What’s the difference between Paid Search vs Paid Social?
Paid Search refers to advertising on search engines such as Google or Bing while Paid Social is the type of advertising for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, and other social media platforms.
Today, we’re gonna discuss the 5 key differences between the two. Buckle up, here we go!
? Ad Options
While Paid Social offers you a wide range of creative-focused content including images, videos, and text in multiple formats, Paid Search is mostly restricted to text. You can use images too but in limited placements. As a result, you have more formats to work with when using Paid Social compared to Paid Search.
? Sales Funnel
You can find your audience in the middle of the funnel for Paid Search because they know what to search for. However, this method is more expensive. As for Paid Social, your audience will be at the top of the funnel with lower CPMs. Impressions in general will be cheaper. For instance, you can get a 50% lower cost per lead with Paid Social, but with Paid Search you’re typically going to down funnel conversion rates.
❌ Limitations
Because Paid Search relies on search engines, you are limited by the amount of keyword inquiries for your ad. There’s only so many people who will search for your target keywords per month. In a similar way, Paid Social suffers if people aren’t interested in the product you’re selling. Your success lies in the volume of people who care about your product and how you’re storytelling that benefit to those people.
? Pay
Paid Search pays for clicks which means you only pay when people click on your ad. Paid Social, however, pays for impressions. So you’re paying for every single impression whether the audience clicks on your ad or not. This is why you need to work on delivering a good creative and a good copy. These are imperative to the success of your ad.
? Delivery
When it comes to delivery, Paid Search drives faster results because it’s made for people who already know what they want and are ready to purchase. They’re at the middle to the end of the funnel as mentioned above because they know exactly what to search for on Google.
Paid Social, on the other hand, is for people at every step and every corner of the process. It’s for those who’ve never heard of your business, those who know you but don’t know how they can benefit from you, those who want to purchase from you today, and more.
So, Paid Search vs Paid Social? Which advertising method would you prefer? Have you had any experience with either?
Scale your campaigns with Facqt today! Join our Webinar and set up a call with us. For our latest Social Ad Reviews, click here.
