Google Ads captures people already looking for you. Facebook Ads creates demand that was not there. Here is how to pick, with costs, break-even math and when to run neither.
Start with Google Ads if people already search for what you sell -- a plumber, a dentist, replacement parts. Start with Facebook and Instagram Ads if people do not know your product exists and it looks good in a photo. Google costs more per click ($1-$5 vs $0.50-$2) but converts better, because you are answering demand instead of creating it.
The two platforms are not competing versions of the same thing. One buys existing intent, the other manufactures it, and the right answer depends entirely on whether your customers already know they need you.
Does anyone type your product into a search box?
If yes -- emergency locksmith, tax accountant, dishwasher repair -- Google. Those people have a problem right now and a credit card out. You are not persuading anyone, you are being found.
If no -- a new gadget, a lifestyle brand, something people did not know existed -- Facebook and Instagram. Nobody searches for a product they have never heard of.
Google Search: $1 to $5 per click in most industries, far higher in legal, insurance and finance. Higher price, warmer traffic.
Facebook and Instagram: $0.50 to $2 per click, with about $5 a day as the practical minimum for the system to optimise. Cheaper traffic, colder intent.
Both are recurring. The day you stop paying, both stop entirely. Full channel breakdown in how much online advertising costs.
High intent and short sales cycles. Local services. Anything urgent. Products with an obvious search term. Small budgets that need every click to count.
Google's weakness is that it only reaches demand that already exists. If nobody searches for it, there is nothing to buy.
Visual products, impulse purchases, and audiences defined by who they are rather than what they typed. Also far better for retargeting people who already visited your site, which is usually the single most profitable campaign a small business can run.
Its weakness is that interruption is a harder sell. Conversion rates run lower and you need more clicks to get the same result.
Take what a customer is worth to you. Multiply by your conversion rate from ad click to sale -- if you do not know it, assume 2% to start. That gives you the most you can pay per click and break even.
A $50 product converting at 2% supports $1 per click. That rules out most Google keywords and makes Facebook the only viable option. A $2,000 service at the same rate supports $40 per click, which opens everything.
If the number comes out below about $0.50, paid ads are not your channel yet. That is not a failure; it is useful information that saves you a few thousand dollars.
If you do not know your conversion rate, cannot track which ad produced which sale, or have under a few hundred dollars to spend, both platforms will take your money and teach you very little.
At that stage, put the budget into things that do not bill you monthly: a complete Google Business Profile, content aimed at the exact questions buyers ask, and permanent placements that keep working after the budget is gone -- see cheap advertising for small business.
For most local service businesses: Google, every time.
For most product and e-commerce brands: Facebook and Instagram first, then Google for the branded and high-intent terms once people know your name.
Run one properly for 90 days before adding the second. Two half-funded campaigns lose to one funded one.
Facebook is cheaper per click, typically $0.50 to $2 against Google's $1 to $5. Google usually converts better, so the cheaper click is not automatically the cheaper customer.
Yes, but not on a small budget. Splitting a few hundred dollars across two platforms leaves neither with enough data to optimise. Run one for 90 days, learn what it teaches you, then add the second.
A realistic minimum is about $500 over a month on one platform. Less than that generally produces too little data to tell the difference between a bad campaign and normal variance.
Only when the math works: a customer valuable enough to cover the cost per click at your conversion rate. For high-value local services, yes. For a low-priced product in a competitive keyword, usually not.
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