I hadn’t experienced working with either advertising tool before so I though I would help out a friends fitness business and also gain the opportunity to learn about both tools.

Starting with the understanding that each tool is different, and catches the user in a different space, with Google they are searching out fitness information, with Facebook they are just shown it and it’s not necessarily on the forefront of their minds.  Facebook gave me the option of spending a lifetime total or a daily limit, where Google gave me a daily limit.  I tried but never did see either ad in my streams.

I chose to run both ads local, kept them to an Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater area since folks don’t really travel to work out.  This was fascinating to me because I know Facebook can target the locals based on the users progile, Google on the other hand has to depend on originating IP address which, with my experience, can fluctuate based on so many different variables.

After two weeks of ad display here are the results I achieved: Facebook:  838,256 Impressions -  also had 118,146 social impressions, where someone interacted with it, liked it or shared it…I think. The ad resulted in 88 Clicks, 10 Connections, 0.010% CTR,  $0.12 CPM

Still not entirely clear what social impressions are. Researched it a bit also and even the industry experts had a tough time explaining it.

Google: 73,000 impressions, 42 clicks for a CTR of .06%

Not bad clickthrough rates really.  Interesting that Google, who’s audience is searching for something wasn’t higher. I still don’t really understand how Facebook decided to display those ads, I know I chose keywords for Google and was competing for who paid more for the display price but Facebook is a bit of a mystery.

Facebook send me a weekly report via email which was very detailed and simple to read, Google didn’t (I couldn’t find it if there was a feature to get emailed reports anyways).  I did like that Google let me type multiple keywords in that people might search for, Facebook  required fixed ad text but the “why” an ad would show up wasn’t clear to me at all.

In the end, I’m disappointed in both.  Both were very difficult to understand and had a very high learning curve. If you’re asking for money and businesses are certainly looking to spend it to gain customers, why not make the programs easy to use and give clear explanations on how they work and what the terms mean that are within the tools? If I was a small business owner I would feel like I had no choice but to hire and expert in the field and hope they could provide the outreach and explanations of the terms that are needed to feel a level of comfort and feel like it was money well spent.

Facebook seemed easier to use and was far clearer in the reporting.  Google, while easy to set up, was much more difficult to understand and I would have loved the option of them sending the report to me without me having to go to that website (need to research further this option).

In the end, although I had plenty of impressions, neither resulted in an increase in likes or new people added to the business.  While it was fun to experiment with the two and gain some lessons learned, I’m still convinced that that you must use the right tool for the right outreach. For a small business that serves a local niche, fitness in this case, it really comes down to networking and word of mouth.  I always knew it but I am much more convinced now that keeping your local customers happy is really the key to success.  The more you can develop relationships with them and get them talking, the more likely they are to tell their friends and bring them in.