"Should I put my budget on Google or on Facebook?" It is probably the first question a business asks when it starts running paid advertising. The honest answer: both channels work, but they do not do the same job. Picking the wrong one for your situation means paying full price for a mediocre result, then concluding that "advertising doesn't work".
The difference fits in one sentence: Google Ads captures demand that already exists, Meta Ads creates demand that does not exist yet. Everything else, costs, volume, speed of results, follows from that distinction.
Google Ads: answering someone who is already looking
On Google, someone types "kitchen fitting price" or "home extension quote" and clicks your ad. That click is warm: the person has a project, they are comparing, they want to move forward. The intent is explicit, so qualification almost takes care of itself.
The mechanical consequences:
- Conversion rates are high, because you are not trying to convince someone who never asked for anything.
- Cost per click is more expensive: bidding happens on keywords everyone wants to show up for. The industry benchmarks compiled by WordStream put the average Search network CPC between 2 and 4 EUR depending on the sector, with peaks well above that on the most competitive queries.
- Volume is capped by real demand: you cannot show more ads than there are searches.
Google Ads is therefore the channel of existing demand. If your service gets bought after an active search, building work, repairs, urgent jobs or heavily compared services, that is often where to start.
Meta Ads: creating demand for someone who wasn't looking
On Facebook and Instagram, nobody types a search. The prospect was scrolling with no project in mind, and a site video, a before and after, or a customer testimonial triggers the desire. You are not intercepting demand, you are manufacturing it.
The symmetric consequences:
- Cost per enquiry is often lower, because you are not bidding against an intent. Meta Ads lead generation campaigns commonly run between 5 and 30 EUR per enquiry depending on the sector (see the breakdown in what a lead actually costs in 2026).
- Qualification is weaker: some of those enquiries will just be curiosity. Budget time for follow-up and a real phone filter.
- Volume is expandable: as long as a creative performs, you can widen the audience.
Meta Ads is the channel of latent demand: everything that sells on emotion, projection and visual proof. A renovation, an event, an outdoor installation: the customer did not know they wanted it until they saw it.
The three-question decision method
Do not choose on instinct. Three questions are enough:
1. Are your customers already looking for you on Google? Type your key services and count the ads. If competitors are on page one, demand exists and Google Ads has something to work with. If the results page is nearly empty, nobody is looking for you, so the demand has to be created, which means Meta Ads.
2. Does your service show well? A strong visual result (before and after, finished job, transformation) is natural fuel for Meta. An invisible or technical service (audit, compliance, emergency repair) suits search better.
3. What is your monthly budget and your average customer value? Below 500 EUR a month, put everything on a single channel: spreading a small budget across two platforms gets you two unreadable results. The profitability calculation runs backwards: average customer value times margin times the number of customers you can afford to acquire equals your maximum monthly envelope.
Three typical scenarios
- Strong demand plus a visual offer: start with Google Ads to capture the intent, then open Meta as a second channel to widen volume once the first one is profitable.
- Weak demand plus a visual offer: Meta Ads from the start, with creatives that show the result. Google Ads simply does not have enough volume to sell you.
- Strong demand plus a barely visual offer: Google Ads almost exclusively, with Meta used only for retargeting to bring back site visitors who did not fill in the form.
The right medium-term instinct is not exclusivity, it is sequence. One channel first, made profitable and measured, then the second.
Should you launch both at once?
Often yes, but rarely on day one. Google captures existing searches while Meta widens the number of people exposed to the offer: the two complement each other. Launching them at the same time on a budget that is too small, however, scatters the data and makes diagnosis impossible. You end up with two lukewarm campaigns and no conclusion.
For a first test, choose the channel that matches how your market actually behaves today, set a clear offer and measure the whole journey. The second channel comes afterwards, to solve a limit you have identified: lack of volume, excessive dependence on search, marginal cost creeping up, or a need for retargeting.
The mistakes that cost the most
- Comparing the two on cost per lead. One highly qualified Google enquiry at 25 EUR beats ten Meta enquiries at 4 EUR that never pick up the phone. Compare cost per signed customer.
- Launching both at once on a small budget. You will have no statistically usable data to decide with.
- Attributing everything to the last click. The prospect often sees your Meta ad, then searches for you on Google a week later. Without conversion tracking, you credit Google for work that started on Meta.
- Neglecting the landing page. On both channels, a slow page with no proof drives away the click you paid for. Advertising buys the visit, the page does the selling.
In short
Google Ads answers an intent, Meta Ads triggers one. Your choice depends less on fashion than on three realities: is anyone looking for you, does it show well, and how much is a customer worth. Ask those three questions, pick one channel, measure for six to eight weeks, then decide on the second. It is less spectacular than "launching everything", but that is how an advertising budget becomes an investment instead of an expense. Browse all the growth and acquisition guides on the Solvya Flow blog.