These days, you’re spoilt for choice when it comes to PPC platforms. Google Ads (formerly AdWords) is no longer the only player in the game – social media channels are now also bidding to become the best PPC (pay-per-click) platforms out there. 

In today’s battle, it’s Google Ads vs LinkedIn vs Twitter, with Google Ads actually offering two ‘sub’ paid advertising platforms: the Search Network and the Display Network.

Are Twitter and LinkedIn the David to Google’s Goliath? Read on for the pros, cons, and prices of each platform, helping you to decide which option will best suit your next PPC campaign.

Google Search Network 

Average cost per click: $1-$2 (but could be much higher for popular keywords)

Google Search Network enables you to place links to your website’s pages above the organic (non-paid) web pages that appear on the Google results page. Rather than targeting users based on their interests or location — like you can on social media PPC platforms – you’re targeting specific search terms, and advertising to people who are already interested in your service or product (because they’ve Googled relevant words or phrases).

For most businesses, Google Search Network is the go-to tool for all things PPC. But why is it so popular? Well, the word ‘Monopoly’ comes to mind. 

Google owns 92% of the search engine market share, which means it’s the only viable option for SEM (search engine marketing) – that is, PPC platforms advertising outside the social media space. Secondly, Google processes over 40,000 search queries each second, providing an unrivalled audience size. 

Lastly, Google Ads offers an ROI (return on investment) of $8 for every $1 spent, proving it’s a worthy choice for any sized business.

Google Search Network pros:

  1. Cheaper CPC (cost per click) than on LinkedIn
  2. You only need to know the relevant search terms for targeting ads, rather than analyzing user interests and location
  3. Provides a clear overview of your campaigns

Google Search Network cons:

  1. Broad keywords will deliver irrelevant and expensive clicks
  2. There’s enormous competition for some keywords, which can be costly
  3. Your website will require multiple landing pages to keep your business relevant to each search term

Google Display Network

Average cost per click: less than $1

Google’s Display Network is used for promoting your visual ads – such as your brand logo and imagery – on over two million websites, videos, and apps. Today, Google Display Network serves over 2 trillion ad impressions each month to 2.5 billion internet users. This means you can advertise to over 90% of internet users worldwide.

With Display Network, you can target your adverts in different website contexts (such as ‘camping’ or ‘wine tasting’) to different audiences (such as ‘grandparents’ or ‘people searching for Patriots merchandise’) in different locations

As you can see, there are many aspects to consider when advertising on Google Display Network. This can be difficult to juggle – so, if you choose Google Display Network for your campaigns, it might be worth hiring a PPC agency to handle the legwork for you.

Google Display Network pros

  1. Excellent for retargeting past website visitors or purchasers
  2. You’ll be advertising on well-known, respectable websites
  3. Relatively cheap CPC prices

Google Display Network cons

  1. Ads won’t appear if the user has blocked display ads in their browser
  2. Has an initial learning curve that’s quite steep
  3. You’ll risk gaining poor results when targeting a vague audience

LinkedIn

Average cost per click: $2-$7

Let’s cut to the chase: LinkedIn is the most expensive PPC platform on this list, and doesn’t even offer the best targeting tools. Taking that into consideration, why would you bother with LinkedIn? Because it does triumph in one niche area: B2B marketing. 

LinkedIn is used by over 645 million professionals from around the world, making it the ideal PPC platform for advertising directly to CEOs and industry experts. In other words, paid advertising on LinkedIn allows your business to cut through the cat memes and reach a purely business-based audience. For example, you can target by job title, career level, or by the number of employees within a business.

Concerned about LinkedIn’s high costs? Well, this platform will reward your business with a lower CPC if you regularly update your ad copy and optimize your images. So, stay active to save cash.

LinkedIn PPC Pros

  1. Excellent for B2B marketing
  2. It’s possible to reach a narrow target audience
  3. Campaigns are simple to function

LinkedIn PPC Cons

  1. High cost per click
  2. Targeting options are primarily business-based, rather than interest-based
  3. There’s a smaller potential audience than on Google Ads

Twitter

Average cost per click: $0.53

With such low CPC rates, should Twitter and its blue bird soar above the competition? Unfortunately, Twitter is still a hatchling in the PPC nest, having only recently entered the paid advertising industry. In short, Twitter is a cheap but not-so cheerful option.

Twitter’s targeting options cannot match the precision of LinkedIn or Google Ads. When using it, you can only target users based on hashtags and topics – rather than more specific filters like job title or purchasing history – which means that you risk paying for low-quality clicks. As they say, you get what you pay for with Twitter’s paid advertising.

Twitter PPC Pros

  1. It’s an inexpensive, supplementary platform for your other PPC campaigns
  2. There’s a good chance of creating viral content
  3. Really easy to use

Twitter PPC Cons

  1. It offers very limited audience targeting
  2. Its reporting tools could be more insightful
  3. New ads can take days for Twitter to review before publishing

Roundup

We do have a winner, but it’s not quite as close as you’d think. Despite its high CPC, LinkedIn is the best platform for targeting C-Suite users, making it the best option for B2B marketers. Twitter – with its startup-friendly average CPC of just $0.53 – could represent a useful supplement to your other PPC campaigns if you have a few cents to spare. 

However, Google Ads – with its dynamic duo of Display Network and Search Network – is the best all-rounder, and would suit almost any PPC campaign out there.

About the Author: Dan Barraclough is a writer at Expert Market, a leading B2B comparison site helping businesses find the best services and solutions. He specialises in a range of tech topics like web design and digital marketing, but also has a penchant for dash cams and postage meters.