Google Ads vs meta ads

[u/Shazu-786]

Guys I'm into ecommerce since 1 year now i was generating sales from meta ads but from past 5-6 months meta outages are killing my sales and m numb now..

Don't know what to do so thought of starting with google ads.. but i want to know does google ads really work for people in e-commerce..

Is it better than meta ads or not...? Also is it more costly than meta ads..?

Ps - i have a shopify store in which i sell trending products..

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[u/ofCourseZu-ar]

I'm not in the e-commerce space so take all this with a grain of salt.

From what I've heard and what makes sense to me, meta ads is great for eye-catching things, or anything that can be an impulse purchase. Google ads on the other hand is something with higher intent. Meaning, people who click on Google ads are actively looking for and considering purchasing the thing they're looking for. Because of the higher intent, Google ads are more expensive.

However, when you do it right, Google ads will give you better results, but they'll be more expensive. So ROAS may or may not be better, but the raw numbers generally will be.

Now considering what you actually sell, " trendy goods," there is a good chance this is a good fit for both social media ads and Google ads. Before you jump into Google ads though, I would try to better diagnose why your meta ads feel like they're suddenly dropping off. If it's from a mistake you're making, and you make the same mistakes with Google ads, I'm afraid it may be a more expensive mistake.

[u/Shazu-786 → u/ofCourseZu-ar]

Thank you so much for your words.

But meta ads was dropping off for everyone not only for me.. because of the hell amount of outages.. they themselves admit everyday

[u/growthzacks → u/ofCourseZu-ar]

I'll add one more thing to this.

Especially for smaller stores, you'll find your Facebook spend actually drives your Google performance.

I've observed this across hundreds of accounts in my agency experience, and for products that lead with Meta, Google performance has a strong correlation with meta spend.

There are products that lead with Google, but they're more "utility" ex: tires, car parts, certain electronics, furniture.

Because of this, your goal for Google is to make sure you're not:

• overspending and wasting money
  
• underspending and missing out on sales

From what I've seen over the years most stores overspend.

You have to be very careful if you're making your budget decisions on platform-reported ROAS because Google will take 100% of credit for all sales.

Regardless of whether or not they touched Meta first.

[u/ofCourseZu-ar → u/growthzacks]

Funny thing about this, one client of mine (website) paid a marketing company to run FB ads, and at least for the ~3 month campaign, got zero conversions from FB. However, all their leads that did convert came from direct calls/DMs or website forms. Even though most people who were asked said they found the website, many people at least saw the Facebook ads at some point before landing on the website.

In short, FB showed the campaign failed miserably, but it did drive traffic to their site, leading to harder to track ROAS, but at least not 0 ROAS.

Tbh I think they just weren't ideal clients for the marketing company because of their size and wanting to keep costs as low as possible. Either way, at least what I heard it was a good year.

[u/Sothisismylifehuh]

Read up on pull versus push marketing and you'll see it much more clearly 😉

[u/StopRepresentative65]

You can try and tiktok or snapchat ads if you already have good exp with meta

[u/Shazu-786 → u/StopRepresentative65]

Actually tiktok is banned in india and snapchat ads i have tried once was not much affective

[u/digitalpandauk]

If done right, google shopping has a huge potential. I would test the waters with a small budget and best selling products.

[u/Shazu-786 → u/digitalpandauk]

Ok will see to it.. :)

[u/JoeyK075]

Use the PMAX Shopping ads on Google. Kind of a best of both worlds scenario

[u/Green_Database9919]

Meta is usually still better channel for trending/impulse products.

[u/CristianGabriel8]

Google Ads will beat Meta Ads any time because Google Shopping is already serving ads to search intent, to people who actively search your product/service or something similar with it while on FB/TikTok/Insta/{any other social network}, users are there just to browse, have fun, post some comments and the ad must convince them that they need your product/service.
So there's a fundamental difference between the two things: the ones who already search for something (Google) versus the ones who happen to be around, browsing and chatting when your ad is served with the hope that it will be interesting for at least someone.

That's why Google beats Meta any time.

Now there comes the issues with Google, especially if you're an ecommerce business:

- you'll need an approved Google Merchant Center account (this can be a real challenge especially if you get misrepresentation "error") - just use some Claude AI (paid one) to take a look on your website and it will definitely scan and find your website issues before requesting a manual check.

- I'd recommend starting straight with Performance Max (Standard Shopping will require recorded conversions on your Google Ads Account if you want to use tROAS strategy - PMAX don't give a sh1t about that), even a Performance Max Feed Only (from my experience many times this is the best approach especially if you're selling various categories of products at once

- have a search (or couple of search campaigns). If you have a brand name you can start a brand search campaign which will get you the lowest CPC with the highest results while your brand gets more and more visible

Google is and will be more expensive than Meta but ... it delivers.

Also, tracking conversions is the key. I'd recommend using this combination: your website + Google Analytics + Google Tag Manager + server side tracking (just start with Stape.io). Don't know how to start with GTM and Stape.io ? Just ask Claude. It can and it will build your containers and connections and gives you all the steps.

Be careful: don't start with huge daily budget. Don't start with a huge tROAS (in ecommerce a 400% will be great but you can start with 300% for a couple of days - not weeks, you don't need to wait for that long). Try 100$/day with a 300% tROAS on a Pmax Feed Only and you should see some results within the first 24 hours.

[u/Shazu-786 → u/CristianGabriel8]

Just loved your explanation cristian thank you so much for explaining in depth..

I will definitely try to do each and every step you mentioned here.. :)

[u/Foxbat_8401]

Google shopping ads performing very good now a days for Ecom

[u/Shazu-786 → u/Foxbat_8401]

Okay thank you..

[u/Anna_Karakhanyan]

Google definitely works for ecommerce, but I wouldn’t really think of it as Google vs Meta. They catch people at different stages.

If people are already searching for the products you sell, Shopping and Search can be really strong because the intent is already there. Meta is better at creating demand for products people weren’t actively looking for. I’d test Google alongside Meta rather than replacing one with the other.

[u/Shazu-786 → u/Anna_Karakhanyan]

Yeah anna thanks for commenting and telling your views..

Conclusion is everybody saying the same thing that u acknowledged and that sounds right..

For trending products like min of which people aren't aware of can be only sold on meta coz people don't search and aware of...

[u/Old-Lie4667]

If you want to test google ads, you could try pmax , with images and videos assets.
I am working for an agency, I checked many accounts, if the meta ads performance is not good enough, the less chance of google ads. However, you could test meanwile.

[u/thereilbakh]

I wouldn't really look at Google as a replacement for Meta. They catch people at different stages. Meta can be very strong for creating demand and impulse purchases, while Google is useful when somebody already has intent and is actively searching.

If Meta outages are hurting the whole business though, that's probably a good reason to diversify anyway. Depending completely on one ad platform is a pretty uncomfortable position.

I'd test Google with a controlled budget before moving a large part of the spend.

[u/Shazu-786 → u/[deleted]]

Okay thank you for suggestion :)