{"id":7898,"date":"2024-02-29T12:37:44","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T12:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thedigitalcauldron.com\/?p=7898"},"modified":"2024-02-29T12:37:44","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T12:37:44","slug":"facebook-microsoft-google-ads-compared-ctr-cpm-cpc-benchmarks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tdc.thedigitalcauldron.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/29\/facebook-microsoft-google-ads-compared-ctr-cpm-cpc-benchmarks\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook, Microsoft &#038; Google Ads Compared: CTR, CPM &#038; CPC Benchmarks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How do sentiment, landing page quality, and increasing ad spend impact PPC performance? Cambridge University compares Facebook, Microsoft &amp; Google Ads.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you have to choose between Facebook and Google Ads for promoting your Small and Medium Businesses (SMB), Facebook is your best bet.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And in the debate between <a href=\"http:\/\/thedigitalcauldron.com\/blog\/google-vs-microsoft-bing-how-the-search-giants-stack-up\/\">Microsoft Advertising and Google<\/a> Ads, Google provides greater reach at a lower cost.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These are among the key findings of a new study by Cambridge University MBA students and ad platform Adzooma.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Participants analyzed how imagery, sentiment, and language impacted click-through rates (CTRs) on three top online ad platforms.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The study also considered whether landing page quality had an impact on conversion rates, and revealed new CPC and CPM benchmarks for Facebook, Microsoft, and Google Ads.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Which Factors Moved the Needle Most for Ad Performance<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Researchers found that each of the major online ads platforms has its strengths:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Facebook Ads was the most cost-effective channel on average.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Microsoft Ads was most responsive to increasing ad spend.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google Ads had the greatest reach for the lowest cost.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the evaluation of how factors impacted CPM and CPC, they found that an advertiser\u2019s choice of channel has a significant impact on both metrics:<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>How CPM and CPC Differ on Facebook, Microsoft, and Google Ads<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Upon determining this connection between channel and cost KPIs, researchers went looking for the average CPM and CPC across Google, Facebook and Microsoft Ads:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Microsoft Advertising had the highest median CPM and CPC, but researchers advise it is best for targeting affluent customers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is because 54% of Bing users are over the age of 45, and a third of them have a household income of over $100,000.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>How Increasing Ad Spend Impacts ROAS<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s a common problem in digital advertising\u2014spending too much is wasteful, yet spending too little may not generate the return you need.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this portion of the study, researchers used regression analysis to determine whether increasing ad spend also increases the number of impressions and clicks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s what they found:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Microsoft Advertising showed the greatest ROAS for increasing budget in terms of impressions, a good metric for brand awareness campaigns.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, all three platforms performed similarly in terms of increased clicks, with Microsoft and Google Ads just slightly ahead of Facebook Ads.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>How Sentiment Impacts Ad Performance on Google and Microsoft Ads<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Researchers found ads with positive sentiment performed best on Microsoft Ads, where CTRs were:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4.2% for positive ads<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3.6% for neutral ads<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3.3 for negative ads<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The opposite was true on Google Ads, where negative sentiment won the day with CTRs of:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">6.5% for negative ads<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5.7% for neutral and positive ads<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A study participant said:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cBased on the analysis, the users of different advertising platforms have different responses to ad copy sentiment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is important, he explained, because advertisers can optimize their return on ad spend (ROAS) by refining ads to capitalize on the impact of sentiment.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Landing Page Quality Had Greatest Impact on Conversion, Yet Few Excel Here<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Srishti Warman was responsible for the study\u2019s landing page analysis.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She explains:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe task was to identify the key parameters that lead to a higher conversion e.g. faster page speed, better optimisation for mobile and web viewing, page responsiveness, etc. This analysis would eventually help understand not only which companies scale quickest within verticals, but critically, why.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Warman found that although landing page best practices had the greatest impact on conversion rate, not a single one of those tested had perfect score for best practices in Lighthouse.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These best practices included using HTTPS, displaying images with correct aspect ratios, serving images with appropriate resolution, and avoiding a request for location on page loading.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Only 5% of landing pages had a perfect score for website performance checks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That means that 95% of businesses are leaving money on the table.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Warman also noted that she was surprised to see that optimization best practices outperformed page loading speed as the most important factor in driving conversions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition to the primary landing page factors studied\u2014best practices, SEO, performance, and accessibility\u2014Warman identified content quality, CTAs, and the PPC to landing page journey as impactful for improving conversion.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Key Takeaways from Facebook Ads v. Microsoft Advertising v. Google Ads Comparison<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Facebook is, on average, the most cost-effective channel for SMBs.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ads with positive sentiment perform better on Microsoft, and negative sentiment performs better on Google Ads.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Best practices were the most important conversion element for landing pages, followed by SEO (titles and meta descriptions, valid robots.txt, ensuring links are crawlable, etc.).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Very few advertisers are maximizing their conversion opportunities, leaving plenty of opportunity to improve ROAS through landing page optimization.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google and Microsoft would do better in terms of conversions as relevant and higher intent is prevalent.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Methodology<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Study participants were given access to campaign data from the Adzooma platform, selected at random and spanning thousands of accounts and a variety of industries.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Participants used Lighthouse to evaluate landing page quality, as well as SEMrush, Screaming Frog, Adzooma, and Google Analytics.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Sources<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.adzooma.com\/blog\/what-makes-online-marketing-work\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What Makes Online Marketing Work: Cambridge Uni x Adzooma<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.adzooma.com\/blog\/choose-best-digital-marketing-channel-business\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How To Choose The Best Digital Marketing Channel: Cambridge Uni x Adzooma<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Media release: Adzooma and Cambridge University reveal insightful data on how to succeed in online marketing in 2021<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How do sentiment, landing page quality, and increasing ad spend impact PPC performance? Cambridge University compares Facebook, Microsoft &amp; Google Ads. If you have to choose between Facebook and Google Ads for promoting your Small and Medium Businesses (SMB), Facebook is your best bet. And in the debate between Microsoft Advertising and Google Ads, Google [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,20,21,35,51],"tags":[34,22,48,74,50,36,42,52,30,31],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tdc.thedigitalcauldron.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7898"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tdc.thedigitalcauldron.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tdc.thedigitalcauldron.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tdc.thedigitalcauldron.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tdc.thedigitalcauldron.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tdc.thedigitalcauldron.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tdc.thedigitalcauldron.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tdc.thedigitalcauldron.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tdc.thedigitalcauldron.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tdc.thedigitalcauldron.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}