With the rapid evolution and expansion of digital marketing, brands often face the dilemma of selecting the most suitable advertising avenues for their organisation.
Among the numerous options available are LinkedIn Ads and Google Ads. A digital marketing agency in Dubai often decides to concentrate their marketing efforts on one or both platforms, depending on their budget.
Certainly, you have the option to seek guidance from a LinkedIn Advertising Agency or a skilled Google Ads strategist. Alternatively, you can experiment with both platforms to determine which aligns best with your preferences, as they are both user-friendly. A digital marketing agency can help you set up ads, either on LinkedIn or on Google.
If you are unsure about which ad option to choose, this guide will outline the advantages and disadvantages of each to assist you in making an informed decision.
Comparing Google Ads and LinkedIn Ads
Deciphering the nuances of different digital marketing platforms can sometimes pose a challenge in determining the best option for your needs. Google Ads and LinkedIn ads share some similarities, but there are important distinctions between the two. If you want to effectively target a wide range of users, you can advertise with Google Ads as part of your strategy.
Identifying The Target Audience
One significant difference between the two platforms lies in their target audience. Google Ads is effective for reaching both businesses and consumers, while LinkedIn is mainly geared towards B2B marketing.
Google Ads enables targeting web users comprehensively, leveraging its status as the leading search engine to reach users across various platforms. Given the vast audience potential available, some marketers might overlook the value of LinkedIn ads. However, before disregarding them, it’s worth considering the following…
LinkedIn is a business-oriented social media platform with specialised tools to assist in promoting your brand to your target audience of professionals. The platform is utilised by an impressive 930 million users globally.
It’s important to note that although LinkedIn is not limited to B2B members, it mainly caters to them, so B2C brands are encouraged to direct their advertising campaigns elsewhere.
Understanding User Intent And Solving Problems
Google’s search engine is designed to enable users to search for products, services, or information, typically to address a specific issue, making it attractive to marketers.
While many LinkedIn users may not utilise the platform for troubleshooting, it’s important to note that the other functionalities of LinkedIn can be highly lucrative for advertisers as they align with professional challenges.
Individuals can access their LinkedIn account to post or search for job opportunities, expand their professional connections, share company updates, and utilise the platform as an extension of their business website or service. Marketers can enhance LinkedIn’s detailed demographic information to focus on the most profitable audiences.
Options For Segmenting Your Audience
Another point of comparison between the two platforms is their segmenting options. Google Ads provides you with the following choices:
Engagement With Website/App
Studying consumer behaviour, technology trends, preferences, and demographic data.
Place
Although it may appear overwhelming, the selection is quite broad and lacks specificity, which could pose challenges for brands operating in niche markets or targeting a very particular audience.
When using LinkedIn, the segmentation options allow you to significantly refine your target audience. Segmenting areas such as location, industry, job title, interests, groups, education, experience, seniority, and more are considered in the analysis.
LinkedIn offers a valuable feature known as Matched Audiences, enabling users to combine their email lists and website visitors with LinkedIn members.
Types of Advertising
The two platforms offer different numbers of ad types. Google Ads has a greater number than LinkedIn Ads, which includes:
- Call-Only Ads:
These refer to direct click-to-call advertisements that exclusively target mobile device users.
- Introducing Shopping Ads:
These ads include a description and an image that expands to reveal more imagery and product information when clicked or hovered over.
- Product Shopping Ads:
These showcase a product image, title, description, store name, price, and additional information upon clicking.
- Video Ads:
These are self-explanatory. These ads can appear as standalone or in-stream on websites affiliated with Google.
- Ads Promoting Apps:
These aim to drive users to download an app from Google Play or a Google partner’s app store.
- Images:
Images can be either static or immersive, allowing users to click on them.
- Responsible Ads:
Responsible ads can be either text or image-based advertisements that are created to automatically fit various ad space sizes.
- Text:
This advertisement consists of text only, without any images or graphics.
LinkedIn Provides:
- Lead Generation Forms:
These advertisements mimic small surveys, using autofill to collect contact information (especially email) for future targeting by the advertiser.
- Dynamic Ads:
These are personalised native advertisements that are exclusively displayed on desktop devices.
- Text Ads:
These PPC (pay-per-click) ads appear in the margin or inline area of your LinkedIn feed.
- InMail Sponsored:
Presented as personal messages, InMail on LinkedIn cleverly lures users to engage with sponsored content that resembles a friendly direct message. These native advertisements will appear directly on your feed.
Google Ads vs LinkedIn: Which Platform Is Better?
For B2B advertising, different platforms can show promise, and there isn’t a clear superior choice. The decision depends on the specific circumstances of the B2B marketer.
Choosing the best option for your brand will be determined by your budget, objectives, industry, and target demographic. LinkedIn offers precise targeting for B2B advertisers, but running campaigns can be costly, making Google Ads a potentially more budget-friendly option. Due to the lack of specificity in targeting, the quality of the leads you attract can be inconsistent.
In the end, marketers should utilize both channels for a period and evaluate which one aligns best with your brand’s specific requirements and situation before initiating a campaign.
Conclusion
LinkedIn and Google Ads are both significant players in the Pay Per Click industry, and utilising either one or both can effectively promote your brand.
Nevertheless, each option has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, the most suitable choice would be to assess your company’s specific requirements and circumstances and decide based on the details outlined in this article. You can get in touch with a digital marketing company in Dubai to seek help.
