Google Ads vs. Google Trends

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Google Ads
Score 8.2 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.N/A
Google Trends
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Google Trends is a search engine optimization software solution offered by .N/A
Pricing
Google AdsGoogle Trends
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Google AdsGoogle Trends
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 Trends
Considered Both Products
Google Ads

No answer on this topic

Google Trends
Chose Google Trends
Other Google products I have used would be AdWords. I would use this along with that program since they do entirely different things.
Chose Google Trends
One of the most obvious reasons why I chose Google trends over other keyword research platforms is because it's free. At the same time, it also has the most relevant and easy-to-use features out of the bunch. Google Trends does not have as many features as SEMRush or Buzzsumo, …
Chose Google Trends
Google AdSense is much more detailed, but requires the user to be logged in and have an active Google Adsense account, sometimes it's quicker to just use Google trends.
Chose Google Trends
Google Trends is sometimes a helpful supplement to other analytics and advertising tools, but it is not very useful as a standalone analysis tool. We have seen much more benefit from the intelligence and audience information built in to our other core tools. Better predictive …
Chose Google Trends
Google trends is a unique free trends tool that is great for quick data visualizations and geo breakouts.
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Google AdsGoogle Trends
SEO
Comparison of SEO features of Product A and Product B
Google Ads
-
Ratings
Google Trends
8.4
33 Ratings
8% above category average
Keyword analysis00 Ratings10.031 Ratings
Backlink management00 Ratings4.67 Ratings
SERP ranking tracking00 Ratings10.012 Ratings
Page grader00 Ratings10.08 Ratings
Competitive analysis00 Ratings9.019 Ratings
Site audit / diagnostics00 Ratings7.07 Ratings
Site recommendations00 Ratings10.08 Ratings
Task management00 Ratings6.24 Ratings
SEO Channels
Comparison of SEO Channels features of Product A and Product B
Google Ads
-
Ratings
Google Trends
10.0
23 Ratings
27% above category average
Local SEO00 Ratings10.020 Ratings
Social SEO00 Ratings10.014 Ratings
Mobile SEO00 Ratings10.015 Ratings
Global SEO00 Ratings10.023 Ratings
SEO Platform & Account Management
Comparison of SEO Platform & Account Management features of Product A and Product B
Google Ads
-
Ratings
Google Trends
3.7
10 Ratings
78% below category average
Multi-domain support00 Ratings5.84 Ratings
Integration with web analytics tools00 Ratings1.610 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Google AdsGoogle Trends
Small Businesses
WordStream Advisor
WordStream Advisor
Score 7.0 out of 10
Google PageSpeed Insights
Google PageSpeed Insights
Score 9.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
WordStream Advisor
WordStream Advisor
Score 7.0 out of 10
Advanced Web Ranking
Advanced Web Ranking
Score 8.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Score 8.9 out of 10
Dupli Checker (DupliChecker.com)
Dupli Checker (DupliChecker.com)
Score 8.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Google AdsGoogle Trends
Likelihood to Recommend
7.2
(115 ratings)
9.6
(33 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.5
(21 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.3
(7 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.9
(8 ratings)
6.4
(6 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
1.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Google AdsGoogle Trends
Likelihood to Recommend
Google
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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Google
Google Trends is appropriate in so many scenarios, but I definitely suggest it for content ideas and inspiration. Many people utilize it after already writing their content to add in popular phrases or words, but that is not enough. The platform should be used prior and during the content creation process so that you can use the data to see what your audience/customers are interested in at the moment and create the content based on their interests. It can help, but I find it much less appropriate to use it after your article, eBook, etc. is already written. Maximize on this useful tool by ensuring the topic you're writing about is relevant in the first place before simply adding in popular keywords. An article that's written based on what's trending will be far more successful than an article that solely has popular phrases added to it.
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Pros
Google
  • 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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Google
  • Google Trends shows me geographic locations where a particular topic may be useful for advertising.
  • Google Trends allows me to drill down into those locations to metro and city levels where I can focus on exactly what local business clients need to know.
  • Google Trends allows me to identify and qualify search terms that my client's need to optimize their websites and social media content for.
  • Google Trends shows me what people are talking about in a specific location over a specific period of time. This is a great way to know what I should be posting on social media.
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Cons
Google
  • If you don't know what you're doing, it will be a costly mistake. You need to target ads, and it is difficult the first time to do that.
  • There isn't a feature to run an add for a couple set date spans, just hours you want to run them or a single date span.
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Google
  • Top charts: would be nice to include top charts for the current month.
  • Explainers: would be good to have some information buttons next to graphics and charts to show in depth what criteria go into making those charts.
  • More images: would be interesting to see trending image searches.
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Likelihood to Renew
Google
I think Google Ads is good for getting your company out there and becoming more visible to potential customers in general. However, for specific product launches, social media advertising might be a better fit. Also, our user base is younger so social media is a better channel for our target audience.
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Google
No answers on this topic
Usability
Google
I suspect that Google Ads is not for the novice user. I told my 'Ad Specialist' that I was not the best on computers and apprehensive about my ability to maneuver the website. He told me on more than one occasion that "I work for you...I'm your sherpa...call me any time or send me an email"!
The sales and service representatives for Google Ads are very well trained, though not much integrity. Despite that I told my Google Ad Specialist that my website was incomplete the ad was published live anyway! Beware that the 'talk' is good, but it ain't cheap!
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Google
Google Trends is very easy to use. you just search for a certain keyword or phrase, and it tells you how often that keyword or phrase is searched, where in the world it is searched, and over the last decade, how often it is per year.
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Support Rating
Google
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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Google
I haven't needed to use any support for Google Trends. However, I've used Google's support in general and it's a hit or miss. Usually, there's a long wait or they don't understand my problem. They are the only ones that can help, so sometimes I feel stuck. They prioritize paying customers for sure.
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Online Training
Google
Daily use with advanced account structures. Familiarity with reporting/api and complex setups.
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Google
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Google
Our agency invests heavily in Google Ads (particularly paid search advertising) on behalf of our clients relative to competitors like Microsoft and Yahoo because Google is the top search engine in the world. Google collects the most search data which enables the company to improve its AI to drive better performance for agencies and brands. As such, our paid search and app install campaigns always start with Google. If a client has a large budget, we will allocate media dollars to other search engines, but in some cases, the entire search budget goes to Google because we see the best returns.
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Google
Overall I think that Ahrefs is a better product when it comes to really drilling down and getting all the data that you need in order to understand a given behavior or problem. Ahrefs is much more powerful in its feature set but does not have the same level of overall data/visual data representation that Google Trends does.
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Return on Investment
Google
  • Google Ads is often one of our highest ROI channels, especially when you factor in branded ads.
  • Depending on the stage your business is in, search ads can be really powerful from an ROI perspective, providing an investment with a very high spend cap.
  • If you do not manage the campaigns well though, you can quickly spend a lot of money on nothing. So make sure someone is keeping an eye on your account.
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Google
  • Google Trends has shown me when a keyword is no longer working for my website so that I can adjust the content accordingly.
  • It shows me seasonal differences so I can adjust my PPC budgets to be on pace with the trends.
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ScreenShots