• Facebook has over 2.4 billion users
• Linkedin has 260 million
• Facebook and Linkedin have very different audiences and size isn’t everything

At first glance, it would appear that Linkedin advertising and Facebook advertising would require similar approaches in its strategy. However, when you are considering Facebook ads vs Linkedin ads, you must remember that the audiences in both platforms are very different. 

Keep this in mind to guarantee success on both platforms.  

Linkedin is what is known as business to business or  B2B advertising. It’s a professional networking site that helps its members find jobs and facilitates mentoring and professional development opportunities.

Facebook is a social media mammoth that has revolutionised social media and doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon. Facebook’s users are largely using their platform for personal reasons such as socialising and news headlines rather than professional networking. 

However that's not to say that professional networking doesn’t take place, it does, but it’s not its primary use is of a more personal interest than networking. 

Before we dive into the pros and cons of Linked In advertising, there are few questions you need to ask yourself before considering either platform.

What do I need to know before deciding on Linkedin or Facebook advertising? 

What is my audience? 

This is the most crucial aspect of any advertising campaign and even more so when considering B2B ads over social ads. 

Look at what your business offers in an objective way. What does your business sell and who are its biggest customers? 

Nail this aspect down before you go any further as everything your campaign does will flow from catering to your audience. 

If it's professionals you are wanting to target then choose Linkedin if it's a multitude of demographics for sales choose Facebook. The social media giant will help get your ad to a bigger audience. 

What do I hope to achieve?

Is it awareness, industry recognition, more sales, page likes or any other objective? Both platforms have paid options that can help you with both. 

How much do I want to spend?

Both platforms are relatively similar, in terms of how their paid ads work. Linkedin’s average Cost Per Click or CPC is $5.26 and Facebook’s is $0.97.

However, your Linkedin audience is usually educated professionals who know and understand your industry. Facebook is not so much advertising and resources may be needed to get your point across on Facebook. 

Higher quality graphics, community management and clear and concise copy are worth investing in for Facebook as you may need to spend more time catering to your customers' questions and enquiries. 

Do you have time and money to invest in quality graphics and copy? 

Quality graphics and copy are always an important facet in ANY campaign. However, Linkedin has many options for prefilled and automated ads that showcase your company and logo without the need for fancy copy or additional graphics. 

This can be worth the higher price if you are time and budget poor and want to advertise to a professional demographic. 

I would strongly suggest a service provider such as a graphic designer or copywriter for your Facebook campaigns. Facebook users are bombarded with many paid ads of every variety and you need to make sure that yours stands out and delivers your objective. 

Now that we have the preliminary requirements out of the way let's look at the Pros and cons of Linkedin advertising and Facebook advertising. 

Let's start with Linkedin advertising.

What are the advantages of Linkedin advertising?

Let's dive into the world of Linkedin advertising.

1. You are advertising to like-minded professionals

The biggest advantage of B2B marketing is that you don’t have to explain your industry or what your product is for the most part. You can afford to have a bit more industry lingo and acronyms in your copy.

 It’s a huge time saver and can lead to fantastic sales and networking opportunities that you wouldn’t have had otherwise as well as leads and sales. 

2. Your leads could be game-changing for your company 

This follows on from the last point but B2B advertising can lead to many fortuitous relationships that can increase your company's profile. 

You could land an account that could increase the size of your business, shore up your bottom line and start to be seen as an industry leader. 

The bottom line is B2B advertising can be a game-changer and generate solid leads for your company. 

3. Greater professional targeting available

Linkedin allows for greater granularity in terms of targeting job positions. 

Their targeting options are 

• Location
• Job title 
• Company Name
• Industry
• Degree
• Professional Interests
• And other options such as retargeting

As you can see you can target by professional level, companies or industry. If you want to target C-suite professionals in certain industries you can. If you are advertising a webinar for green jobs you can target by a degree or professional interest as well as a job title. 

4. Has advertising options that don’t require labour intensive ad creation

Linkedin has many options for ads that don’t require a lot of setups. These are:

• Sponsored Content
• Message Ads
• Dynamic Ads 
• Text Ads

Their set-up is quite simple and requires very little graphic input other than preselected images or logos. Many companies take advantage of this set-up to advertise their companies or jobs. 

Now that we have discussed the advantages of Linkedin, let's explore the disadvantages.

What are the disadvantages of Linkedin advertising?

1. It’s more expensive than other platforms

As mentioned previously your average CPC on Linkedin is over $5. That's a substantial increase from Facebook and Instagram. However, if you are a business that relies on B2B business relationships, it’s one of the best platforms to advertise on. 

2. Doesn’t always have an active audience

Many users on Linkedin are simply job hunting and only use it for that. Basically, sporadic use is frequent on this platform. However, this means that during the slow times for business ie. December and January it’s not really going to pay off as many people will not be on the platform. 

3. Its ads platform is clunky

I can vouch for this point, when I was a social media manager and needed to do reporting I was switching between Facebook Ads manager and the Linkedin ads platform. While Facebook’s ads platform is not perfect, Linkedin’s was hard to read and navigate the most basic functions. 

It was fine after a while, but it’s not the best-designed ads platform.  

4. Reporting isn’t clear or easy to obtain

When you are wanting figures for your report on paid advertising, you want those figures to be easily obtained. Unfortunately, this is not the case with the Linkedin ads platform. For the cost of the advertising, I personally feel this aspect lets Linkedin down. 

Again once you get used to the system, it’s ok, but I feel it’s a major downside to Linkedin advertising. 

Now that we have covered the pros and cons of Linkedin advertising let's dive into the pros and cons of Facebook advertising. 

What are the advantages of Facebook advertising?

1. Huge audience

It is impossible to overstate this point. Facebook's marketing audience is HUGE. Over 2 billion people use the social media giants platform. This means that your opportunity for growth is potentially massive. 

It’s a big advantage and it’s why there are so many companies advertising on Facebook.

2. Great targeting options

Social media users document a lot of their everyday life on their accounts. Facebook allows marketers to target users based on their interests, age, marital status, job and location. And that's just for starters. 

The granularity means that you can target users that you KNOW are interested in your product or services. The options are many and varied and allow you to grow your customer base. 

3. Objectives for every marketing need

When you are setting up your marketing campaign Facebook allows you to select from many objectives under the umbrellas of three main objectives. Awareness, Consideration and conversions. 

Awareness: 

Source: Facebook

Consideration:

Source: Facebook

Conversion:

Source: Facebook

These objectives are specially geared to the objective and have algorithms specially designed to make their users take action. 

4. Analytics are easier to read

The analytics and reporting are much easier to read than other platforms. I feel this is important as if you are paying for ads you should be able to read their performance easily. But  I will say just quietly, I feel that most ad platforms could be made easier to read in general. Just my two cents!

5. It’s quite cost-effective

With the average click-through rate being less than a dollar and the massive audience Facebook provides, it's a great platform to increase your business profile and gain more customers. 

Now that we have discussed the advantages of Facebook’s advertising let's look at the disadvantages of Facebook advertising. 

What are the disadvantages of Facebook advertising?

1. High competition

Do you remember when I said that many people use Facebook Ads because it's cost-effective? Well, the downside is...many companies like the cost-effectiveness. This means it’s increasingly harder and will become more expensive to have your campaign noticed. 

Harder, but not impossible. You just need someone with the savvy to make your ads stand out, like a service provider such as a social media manager. 

2. Some industries cannot advertise on Facebook. 

There are certain industries that just cannot advertise on Facebook. Legal and medical and industries are heavily restricted by what they can advertise. 

Particularly in health crises Facebook and many other platforms will ban the medical industries from advertising. It’s to prevent vendors from profiting from health crises. 

Make sure you can advertise on Facebook before you invest time into graphics and copy for your campaign. 

3. Ad blindness is real

Many users know and expect ads on the platform. This means that many users tend to tune them out as they know that they are being sold something.  Video and interactive videos have a high engagement rate and it's a good idea to invest in these to mitigate ‘banner blindness. 

4. Time intensive

The process of looking after your ads, creating them and community management for comments and enquiries takes a lot of time. Recruiting a paid ads manager to look after your campaigns is the best idea. 

However, that is another financial investment and you may not be in the position to do this. 

5. Not really suitable for B2B 

Facebook is considered B2C, business to customer advertising. Not many businesses consider Facebook a place for networking or to look for jobs. 

It’s not a great platform if you are a company that deals primarily in B2B sales such as a medical supplies business. There are exceptions of course and every company's strategy is unique. Make sure you consider what your audience is before you start paid advertising. 

Source: Shutterstock

The Verdict

Both strategies are suitable for different businesses. If your business is more of a B2C style Facebook and Instagram paid ads are great for you. 

If your business is more B2B, advertising on Linkedin is a must. It is more expensive but it’s a site literally designed to put you in touch with professional networks. 

There are always going to be upsides and downsides with advertising networks and Facebook and Linkedin are no exception. It’s best to choose the best network that matches your brand values and audience and you won’t be disappointed. 

If you want to delve into the world of paid social media advertising on Facebook or Linkedin it’s always best to have an experienced professional by your side, such as a social media agency.

However, before your meeting with a professional determine these 3 things. 

What do you want to come out of your paid advertising campaign? Sales, page follows or industry recognition?

Is your target market business-focused or more traditional customer-focused?

What is your budget in a best-case scenario and a worst-case scenario?

After this come to your meeting with your service providers with a good idea of what you want to achieve and you can develop a plan for how you achieve it. 

If you want to learn more about both mediums head to our Social Media Advertising group. 

Happy advertising!