Google Ads vs. Google Business Profile

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Google Ads
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Google Ads (formerly AdWords) is Google's pay-per-click online advertising program. With Google Ads users set their budget and choose where their ads appear in search listings, and on partner websites. Google Ads uses cost-per-click (CPC) bidding.
$500
in Ads credit in the first 60 days
Google Business Profile
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is a free tool that allows users to promote a Business Profile and business website on Google Search and Maps. With an account, users can see and connect with customers, post updates to the Business Profile, and see how customers are interacting with a business on Google.N/A
Pricing
Google AdsGoogle Business Profile
Editions & Modules
Offer A
$500
in Ads credit in the first 60 days
Offer B
$1500
in Ads credit in the first 60 days
Offer C
$3000
in Ads credit in the first 60 days
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Google AdsGoogle Business Profile
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Google AdsGoogle Business Profile
Features
Google AdsGoogle Business Profile
Ad Campaigns
Comparison of Ad Campaigns features of Product A and Product B
Google Ads
3.8
Ratings
5% below category average
Google Business Profile
-
Ratings
Ad campaign creation2.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad deployment2.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Display advertising9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad display and retargeting segmentation8.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Sequence targeting1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Contextual advertising2.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Social advertising1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Ad Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Google Ads
6.3
Ratings
19% above category average
Google Business Profile
-
Ratings
Ad dashboards2.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad performance reports9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad conversion tracking9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad attribution reporting9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad forecasting and optimization2.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad Auctions
Comparison of Ad Auctions features of Product A and Product B
Google Ads
7.0
Ratings
3% above category average
Google Business Profile
-
Ratings
Ad bidding7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Google AdsGoogle Business Profile
Small Businesses
Serpstat
Serpstat
Score 9.0 out of 10
HubSpot Marketing Hub
HubSpot Marketing Hub
Score 8.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
WordStream
WordStream
Score 6.9 out of 10
HubSpot Marketing Hub
HubSpot Marketing Hub
Score 8.8 out of 10
Enterprises
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Score 8.6 out of 10

No answers on this topic

All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Google AdsGoogle Business Profile
Likelihood to Recommend
5.7
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.6
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
1.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
6.0
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
1.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Google AdsGoogle Business Profile
Likelihood to Recommend
Clients who are selling products such as dresses, clothes, jewelry, beauty products, etc., generally work well. Also, in some cases, it doesn't fetch a good ROAS for very small business owners. If a client is already doing well in SEO, the probability for it to perform well over Google Ads is always enhanced, and if it doesn't have a good organic reach, Google Ads also suffers.
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The great advantage of Google My Business is that any business that complies with the privacy and authentication policy requirements can access all the functionality tools that help promote the business website through the referral system, exchange of opinions with other users and search engine optimization (SEO).
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Pros
  • Keyword Research - Google Ads has a handy built in tool that helps determine important keywords to target both for Ads & SEO
  • Intuitive Analytics Dashboad - Google Ads makes it fairly simple to see and analyze important metrics on how your ads are running week after week
  • Intuitive Setup - Google Ads makes it easy to figure out how to run ads with little to no training (although training is highly recommended to run effective ads), as their interface is clean and easy to figure out (unlike competing products).
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  • I appreciate how you can select your amenities and customize your profile to stand out in a unique manner
  • it's super easy to add new products / post updates about your business
  • The use of pictures is helpful for our customers, we're at the end of a industrial park and it can be tricky to find the front of our office at times. Customers have mentioned our business profile pictures helped them locate us!
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Cons
  • Google's heavy dependence on AI makes many of the campaign behavior inscrutable and, often, it performs poorly as a result.
  • Their responsive ads, for example, which are heavily recommended by them, often perform significantly worse than normal text ads.
  • Their support, while relatively quick, becomes useless if you need any deep insight/help.
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  • Sometimes it's difficult to verify a business if they are an online business and have no brick and mortar location.
  • I wish there was more control of how the reviews are sorted and a faster ability to dispute completely spammy reviews.
  • It would be helpful to have more captions in the photos, especially for restaurants because people post food photos without any descriptions and it's difficult to figure out what certain photos represent at times.
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Likelihood to Renew
As of today Google AdWords leads approximately 90% of paid searches globally. There is practically is no other network that can offer such a relevant and engaging audience at the price. The PPC model is also unique in that no media dollars are wasted, since PPC models ensure brand interaction versus traditional media which has heavy ad avoidance and clutter but still charges a hefty amount for ads.
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Usability
This is more of a subjective rating, because I think it can be increased with how much our ad spend is. The more of an ad spend, the more visibility we can get, and therefore all features can climb. With an overall larger presence the usability is that where we can get messages out quick, and that's the main thing we try to do with our campaigns.
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Google Business Profile is very user friendly for the users and well as the customers of the company. The customers have an easy time finding the information they need and posting and viewing reviews
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Support Rating
We have not yet had an account rep who hasn't tried to bully me or other employees to raise our budgets. At the same time, several years ago, one attempted to help refine our ads and ended up changing the ads to be something we were not affiliated with
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Whether it is technical or customer support, Google My Business excels and suffers in the exact same ways that all other branches of Google do. While you'll eventually figure out the issue, the sheer magnitude of the company comes with expected hurdles, wait times, and support you'd come to expect from other large companies.
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Online Training
Daily use with advanced account structures. Familiarity with reporting/api and complex setups.
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Google Ads remains at the top advertising channel within our business for both lead volume and revenue generation, whilst maintaining a reasonable cost per lead (CPL). Both Meta Ads and Microsoft Ads have a much lower CPL, those channels don't contribute as much revenue and lead generation.
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Before using Google My Business, we have used the "Yext" platform in our company to improve our positioning and get our clients to have an exact location of our company, however, the results were very bad. Yext user support did not offer us good care when we purchased the annual plan. When we made the purchase, we had several doubts to be able to implement this platform in our company, since the configuration of the location and the statistical analysis of search is somewhat complicated, but the Yext user support responded after 48 hours, and This did not allow us to quickly implement this software in our company, so we went to make a refund. Google My Business solved all our doubts, each one of the problems presented during the implementation of Google My Business in my company, were solved in just a few minutes since we received help from an online agent 24 hours a day. The implementation of this software was totally fast thanks to the excellent support we received.
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Return on Investment
  • Once we got the hang of it and had everything setup, it was a great monthly expense that we could count on ROI from. Either by obtaining new customers or literally staying above our competition in search rankings.
  • We also started consulting on ads for customers and helping them set things up, which created a new revenue stream for us.
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  • Provides social proof of real users experiences.
  • Is often the only information a visitor needs to visit your location providing a zero click search with no need to visit a website.
  • Ensures users can see an unbiased snapshot of a business.
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ScreenShots