This comes up on almost every first call I have with a business owner. Should we be on Google or Facebook? Usually followed by a story about a nephew who’s good with Instagram, or an agency that ran one and swore the other was a waste of money.
We run both for clients, so I don’t have a side to take. What I do have is a fairly simple way of deciding, and that’s what this post is.
In short: start with Google Ads if people search for what you do at the moment they need it. A blocked drain, an emergency dentist, a lawyer after a bad weekend. Start with Facebook and Instagram if people don’t go looking until something catches their eye, like new shutters or a kitchen they didn’t know they wanted. Most businesses end up running both eventually. Very few should start with both.
The difference, in one sentence
Google Ads shows up when someone is already looking for you. Facebook and Instagram ads show up while someone is doing something else.
That one difference drives nearly everything else: what a click costs, who clicks, how quickly they book, and what your ad needs to say to them.
| Google Ads | Facebook and Instagram ads | |
|---|---|---|
| Who sees it | People searching for what you do | People who match who you’re after, while they scroll |
| What’s in their head | “I need this sorted” | “Oh, that’s interesting” |
| Cost per click in our accounts | About $17 to $66 for plumbing searches | About $1.12 in a blinds and shutters account |
| What the ad has to do | Answer the search clearly | Give someone a reason to stop scrolling |
| How fast leads come | Often in the first week | Usually after a few weeks of learning |
| Suits | Urgent or high-intent services | Visual products, offers and considered purchases |
Those cost per click figures are from accounts we run: October 2026 for the plumbers, lifetime for the blinds account. Yours will be different, but the gap between the two is normal, and it’s not a sign that Google is overpriced. A Google click costs more because the person on the other end is a lot further along.
When Google should come first
If your customers grab their phone and type in what they need, Google is where the money is. Plumbers, electricians, locksmiths, emergency dentists, family lawyers, mechanics. The demand already exists. Your job is to be there when they look, and to make calling you easy.
An example from our own accounts. Uplumb is a Brisbane plumber we launched in September 2026. In October we gave blocked drains its own campaign, and from 20 October to 6 November that one campaign brought in 55 leads at about $33 each. Nobody had to be convinced they had a blocked drain. They just needed someone to call, and Jordan’s ad was there when they looked. The full story is in the Uplumb case study.
It’s not just trades. Cranbourne West Dental’s first 19 days on Google Ads cost $1,891 and brought in 62 patient enquiries, which works out to about $30 each. That was 37 forms, 7 online bookings, 3 calls from the ads and 15 taps on the phone number. That one’s written up in the Cranbourne West Dental case study.
If what you’re really weighing up is Google Ads against SEO rather than Facebook, that’s a different conversation, and we’ve had it in SEO vs Google Ads for Australian businesses.
When Facebook and Instagram should come first
Some things people just don’t search for until they’ve seen them.
Nobody types “plantation shutters” into Google out of nowhere on a Tuesday night. They see a nice room on Instagram, glance at their own front window, and now they’re interested. That’s Facebook’s home ground: visual products, home improvements, offers, events, anything people decide on over a few weeks rather than a few minutes.
We ran Meta lead ads for a blinds, shutters and security doors business from October 2025 to July 2026, and it brought in 496 leads at $8.51 each. On Google that same business would have been fighting over a much smaller pool of people who were already searching, at a much higher price per click.
There’s a catch with Facebook, and I’d rather you heard it from me. Cheap leads aren’t always good leads. When we ran instant forms for our own agency the leads were cheap and none of the first five answered the phone, so we moved to a landing page and took the hit on volume. We go into what Facebook ads cost, and how to keep the quality up, in Facebook ads cost in Australia.
When to run both
Once your Google Ads are catching most of the searches in your area, more budget there buys you less and less. Your ads are already showing to most of the people looking. That’s usually the point to add Facebook and Instagram, so you’re reaching people before they start searching rather than paying more for the same ones.
Facebook is also handy for following up people who came to your site from Google and didn’t call. Plenty of people need to see you twice before they act, especially for anything over a few hundred dollars.
If you do run both, be ready for this: Google and Meta will both claim the same customer. Add up what each platform says it produced and you’ll often get more sales than you actually made. We explain why in how Google and Meta double dip on your ad spend. The fix is to count leads and jobs yourself, in one place, rather than trusting two dashboards that are each marking their own work.
A simple way to decide
Three questions, and be honest with yourself on the second one:
- Do people search for what you do when they need it? If yes, start with Google.
- Does your work look good in a photo or a 15 second video? If yes, Facebook and Instagram are worth a test. If your work is invisible when it’s done well, like a repaired hot water system, probably not.
- How quickly do you need the phone to ring? This week points to Google. This quarter gives Facebook the time it needs to learn.
Then start with one, get it working properly, and add the second once you can see what a booked job is costing you from the first.
The questions I get asked about this
Is Facebook cheaper than Google Ads?
Per click, almost always. Per booked job, it depends entirely on the business. Compare what each one costs you per customer, not per click, or you’ll pick the wrong one.
Can I run both on a small budget?
You can, but you’ll be splitting a small budget into two smaller ones, and neither will have enough data to learn from. Prove one channel first.
Do I need a website for Facebook ads?
Not strictly, because Meta has instant forms. But a decent landing page usually brings better quality enquiries, and you’ll need one for Google Ads anyway, so you may as well build it.
Which works better for trades, and which for clinics?
Urgent trade work leans Google. Renovations, landscaping and home products often do well on both. Clinics usually start on Google, then use Facebook and Instagram for treatments people plan ahead for, within the rules on health advertising.
Still not sure where to start?
Book a call with me. We’ll look at what people search for in your area and what your work looks like on a screen, and I’ll tell you which one I’d start with and why. We run Google Ads and Facebook and Instagram ads, month to month, so there’s no pressure to pick the wrong one and live with it.
