Adopting digital advertising through social media has now become the new norm
for all businesses. This has led to Facebook ads and Twitter ads becoming the
powerhouse of advertising campaigns. Since both have their own pros and cons, it
can be tricky to decide which one is worth the effort: running FB ads to get more
engagement on Facebook or putting efforts to get more Twitter followers. If
you’re looking for the best platform for your brand promotions, here’s a
simultaneous comparison of Twitter Ads vs. Facebook Ads.
Ad Layouts
Different campaigns have to be presented and communicated in a certain way,
and both platforms have a wide range of creative ad layouts to pick from. Twitter
users can choose from image ads, video ads, carousel ads, moment ads, and text
ads.
Facebook has an edge over Twitter as it offers more variety of ad layouts, making
it easier to get more engagement on Facebook. Brands advertising on Facebook
can choose from image ads, video ads, poll ads, carousel ads, slideshow ads,
collection ads and offer ads. The unique Facebook ad layouts that make it more
beneficial are its Instant Experience or Canvas Ads and Stories ads.
Audience And Objective
The battle between Twitter Ads vs. Facebook Ads isn’t solely about the features
that the platforms have to offer, but your objective and target audience. For your
ad campaigns to have desirable outcomes and help you gain Twitter followers,
your ad must reach the right people. Twitter consists of all users of all age groups
with youngsters dominating the platform. Being a fast-paced platform, most users
are present to form informal connections and catch up with the latest news all
across the globe.
On the other hand, Facebook’s audience consists of all age groups, but mostly the
senior population. Most Facebook users are there to connect with their friends,
and relatives, or to stay updated with their favorite brands. You can use these
platforms for their specialty; Twitter for sales pitches and Facebook to connect
with your audience.
Advanced Targeting Features
Both platforms have done a decent job in proving sufficient parameters for
advanced targeting. However, Twitter has an edge over Facebook in terms of
precise and advanced targeting. Besides the mainstream targeting options like
interests and demographics, Twitter enables advertisers to target audiences
based on hashtags and keywords. With the help of the right hashtags and
keywords, it’s easier to make your campaign reach the right people and get more
Twitter followers.
Facebook Ads consist of basic smart targeting options that include geographic,
interests, demographics, connections, and behavior. These advanced features
have time and again proved to be beneficial to meet the target audience and gain
more engagement on Facebook. Other than that, Facebook also offers a Custom
audience but this feature requires a phone number or email address to target
them.
Reach And Engagement
Measuring engagement and reach is imperative to determine ad performance.
There are over 350 million active users on Twitter, making it possible for your
content to have a wider reach and gain Twitter followers.
While this may seem sufficient, Facebook is way ahead of the race as it consists of
more than 2.6 billion active users. The comparison is clear cut and it is evident
that there’s more scope for brands to gain more engagement on Facebook. If you
want your brand to go global at a faster pace, Facebook would undoubtedly be
the better option because of its wider reach.
Analytics
Analytics and insights are important for every ad campaign, so one can make
adjustments accordingly. Having a clear report can help users make a more
informed decision for future campaigns. Twitter has a more segregated and
organized analytics tool, that can help advertisers pinpoint exact segments to
adjust.
The Twitter analytics report is segmented as per language, platform, keywords,
location, gender, and interests. You can also view analytics as per different
Twitter handles. These pinpointed and precise reports can help to adjust in
increasing ROI and gain Twitter followers.
Facebook offers its users detailed analytics such as audience, engagement level,
and post analytics that can be studied and adjusted to get more engagement on
Facebook. Besides the mainstream analytics, Facebook also informs users about
app analytics to see how the audience is using the FB app. Users can also see
‘Pages to watch’ for effective competitor analysis.
Price
Although the cost of running ad campaigns depends on several factors, the
median CPC and median CPM for Twitter are relatively cheaper than that of
Facebook. There are several pricing structures on Twitter which depend on
different campaigns like follower campaign, app installs campaign, awareness
campaign, website clicks campaign, etc.
But users only have to pay once their marketing objective is achieved. For
instance, advertisers only have to pay for the people who started following them
after running a Follower campaign.
Meanwhile, the cost of running Facebook ads depends on the industry, audience,
and competition. If your industry is easily saturated with various competitors, it
might get costly to get more engagement on Facebook through ad campaigns.
Conclusion
Deciding the best platform for running ad campaigns between Facebook and
Twitter is quite subjective and brand-specific.
Although Twitter seems to offer better targeting options and analytics at
reasonable prices, it’s important to maintain an active social media presence
across all platforms. So experiment, analyze and prioritize your ideal platform, but
don’t underestimate any!