Google Ads vs Meta Ads: which should you run?

Intent is the real difference

On Google, the user tells you what they want. That intent is why Google traffic usually converts at a higher rate and costs more per click.

On Meta, you interrupt someone who was not looking for you. Cheaper clicks, lower conversion rate, and creative does most of the heavy lifting. A Meta campaign lives or dies on the ad itself in a way a search campaign does not.

Cost

Clicks are generally cheaper on Meta, but that is not the useful comparison. Cost per acquired customer is, and on that measure the two are often much closer than the click prices suggest.

We manage both, so the choice should be driven by where the opportunity is rather than by who is running it. See Google Ads management and Meta Ads management.

Targeting

Google targets intent through keywords: you choose the searches you want to appear for. Simple, and constrained by search volume.

Meta targets people through interests, behaviours, lookalike audiences and its own optimisation. Much broader reach, and increasingly the platform decides who sees your ad based on your creative and conversion signal rather than the audience you picked.

Measurement

Google attribution is relatively clean — a click, a session, a conversion. Meta attribution is harder, because it often influences a purchase that later completes through a direct visit or a branded Google search, and iOS privacy changes cut a lot of the signal.

This matters practically: if you judge Meta purely on last-click attribution in Google Analytics, you will almost always undercount it and conclude it does not work. Server-side tracking through the Conversions API recovers a meaningful part of that.

When to run both

Running both gives you a full funnel: Meta builds awareness and demand, Google captures it when it converts into a search. The clearest sign it is working is branded search volume rising after a Meta campaign launches.

The main argument against starting with both is budget. Splitting a small budget across two platforms often means neither gets enough conversion data to optimise. If your total ad spend is modest, pick one, prove it, then expand.