What are the different goals of Google and Facebook (Meta) campaigns?

Ad campaign goals are so important for your Google Ads and Facebook Ads as they guide your ads to succeed and achieve the results you expect!

Google and Facebook Ad Campaign Goals

Selecting the right ad campaign goals is the first step to a successful Google or Facebook (Meta) Ad campaign.

The ad campaign goals that you choose for your ads will determine a lot about how the ad is seen and what it should achieve. Choosing the correct goal is a very important step.

Taking the time to understand the different Google and Facebook ad campaign goals and objectives can help you to get more targeted results and a higher ROAS. Keeping up to date with the latest campaign goal information statistics is key to fine-tuning your marketing strategy and setting smarter goals.

In this article, we’ll take a look at both Google and Facebook ads. We’ll do this to determine which ad goals are best for different situations. 

Before you jump straight in, it might be helpful to refresh your memory on Google Ads and Facebook Ads!

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What are Ad Campaign goals?

When you choose an ad campaign goal, Google/Facebook analyzes its user data. It then serves your ads to people in your target audience who are most likely to take the action you want.

The goal you select should align with the main objective that you have in mind for your ad campaign. e.g. Website traffic, Newsletter signups, etc.

No matter how compelling your ad text is or how detailed your targeting is, if you choose the wrong goal then your campaign won’t perform as well as you expect. This can negatively impact your entire marketing strategy.

Whether you want your audience to download your app, make an online purchase, or visit your store, Facebook Ads can help you connect with the right customers.

Ad campaign goals

Google Ad Campaign Goals

When you are creating a Google Ad campaign, select the goal that corresponds best to the main thing you want your campaign to achieve for your business.

In Google Ads, it’s possible to add or remove a goal at any time. You can choose to not use a goal and run your campaign with any goal recommendations but I wouldn’t advise it. 

The Google algorithm is world-famous for a reason so take all the help you can get from it by choosing a goal at the start.

List of Google Ad Campaign Goals

Increase Sales

This option will suggest changes to your bidding and budgeting strategies to focus on increasing clicks from viable potential customers.

Increase Leads

This setting will suggest improvements to audience targeting, extensions, and ads.

Boost Website Traffic

This option will guide you through strategies that may increase clicks on your own site.

Increase Product and Brand Consideration

This choice will provide you with advice for automated bidding, targeting, and visually appealing ads that help drive engagement in your brand and products.

Increase Brand Awareness and Reach

Similar to the option above, this goal will focus on creating compelling visual ads and bidding strategies to attract a wider audience.

Promote your App

This will focus on getting you as many app downloads as possible.

Increase Local Store Visits and Promotions

This is only a good choice if you are an actual store, not just eCommerce, as it focuses on in-person visits and promotions.

The last option on the list is to continue without a specific goal. However, again I wouldn’t recommend this option.

For more information, check out this article from Google speaking about Google Ad Campaign Goals.

Facebook (Meta) Ad Campaign Goals

Facebook (Meta) ad campaign goals are split into different overarching objectives, based on what part of your marketing funnel you are targeting with the campaign. Beneath each section of the funnel, there are more specific goals, similar to the Google Ads ones that we saw above.

  • Top of the funnel: These Awareness goals are designed to generate interest in your business offering.
  • Middle of the funnel: Consideration objectives are targeted at people who want to learn more about your offerings after already engaging with your brand.
  • Bottom of the funnel: These Conversion goals are for driving purchases, sign-ups and website visits.

List of Facebook Ad Campaign Goals

➡️ Awareness Goals

Brand Awareness

This option should be used when you want to introduce your brand to a wider audience and increase awareness of your products and services.

Reach

This goal will show your ads to as much of your target audience as possible for maximum reach.

➡️ Consideration Goals

Traffic

If your aim is to send your target audience to a destination outside of Facebook, like your website, then this is the right choice for you.

Engagement

This choice will provide you with advice for getting as many people to engage with your ad as possible. That could mean clicks, views, comments, or shares.

App Installs

This option is pretty self-explanatory. If you have an app that you want people to download then choose this goal.

Video Views

This will focus on getting as many people to view your brand’s video as possible.

Lead Generation

This objective is great for when you want to collect customer data on Facebook to build a new list of possible leads to be used for any number of marketing things afterwards.

Messages

This option is pretty unique to Facebook and should be used if your objective is to start a conversation via Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp with your target audience.

➡️ Conversion Objectives

Conversions

This goal is focused on bringing your audience through to your website and getting them to ‘convert’ by completing the desired action, such as making a purchase.

Catalogue Sales

If you are an eCommerce store trying to sell products then this is definitely the goal for you.

Store Traffic

This option is designed for in-person businesses to drive traffic to their store in real life.

For more information, check out this article from Facebook speaking about Facebook Ad Campaign Goals.

Conclusion

Knowing the right ad campaign goals for your business is an important first step in creating a successful ad campaign, whether that’s on Google or Facebook.

I hope this article helps you to choose the right ad goal for your campaign. Please don’t just breeze over it as some others recommend. If it was an option that could be easily skipped then it wouldn’t be an option at all. Reading this quick article could greatly help your overall marketing goals.

If you’re interested in seeing your ROAS truly skyrocket, check out Optily – A revolution in digital ad spend management for Shopify. We can supercharge your eCommerce advertising across the entire online advertising world, not just Google and Facebook (Meta), to achieve ROAS levels that you never thought were possible.

Come give it a try!

Thanks for reading 🚀

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