Expensive:
These kinds of campaigns can quickly show results, but it might be expensive since your competitors are likely doing the same thing. When you both bid on the same keywords in Google search, the price goes up since it's an auction.
If this is your only method of marketing, let's hope you have good margins because this can get expensive, but it's a great place to start. If you sell a product or service that people are actively searching for, you should definitely have this as part of your ad strategy.
The limitations of volume:
With intent-based campaigns, you have to wait for the person to search for the thing you offer. If they don't search, you can't show your ads. Maybe there's a lot of search volume, if so, there's enough for everyone. If not, you're going to be limited by the number of people who search, and you'll need to look elsewhere to drive the kind of volume you need.
Now, let's talk about Discovery:
Discovery means stumbling upon something you didn't know you needed, or even existed.
Think of the Home Shopping Network and old TV informercials: the ginsu knife, thigh master, the sham wow, the snuggie.
No intent to look for you:
Nobody was searching google for a snuggie, because they didn't know it existed until they saw the ad. At the very least, people are looking for "gift ideas" and they'll discover something fun, but they don't know it exists, so they can't search for it.
It takes an investment:
Both in time and money, if you can keep your foot on the gas, you will see results:
Build awareness: they know your brand, your products, and their benefits, etc.
Consistency: always running your ads, and people are seeing them frequently enough
Continuity: your ads are similar enough for people to recognize (branding, colors, etc.)
Quality: the ads are good (Pavlov's dog wouldn't salivate if it didn't like the taste of meat.)
The prompt:
In contrast to a Google Search where they're taking action themselves, with discovery-based ads on Facebook, you can scratch them right where they itch and get them to take action with little effort. We call this the "Call To Action".
Example:
"Are your pots and pans old and hard to cook with? Our new pots and pans have a special non-stick coating that makes cleanup a breeze, they're lightweight, high quality, inexpensive, and look beautiful."
If they've thought about buying a new set, this may be all they need. If you wait until they search, now you're competing with everyone else on Google. But using Facebook, gives you an opportunity to "upstream" the competition, and make your case on your terms--instead of trying to do that on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
Long-term benefits:
If you're a pizza restaurant, or a plumber, or an accountant, if you run "discovery" ads long enough, when they need you, they may skip the "Yellow Pages" and go straight to you. Or, if they do go to the Yellow Pages, they'll most likely choose you over the competition because you're familiar.
Building familiarity:
The more people see your ads, the more familiar with your brand they'll become. Over time, this turns into trust.