Facebook Ads proves to be the next best thing after Google AdWords. In the first quarter of 2018 alone, the goliath of social media reached a staggering $11.7 billion in advertising revenues. That’s a 50 percent increase year-over-year, despite coming under intense scrutiny for a privacy scandal.

With that said, Facebook’s ad network remains an endless pool of opportunities waiting to be tapped. These opportunities include not only better ad placement at lower cost, but also the chance to engage and connect with thousands to millions of daily active users in your market.

Surprisingly though, many businesses are still hesitant to go down this road. Chances are, they’re already doing paid search and think it’s enough.

But let’s get this straight:

If you’re not advertising on Facebook, you haven’t reached your full potential yet. The good news is that you can ease through the transition by leveraging your paid search data and know-how.

Check out these hacks from our PPC team at Aspire Digital Marketing. 

A Tale of Two Ad Networks

Facebook Ads and Google AdWords are two entirely different ad networks, each with their own merits and drawbacks. The main difference between the two is that AdWords focuses on search intent, while Facebook focuses on awareness.

On Google, users are on a hunt for specific information, so the ads displayed to them match exactly what they need at that exact moment. Facebook Ads, on the other hand, would display ads that match a user’s interests. In other words, AdWords is effective for targeting people who are ready to convert, while Facebook Ads is great for spreading brand awareness to people who may not even know your brand exists.

Beyond search intent and awareness, the two platforms also differ in terms of cost-per-click and cost-per-acquisition, accuracy in audience targeting, ad placement, content, and so on. While inherently different, both allow for a potent marketing mix.

Here are actionable ways to integrate your paid search and Facebook ads campaigns.

1. Leverage PPC big data

Facebook alone has robust audience-targeting capabilities, but Google Analytics lets you collect, monitor, and analyze extensive data across digital channels (both from owned and earned media) to gain consumer insights. It’s so powerful that you can swoop into your market and identify which leads are at which phase of the buying journey, from research to high buying intent. You can also tap into your historical data for audiences that have already converted to craft strategies to engage them further using social media.

2. Repurpose your best PPC ad copy

One striking similarity between the two ad networks, and one you cannot ignore, is how quality is measured. Quality Score (QS) is to PPC as Relevance Score is to Facebook. These metrics define the value and influence of your ad campaigns. The higher your score, the more visibility you’ll get for less cost. To see better results from your Facebook ads faster, repurpose or take inspiration from your PPC ad campaigns that have a high QS.

Don’t underestimate the power of a landing page. Many marketers commit this mistake – they don’t create landing pages for their social ads. Instead, they link ads to the brand’s main Facebook page. While a Facebook page is a great jump-off point that lets the user know more about your brand, a landing page gives a higher chance to drive more conversions. It compels the visitor to act, whether it’s to sign up for a newsletter or take a free trial. So when you run Facebook ads, create dedicated landing pages, as you would in PPC. Apply the same techniques you used in your high-converting PPC ad copies to achieve more success.

3. Social retargeting

Retargeting is a form of marketing born out of Google’s ad network. Its purpose is to follow and keep your brand in front of users that left your website and didn’t convert. You can argue that there’s no place for retargeting in social media because, after all, the platform is more about brand awareness and less about conversion.

Social media, however, is the best place to engage and nurture bounced traffic. You can leverage consumer reviews, video content, and promos to keep them interested until they go back to the shopping cart and convert. The human touch and trust-building possibilities in social media are too precious to overlook.

4. Clone audiences

As mentioned, Facebook’s number one strength is custom audience targeting. You can target audience based on myriad demographic details, including age, sex, location, and interests. Combine these with your PPC data, and the result is a laser-focused ad-targeting power that you can’t achieve anywhere else in the digital marketing world. One way to do so is to leverage search behaviors into social campaigns to attract lookalike audiences. 

Lookalike audiences mean cloning your highest converting audiences or those that have already converted, from one marketing platform and applying them to another. For example, if you’re running a PPC ad campaign for a bathroom remodeling company, and you get the most engagement from women aged 35-55 in the mid-income range, it’s only wise to target this segment for your Facebook ads, as well.

5. Discover your cash cows

Most brands invest in paid advertising to keep selling products that already sell or upsell the best products in a company’s catalog. PPC, for instance, is used by marketers to fast-track seasonal sales. They engage leads using promos, discounts, dynamic landing pages, and value-adding content throughout a strict timeline. As long as there’s high search intent for these products, PPC marketers will ride the hype.

You can apply these principles in paid social to give your new customer acquisition strategies a good boost. Using data in Google Analytics, you can discover products that drive the most revenue on your website. Crafting ad campaigns and imagery based on these top-performing products will put you in a strong position in Facebook ads.

Among all digital marketing strategies, paid search and paid social prove to be the most powerful and cost-effective when it comes to driving leads further down the funnel. They fill the gap that organic inbound efforts can’t creep into. By integrating both platforms, you can grow your quality audience, drive the quality score of your ad campaigns, and make the most of both worlds for better brand awareness and greater conversions.