This is the question we hear most before a business signs up for anything. There's no universal right answer, but there is a right way to think about it, and it has less to do with the platforms themselves than with how your customers actually find businesses like yours.
Google Ads captures demand that already exists
Someone searching "roof repair" or "best dog groomer near me" has already decided they want something, they're just deciding who gets the call. Google Ads puts you in front of that decision at the exact moment it's being made. It tends to work best for businesses with a clear, nameable need: home services, medical and dental, legal, automotive, anything someone would actively search for the moment the need shows up.
Meta Ads creates demand that doesn't exist yet
Nobody searches "cute ceramic plant pots" the way they search "emergency electrician." Meta Ads, Facebook and Instagram, works by interrupting someone's feed with something visually compelling enough to stop the scroll, before they were looking for it at all. It tends to work best for businesses that sell something visual, impulse-friendly, or benefit-driven: e-commerce, beauty and wellness, food and beverage, anything that sells well as a photo or a short video.
Start with how your customers buy
Ask it this way instead: when someone needs what you sell, do they type a search, or do they need to be shown the idea before they know they want it? A plumber is almost always the first case. A boutique skincare brand is almost always the second. Plenty of businesses are a genuine mix of both, which is exactly why we run them as one coordinated system instead of two separate efforts competing for the same budget.
Budget behaves differently on each platform
Google Ads spend is driven by how many people are actively searching for what you offer, it has a ceiling set by real demand. Meta Ads spend is driven by how much reach and frequency you want against an audience you're choosing, it scales more linearly with budget. Neither is "cheaper" in the abstract; they're priced around fundamentally different jobs.
If you can only start with one
Start where the buying decision already happens. If customers actively search for businesses like yours, start with Google. If your product needs to be seen to be wanted, start with Meta. Either way, the landing page behind the ad matters just as much as the platform, see our note on that here.
The businesses that get the most out of paid advertising usually end up running both, just not on day one, and not without a reason for each.
How we handle it
We don't default every business to both platforms because it's easier to sell. Discovery is where we work out which behavior actually matches your business, and we'll tell you honestly if a single platform is the right call for now.