When it comes to putting up ads on digital mediums, the two most important platforms to show your ads are on search engine results & social media feeds. Both have their own effectiveness.
Search Engine Ads(Demand fulfillment ads or search ads) only show up when an user searches for a product or services that exists. So, if you put up an ad for some new product or services, it will hardly help as that is likely to be searched by an user. Suppose, your company launches a new service & you put up an ad for that on search engines, but it’s likely to be shown in results since users aren’t aware of your service & likely to search for your service or similar service.
Social Media ads(Demand generation ads or display ads) interrupts what you are checking in your feed with ads, i.e., the ad will be shown to a large number of people even if they have not been looking or searching for it. And that is what is important if you’re introducing a new product or services which don’t have an existing demand & people are not aware of & not looking & searching for it.
Conversion Rates are always higher in search engine ads since users are shown ads about what they are searching or looking for, so they are more likely to click on the ad, unlike in social media where ads may be shown to someone who may not be interested in that product or services.
In a Google ad, you can directly sell your product or services to the customers because when they’re searching for that product or services they’re serious about it & is in a buying mood & are likely to convert. But people come to social media to check updates from their family, friends & various other purposes & not to buy. So, if you try to sell directly to the target audience, they may not convert, as they’re not in a buying mood. So, first provide them with something interesting or free, so that they sign up for that, & later when they get serious & return to engage to that free stuff, you may approach them to buy your product or services. Or you can just try to take your target customers through this funnel –> Create awareness > generate interest > customer considers buying > customers buys > becomes loyal customers > refers to others.
Social Media is however highly recommended for retargeting ads, i.e. when visitors leave without making a purchase, they will be shown your ad in their social media feed multiple times when they are browsing reminding them to complete the purchase repeatedly.