The difference in one line
Google Ads captures demand; Meta ads create it. Someone typing “boiler repair Winchester” has a problem today and wants it solved. Someone scrolling Instagram has no problem, but a good enough picture of a garden room or a kitchen can start one.
When Google Ads is the right first move
- People already search for your service with intent: trades, emergency services, clinics, solicitors, accountants, repairs, removals, cleaning.
- You can answer the phone or reply to enquiries quickly. Search leads cool fast.
- You have a page that matches the search. An ad for boiler repair that lands on a general homepage wastes most of its clicks.
- You want results that are easy to measure: a search campaign with conversion tracking shows cost per enquiry within weeks.
The trade-off is cost per click. In competitive local trades a single click can cost several pounds, and that figure rises every year. The upside is that every one of those clicks came from someone who was looking for you.
When Meta ads come first
- What you sell is visual and desirable: kitchens, landscaping, interiors, fitness, food, events, clothing.
- Few people search for it by name, or they do not know it exists yet.
- You can keep producing fresh photos and short video. Meta ads live or die on creative, and creative wears out in weeks.
- You are happy to collect leads in a two-step way: an ad to a guide, an offer or a lead form, then a follow-up.
Meta clicks are usually cheaper than search clicks, but the people behind them are further from buying, so you will need more of them per sale and a plan for following up.
What it realistically costs
Ignore anyone who quotes a universal cost per click; it depends entirely on your trade and your area. A more useful rule for a first search campaign: budget for at least ten clicks a day. Below that, the platform cannot learn and you cannot tell signal from noise. For most local service businesses that puts a sensible starting point in the range of £15–£40 a day, reviewed after the first few weeks against actual enquiries. Meta campaigns can start lower, but the same logic applies: too little budget and you learn nothing.
Management is the other cost. Whether you run it yourself or pay someone, somebody has to watch search terms, adjust bids, write new ads and check that conversions are tracking. Ads that are set up and left alone drift into waste within a month or two.
Set up tracking before you spend a pound
The single most common mistake we see is a business that has spent thousands and cannot say how many enquiries it produced. Before the campaign goes live: Google Analytics on the site, a conversion event for form submissions and calls, and that conversion imported into Google Ads or sent to the Meta pixel. Without this, you are guessing, and the platforms’ automated bidding has nothing to optimise towards.
Mistakes that quietly waste budget
- Leaving Google’s defaults on: Search Partners, the Display Network and “Presence or interest” location targeting all show your ads to people you did not mean to reach.
- Broad match keywords with no negative keyword list. Your “plumber” ad ends up showing for “plumber salary” and “plumber jobs”.
- Sending every click to the homepage instead of a page about the thing they searched for.
- Never reading the search terms report. It tells you exactly what people typed before clicking; it is the best free market research you will get.
- On Meta: running the same creative for months, and judging the campaign by likes rather than enquiries.
Running both
Once one channel is working, the other usually adds to it. A common pattern for local businesses: Google Search to catch people who are ready now, Meta to stay in front of people in your area who have visited the site but not yet enquired. Keep the budgets separate and judge each on its own cost per enquiry.