The one difference that matters
Business owners often ask us which platform is "better". Neither is. They do different jobs.
Google Search ads show when someone types a search. You choose keywords, and Google's keyword matching options decide how closely a search has to match them. The person has told you what they want. Your job is to be the most convincing answer.
Facebook and Instagram ads show while people scroll. Nobody asked for you. Meta's system, especially with Advantage+ audience, uses signals such as past conversions, pixel data and interactions with previous ads to find people likely to respond. Your job is to interrupt with something worth stopping for.
That one difference, intent versus interruption, decides most of what follows.
When Google Ads should come first
- People search for your service by name: "emergency plumber", "accountant for small business", "teeth whitening near me".
- The need is urgent. Nobody scrolls Instagram hoping to find a locksmith.
- Each customer is worth a lot, so a higher cost per click still pays.
- You serve a defined area and can target it tightly.
In our experience, local service businesses with urgent or high-value work almost always start on Google.
When Facebook and Instagram should come first
- People do not search for it yet, because it is new or because they do not know it exists.
- It sells on looks: food, fashion, interiors, fitness, events, property.
- You have a strong offer that can make someone stop scrolling: a launch price, a free first session, a limited event.
- The average order is lower and you need cheaper reach to make the numbers work.
- You want to build an audience you can bring back later.
How they compare for a small business
- Intent: Google is high (they searched). Meta is lower (they were browsing), so the ad and offer do more work.
- Cost per click: in the accounts we run, Google clicks in competitive local services usually cost more, and Meta clicks cost less but convert less often. Check your own market with Keyword Planner and a small Meta test rather than trusting anyone's averages, including ours.
- Speed of results: Google can bring enquiries in the first days if demand exists. Meta needs a learning period; Meta says an ad set usually settles after about 50 results in a week.
- Creative: Google Search needs good text and a strong landing page. Meta needs images and video, refreshed regularly.
- Lead quality: Google leads usually arrive with clearer intent. Meta leads need a better form and faster follow-up. See why Facebook leads are poor quality.
- Scale: Google is capped by how many people search. Meta can reach far more people, at the cost of lower intent.
A test that settles it with your own numbers
If you are not sure, run both for a month on equal footing and let the results decide. Here is the method (the numbers are hypothetical, for illustration).
- Set one goal for both: a qualified enquiry, defined the same way.
- Give each the same budget, for example $1,000 for the month.
- Google: one Search campaign on your two or three best services, in your service area, with conversion tracking on forms and calls.
- Meta: one leads campaign with a Higher intent form or a landing page, one ad set, three to five creatives.
- Track every lead to an outcome in a CRM or a shared sheet.
At the end of the month, compare cost per customer, not cost per lead. Say Google brought 25 leads and 8 customers ($125 each) and Meta brought 60 leads and 6 customers ($167 each). Google wins this test, even though Meta "won" on leads. A different business could see the opposite. That is why you test.
How to split a budget once you know
Once you know which platform turns money into customers more cheaply, put most of the budget there, and keep the other running at a level that still teaches you something. Some patterns we use:
- Search-led businesses: most of the budget on Google Search, a smaller share on Meta for retargeting people who visited the site but did not enquire.
- Visual or new-demand businesses: most of the budget on Meta, a smaller share on Google for brand searches and the highest-intent keywords.
- Seasonal businesses: shift the split as demand changes, for example more on Meta before the season to build interest, more on Google at peak.
Re-check the split every month against cost per customer.
Where the two work best together
The strongest setups we run use each platform for what it does well, and let them feed each other.
- Retargeting: someone who clicked a Google ad and left without enquiring can see a Meta ad later that week, with a reason to come back, such as reviews, a guarantee or a time-limited offer.
- Brand search: a good Meta campaign often leads people to search for your business name. Make sure a small Google brand campaign or a strong Google Business Profile is there to catch them.
- Shared learning: the ad copy and offers that win on one platform are worth testing on the other. A headline that works in a search ad can become the opening line of a Meta video.
- One CRM: send leads from both into the same CRM with the source recorded, so you can compare them fairly and send outcomes back to each platform.
Mistakes that skew the comparison
- Different goals on each platform, such as page views on one and leads on the other.
- Tracking that works on one but not the other. Fix conversion tracking on both before judging.
- Sending Google traffic to the homepage and Meta traffic to a landing page, or the other way round.
- Calling Google leads within minutes and Meta leads the next day. Slow follow-up kills good leads on either platform.
- Judging Meta in its first week, while it is still learning.
What it costs to run each
We have separate guides on the budget side: how much Google Ads cost and how much Facebook advertising costs. Both walk through working out a budget from your own numbers.