Emotional videos on the one hand, being positioned in the first spot in Google searches on the other: Paid media is rightly considered an inseparable part of most marketing strategies – especially in the digital world, where thousands and millions of people can be reached this very way. The scattering loss is thereby vanishingly small.

Nevertheless, not every digital advertising campaign meets the targeted key performance indicators (KPIs). One factor builds budgeting: B2B decision-makers often have to either split up the available capital between social media ads and search engine advertising (SEA), or they decide to pick only one of them. Nowadays, there is no way around the question of which distribution channel is more suitable. Which one is the most effective for B2B companies?

The differences between social media ads and SEA 

The major advantages of social media ads and search engine advertising are obvious: both operate in the digital space and are so-called dynamic ads. Although these formats seem so closely related at first glance: Advertising could hardly be any more different.

The term social media ads includes advertisements on all social media platforms. Therefore, anyone who mentions social ads in their marketing strategy should make a dedicated selection beforehand and commit to individual platforms that are best suited for their purposes.
The big plus of this form of advertising is noticeable in the standardized and mostly identical setup procedure for most platforms: The ads manager of Meta (formerly Facebook) and LinkedIn are structured according to the same concept and could technically be set up by non-experts as well.

SEA includes the advertisements delivered on all search engines. These very advertising activities however are almost entirely limited to Google, so that smaller search engines such as Bing or Ecosia are hardly included in this term. Setting up advertising on Google and Co. is much more complicated and also requires extensive research in advance.

The biggest difference between social media ads and SEA is how they are being disseminated: social media advertising is played out in the very moment when people are on the platform. This means that users do not have to execute a specific search to see the ad – the ad comes to the target group.

Search engine advertising, on the other hand, is only displayed when a person makes a search query and the ad is relevant to that search. Only then can the advertising reach the intended target group.

Advantages and disadvantages of social media ads 

Social media ads offer the advantage of showing mainly videos and images. Due to their variety and audio-visual character, these are significantly more appealing than posts in plain text form. The main advantage social media ads have to offer is their very little wastage: the majority of the target group is reached without their active intervention. One will never be able to reach a full one hundred percent of the aimed target group. Yet, by advertising through social media playing out ads whilst users act on the respective platform, people are addressed that come as close as possible to the target group and thus resulting in a lower bounce rate.

As uncomplicated as this approach may seem, it can also prove to be a major disadvantage:

Social media users do not have the primary intention of gathering additional information about products and offers, but rather want to consume the content of the respective platform. Scientific findings show that advertising is effective even when not perceived with full attention. Yet, the general willingness to engage with the advertising content tends to be rather low.

Especially companies from the B2B sector should therefore select adequate channels to pursue their purposes. While platforms such as Instagram and TikTok play a rather subordinate role for the B2B sector, the target group represented on LinkedIn is all the more important.

This might also be of interest for you: Successful content marketing for better visibility

Advantages and disadvantages of SEA 

The major advantage of search engine advertising over social media ads is the following: the advertising reaches almost exclusively those users who already have a basic interest in the content and are actively searching for more information. This is because search engine advertising is only played out when a corresponding search query is made. The recipients’ willingness to engage with the provided content is therefore by a lot higher. Having said that, the fact that the ads can only be played out for relevant search queries means at the same time that fewer people are usually reached than it could be the case with social media ads.

In order for SEA to be as effective as possible and reach the right audience, the main focus should be put on a thorough research in advance. Topics such as the search intentions, the users’ behaviour as well as a detailed analysis of the keywords should not be missing.

Conclusion

As in many other areas, here, too, are two sides – both social media ads and SEA have advantages and disadvantages. It is not possible to find one universal answer to which distribution channel is more effective. The choice depends significantly on the company and which purpose of the ad they intend. Each case should be discussed on a fundamentally individual basis. In general, when it comes to social media advertising, B2B companies should only select the very platforms, where their target group can reliably be found.

SEA is essential for almost every company nowadays, since it draws added attention of people who are already interested in the company and its offers.

Basically, both distribution options will continue to accompany us in the future and play an increasingly relevant role in the marketing mix. When used correctly, both, social media ads just like SEA can make a significant contribution to a future-oriented strategy.

If you need assistance with your advertising campaign, do not hesitate to contact HBI and our specialists will take care of your concerns.

About the author

Lukas Huber

Marketing Assistant at HBI Helga Bailey GmbH – International PR & MarCom

Lukas Huber has been part of HBI’s marketing team since 2020. As Marketing Assistant, his responsibilities include the development of marketing campaigns, social media management and the creation of specialized articles.

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