Search advertising or social media advertising, which one is better?

When it comes to advertising, especially digital advertising, most marketers may think of keywords such as " traffic ", "keywords", " KOL ", "paid ranking", "Baidu", and " public accounts ".

Nowadays, not only do consumers have more and more choices, but even marketers themselves often feel confused and bewildered by too many choices. Yes, with so many marketing strategies and so many distribution channels , how should we choose?

Generally speaking, if you are a very hardworking and down-to-earth marketer, as long as you stay within your budget, you can probably leave footprints of your company's products on any channel you can think of. For example: ask Baidu to do bidding ranking; buy advertising space on Taobao ; find celebrity endorsements; find internet celebrities to use your product in live broadcasts ; find public accounts to post soft articles; use big accounts on Zhihu; post jokes on Weibo; and bait and fish on LinkedIn, Momo, Maimai, Didi , Lagou, telephone poles, and other places that may promote transactions.

However, unless your company is really wealthy and your marketing department is full of energy, this kind of scatter-net promotion is unlikely to produce gratifying results, because you are violating what you learned in college - market focus.

For the same product, the cost-benefit ratio will be different when it is released through different channels. Because different channels mean different psychological and physiological environments for users, and different environments will affect user behavior (Will you eat in the toilet?)

To simplify the information, we will temporarily divide the distribution channels on the Internet into two types:

1. Search type : users actively come to you, such as Baidu and Taobao, etc.
2. Social media type : You actively look for users, such as public accounts and Weibo, etc.

First, in order to let everyone witness the different performances of the two for the same information, let’s take a look at an example: use the two tools Baidu Index and FOOADS (ps, the former is mainly used for search data analysis , while the latter is mainly used for social media data analysis), and input the two keywords "Wang Sicong" and " Wang Jianlin ". (The reason why celebrities are used here instead of famous brands is that the differences in the placement of each brand in different channels will affect the objectivity of the comparison results)

The situation on Baidu Index is:

On FOOADS, the situation is:

On search platforms, Wang Sicong's search volume is significantly higher than Wang Jianlin's, while on social media, Wang Jianlin's number of mentions has surpassed Wang Sicong's. As for why this situation occurs, my conclusion is: most people are more interested in Wang Sicong, but there is more material about Wang Jianlin.

Okay, now that we see that there are indeed differences between the two, let’s take a look at the following: Under what circumstances should we invest in search ads? When should you invest in social media advertising?

1. New products that lack attention should focus on social

What are the new products that lack attention? For example, I have seen a handicraft before - activated carbon carving.

As the name suggests, it uses activated carbon as a decoration that can be placed at home. It is both beautiful and can absorb formaldehyde. It is very suitable for local bosses who have just completed renovations. However, the manufacturer simply quietly posted it on Taobao and hardly promoted it in any other channels except the company's own product brochure.

What's the problem? The biggest question is: How many people in this world would suddenly have the idea that activated carbon can be made into decorations and start searching for it?

Taobao is a search-based platform, where users actively come to you. But if users don’t even know that such a thing exists, what should they look for? Therefore, for new products that lack attention, a better choice is to invest in social advertising, such as public accounts related to home and health. After all, search is classified by category, while social is classified by scenario.

2. Products that require consumption upgrades should focus on social interaction

First of all, what are consumer upgrading products?

Twenty years ago, consumption upgrades mainly referred to luxury goods, while this time, consumption upgrades mainly refer to high-end products. Luxury goods are used to reflect status, while high-end products are used to reward yourself for enjoying a better life.

But whether it is luxury goods or high-end products, the marketing focus should be on social networking. I won’t say much about luxury goods. They are meant to show off in front of friends. Of course, they must be based on social networking to let everyone know that I will only buy my bag if it costs 20,000.

High-end products, such as the Swell bottle, emphasize defining ordinary water cups as "decorations" so that people can enjoy the beautiful things around them.

In this case, if you put it on the search platform, firstly, most people don’t know it exists, and secondly, compared with other water cups, the Swell bottle of several hundred yuan is really too expensive. Why should I buy such an expensive water cup?

Therefore, a better strategy is to take the social route and let an internet celebrity who loves life show its beauty and create an atmosphere of love for life, which will make consumers more receptive. As I just said, searches are classified by category, while social interactions can be classified not only by scenario but also by personality.

Of course, once this product is widely recognized and accepted by the public, search advertising is also necessary because there are more competitors.

3. Products purchased frequently should focus on social interaction

The so-called social marketing is nothing more than three words - get close. It is actually very easy to understand. People are naturally attracted to familiar things (although not necessarily positive...).

Products that are purchased frequently generally have one characteristic: users tend to buy the same product repeatedly . For example, for beverages, most people buy fixed brands over a long period of time because it would be too tiring to make a choice every time they buy something.

Therefore, if your users are purchasing other people's products for a long time, generally speaking, they will rarely actively search for a second set of purchasing plans. At this time, you need to take the initiative to influence them.

For products or services that are purchased less frequently, the search route is more appropriate, such as beverages and decoration. The Baidu Index shows:

And on FOOADS it is like this:

In Baidu search index, beverage/decoration = 1280/12793 = 0.1;

On FOOADS, beverages/decoration = 19664/24707 = 0.8. High-frequency beverages obviously perform better on social media, while low-frequency decorations have better search indexes.

In fact, by this point in the article, you must have discovered that some products may be new products that lack attention (social networking is recommended), but also mid- to low-end products with low frequency of consumption (search is recommended). What should you choose at this time? Is it that “the minority obeys the majority” and chooses search advertising?

This is obviously unreasonable, because in addition to the above-mentioned factors of the product itself, we should also consider many factors, such as the product promotion stage (early stage or mature stage?), the promotion content (peripheral information or central information?), the current situation of the entire category (no competition or fierce competition?), etc.

And we need to find out the "key limiting factors" at this stage from these factors and list them as the main factors that should be overcome at present. This is a bit confusing. What is the “key limiting factor”? For example: You want to plant crops on a piece of land. In order to make the crops grow faster and better, you bought a lot of fertilizers and pesticides, but you forgot to water them. At this time, the "key limiting factor" is "no water", so no matter how much fertilizer you apply, it will be useless.

However, since business itself is dynamic, the "key constraints" in different periods may not be the same, and sometimes it is really difficult to judge what the current "key constraints" are. Therefore, when there are too many influencing factors, you should still explore and try both search and social. (Due to limited space, it is impossible to list and analyze every situation in this article. We can only analyze the specific situation.)

but! but! Be sure to do a good job of data monitoring, regularly observe the brand's performance in different channels, and adjust marketing strategies based on specific performance. In comparison, although Baidu has a large amount of data, FOOADS is better in data monitoring and is also very accurate. The two can be used together.

Let me emphasize again: placing search ads means you are the boss, just wait for users to come to you! With social media advertising, the user is the boss, and you have to find him yourself!

Finally, pay tribute to the idol!

Imitation is for deliberate practice, and it is also the best way to learn!

Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising

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