How to target people searching Google with Facebook Ads

Many think that the only way you can target people who are searching for your services on Google is by either doing Google ads or ranking at the top of Google organically with SEO.

But what if I told you that there was a way to target these same people via Facebook ads instead?

Yep, that’s right, you can actually target people searching on Google… Using Facebook Ads. 🙂

Watch the following video (or scroll down if you prefer reading) to learn how it all works…

BUT WAIT! Before you start targeting people searching Google with Facebook ads you need the right STRATEGY.

And by ‘strategy’ I’m talking about a way where you can:

• Get leads chasing to work with you (rather than you chasing them)
• Get high quality leads with ANY marketing budget (big or small)
• Get predictable high quality appointments with your ideal clients each month
• Avoid 80% of the ‘busywork’ that gets very slow or zero results

All of this and more can only be done IF you have the right strategy.

What is the right strategy?

Before you start ANY lead generation or digital marketing, CLICK HERE to watch a video I’ve recorded that walks you through the BEST strategy to get predictable high quality leads & appointments each month on autopilot.

So, have you finished watching this video that goes through how the strategy works?

If so, GREAT! Keep reading to see how to target people who are searching Google with Facebook ads.

MYTH: Facebook only gets data from Meta’s own assets

When you’re advertising on Facebook, many business owners are under the impression that Meta (Facebook’s new company name) only has data on the channels and platforms owned by Meta.

These would be:

• Facebook.com
• Facebook Messenger
• Whatsapp
• Instagram
• Facebook VR
• And any other assets that Facebook owns

But the reality is, Facebook collects a LOT more user data from other assets that they do NOT own.

The platforms Facebook own are only a small fraction of the data they use to target people with their ads.

FACT: Facebook collects data from Google search result pages

When you’re looking to target people with Facebook ads and when their algorithm is optimizing the ads to find those who are more likely to buy and be your ideal client, the majority of Facebook’s data actually comes from other websites. 

This includes websites that people find when searching on Google. 

This is because the majority of websites have the Facebook pixel installed.

This means you can actually target people searching Google on Facebook!

How does the Facebook Pixel track Google Searches?

Imagine that someone’s on Google and searches for “how to generate leads”.

The majority of the websites that you’ll find on the first page of Google will have the Facebook pixel installed.

This means that every time someone goes to that website from Google, Facebook will be able to know the person has visited this particular web page.

Facebook ads based on search history

Facebook looks at all the different keywords and phrases that the web page has and combines this with a users search history (other web pages they have visited in the past).

So for example, if someone searches Google for “How to generate leads” and lands on a web page has the keywords “lead”, “lead gen”, “lead generation” (or anything similar), Facebook will create an ‘interest’ for the people browsing that page as people that would be interested in “lead generation”.

Then when you go to Facebook and type in ‘lead generation’ in the Facebook Ads interest targeting section, you can see this as an option:

This example works for pretty much any keyword in any industry.

For example:

If generating leads for financial advisors, you could target people who are looking for wealth management, annuities or insurance.

Or…

If generating leads for accounting firms, you could target business owners looking for accounting services, bookkeeping, or how to save money on taxes.

And so on…

And there’s an almost endless amount of interests that you can target people on when it comes to using Facebook.

Targeting Google Searches on Facebook

Now, just to be clear: the Facebook Pixel is of course not on Google itself. So Facebook can’t track people on Google, but they can track the websites people visit FROM Google (which is almost the same thing).

Now, I could dive really DEEP into this topic and show you how Facebook actually uses AI, machine learning and big data to predict what someone is interested in BEFORE they even search for it (which is insane…), but I’ll leave that topic for another time / future blog post. 😉

Top tip: To get free helpful content delivered to your email inbox, sign up for my Free Masterclass training. Once signed up, I’ll keep you updated with my latest and best content to help you generate leads using Facebook, Google and/or LinkedIn.

How ‘interest’ targeting on Facebook Ads really works

When it comes to targeting people that are searching for different keywords on Google, all you need to do is target people using the ‘interest’ targeting feature in Facebook.

When you create Facebook ads to target different interests, many think that the interests are from data that’s been compiled only from people using Facebook or browsing specific Facebook pages, when most of the data comes from websites that those people are browsing online.

See also: How to target B2B business owners on Facebook ads

If you are already using interest targeting in your Facebook ads, then hopefully this gives you some additional insight into how it all works.

And if you haven’t yet used interest targeting, I would highly recommend you do. It’s a very powerful way of targeting people based on different keywords that people are searching online and consuming content on.

Can Facebook ads target specific keywords on Google?

Facebook ads interest targeting does not openly allow you to target very specific keywords on Google (also known as long-tail SEO keywords). Facebook only allow you to target high volume keywords.

For example, a high volume keyword found in Facebook’s interested targeting would be “Lead Generation”. A lower volume specific keyword would be “How to generate leads” or “How to generate leads on Google ads”.

If you target the interest “Lead Generation” it will include all of the lower volume keywords too.

Tip: Long-tail keywords ARE used in Facebook’s ads platform. They are just hidden from the public so you can’t select them. But there are third party tools you can use that will connect to Facebook’s API and allow you to target very specific long-tail keywords on Facebook ads (just search Google for “Facebook API interest targeting tool” to see a few examples).

How can Facebook Ads interest targeting help your business?

By using Facebook Ads, you can now target more people looking for your services without paying the typically more expensive costs of Google ads.

Facebook ads work so well because Facebook has so much data at its disposal and it uses Ai & machine learning to get better results over time.

Google ads vs Facebook ads: Is it better to advertise with Google directly?

Instead of using Facebook ads, you can use Google ads or Google SEO to target your potential clients.

But the problem is that (usually) Google ads are more expensive than Facebook ads, and ranking organically for free on Google takes time.

For example, in my own business right now I get hundreds of leads each month through ranking organically on Google… But it took years of creating helpful free content to get to that stage.

If you don’t want to wait for that to happen, then Facebook ads are a great shortcut to get results right away, and start targeting people who are actually searching for your services right now… And you can often do this a lot cheaper than by running Google ads!

But like all things in marketing: The only way to know for sure which channel works best for your business is to split test both Google and Facebook ads and see what works better.

If you’d like to learn more about how to use both Google and Facebook ads to get predictable leads, sales appointments and clients every month (in a way that is automated, profitable and scalable) then check out my free Masterclass training.

In the Masterclass training, I go through how this all works and give you 5 action steps you can take TODAY to start getting results as soon as possible.