Google Ads vs Facebook ads: which fits your business

The facts here come from Google's and Meta's own help pages: How the Google Ads auction works, Manage your spend in Google Ads, About conversion measurement, Meta's About ad auctions, How Meta charges for ads, About daily budgets, About Advantage+ audience and Learn about Meta Pixel. Where we give an opinion, we say so. Neither company publishes a standard cost per click or return on ad spend, and we do not quote averages.

The short answer

	Google Ads (Search)	Facebook and Instagram ads (Meta)
When the ad shows	When someone searches, or visits a site that shows Google ads	When there is a chance to show an ad to someone in Meta's apps
What you target	Keywords, plus location and other settings	An audience you define, or one Meta's AI finds
What you bid for	Usually a click	Usually impressions, unless you choose otherwise
Budget	Average daily budget per campaign	Daily or lifetime budget
Tracking	Google Ads conversion tracking	Meta Pixel and Conversions API

The rest of this page explains each row and links to our longer guides on each platform: Google Ads basics and Meta ads basics.

Search intent vs feed discovery

Google says its ad auction "takes place every time someone searches on Google or visits a site that shows ads." On Search, the person has already typed what they want, and Google looks at "the search terms the person has entered" when it ranks ads. Your ad answers a request.

Meta's auction starts from the person, not a query: "Each time there's an opportunity to show an ad to someone, an auction takes place to determine which ad to show to that person." The ad appears in a feed, Stories or Reels while someone is doing something else, so it has to earn attention and create the interest itself.

In our view, that is the main difference. Google Search catches demand that already exists. Meta is better at creating demand among people who were not looking yet, which suits products people do not know to search for. Google also sells feed-style placements on YouTube, Discover, Gmail and Display through Demand Gen campaigns, so the split is about campaign type as much as company.

Targeting: keywords vs audiences

On Google Search you choose keywords, and the ad can show when a search matches them. Match types and negative keywords decide how close the match must be; see our keyword match types guide. Location targeting narrows where the ad shows, covered in our location targeting guide.

On Meta there are no keywords. Meta's auction page says advertisers "tell us who they want to show their ads to by defining a target audience." You can also hand that job over: Advantage+ audience "lets you use Meta's advanced AI to find the audience for your Meta ad campaign, instead of defining that audience yourself." Meta uses signals such as past conversions, Meta Pixel data and interactions with earlier ads. Meta notes that for a retargeting campaign, Advantage+ audience "isn't recommended."

Both platforms can show ads again to people who visited your site or who are on your customer list. Our remarketing audiences guide covers both, and the consent each needs.

Ad formats

A Google Search ad is mostly text: headlines and descriptions and a link, with optional assets such as sitelinks and calls. Images and video belong to other campaign types such as Performance Max, Demand Gen and YouTube video campaigns; our campaign types guide compares them.

Meta ads are visual first: a single image or video, a carousel or a collection, shown across Facebook, Instagram and Meta's other placements. The image or the first seconds of the video do most of the work, so creative takes more effort than on Search. Sizes and limits are in our Meta ads specs guide, and where ads can appear is in Meta ads placements.

How each one charges

On Google Search, your bid tells Google "the maximum amount you're willing to pay for a click on your ad", and "How much you actually end up paying is often less". You pay when someone clicks. Ad quality and the page you send people to also count in the auction, so the highest bid does not always win. Our Google Ads cost section explains what sets the price.

On Meta, "Usually, you're charged based on the number of impressions your ad receives unless specified otherwise during ad creation." So you often pay for the ad being shown, not for a click. Meta's auction picks the ad with the highest total value, which weighs your bid, how likely the person is to act and ad quality. Our Facebook and Instagram ads cost section and the guide to Meta's payment threshold cover the details.

This means a cost per click on Google and a cost per thousand impressions on Meta are not the same unit. Compare the cost per lead or per sale instead.

Budgets

Both let you start small, and neither sets the price for you. On Google, "The amount of your budget is entirely up to you". You set an average daily budget for each campaign. On a busy day Google can spend up to twice that, but over a month it will not charge more than 30.4 times the daily budget.

Meta's daily budget works the same way in spirit: on better days Meta "may spend up to 75% over your daily budget", and for each week "spending won't be more than 7 times your daily budget." On both platforms, plan by the month, not the day.

In our view, the budget should be large enough to buy enough clicks or results to learn from in a few weeks. On Meta, an ad set usually needs about 50 results in a week to leave the learning phase, so a budget that buys only a few results keeps it there.

Measurement

Both platforms need you to tell them what a result is. In Google Ads you choose the conversions that count, such as a purchase, a sign-up or a phone call, and they can come from your website, calls, apps or offline uploads; our conversion tracking guide shows how to set them up.

On Meta, "The Meta Pixel is a piece of code that you put on your website." Meta says it lets you "measure the effectiveness of your Meta advertising by understanding the actions people take on your website." The Conversions API sends the same events from your server. Reading the numbers is covered in Meta ads reporting.

Each platform counts the results it believes it caused, so the two reports will not add up to your real sales. We check both against one neutral source, such as GA4 or the enquiries and orders the business actually received.

Which to start with (our view)

This section is our opinion, not a rule from Google or Meta.

• Start with Google Search if people already search for what you sell: local services, repairs, legal or medical providers, B2B services, products people look up by name. You meet them at the moment they ask.
• Start with Meta if the product is new, visual or bought on impulse (fashion, home goods, food, events, apps) and few people search for it yet, or if you want to reach a defined group of people.
• Run both when the budget allows a fair test of each. A common pattern is Search for people ready to buy and Meta for reaching new people and for retargeting site visitors.
• Whichever you pick, set up conversion tracking first and judge it on cost per lead or sale over a month or more, not on clicks.

Weighing TikTok instead of, or next to, Meta? See TikTok ads vs Facebook ads.

For help planning ads and the pages they send people to, see our services.

Frequently asked questions

Is Google Ads or Facebook ads better for a small business?

It depends on whether people already search for what you sell. If they do, Google Search reaches them when they ask. If they do not, Meta can reach people by audience before they look. Many businesses test both and keep the one with the lower cost per lead or sale.

Which is cheaper, Google Ads or Facebook ads?

Neither has a fixed price. Both use auctions, and you set the budget. Google usually charges per click and Meta usually charges per impression, so compare the cost per lead or sale, not the cost per click.

Are Google Ads or Facebook ads better for ecommerce?

Both are used for online stores. Google can show products to people searching for them, through Shopping and Performance Max, while Meta can show products to people who have not searched yet and retarget site visitors. Track purchases on both before comparing them.

Can I run Google Ads and Facebook ads at the same time?

Yes. They are separate accounts with separate budgets. Expect each platform to count some of the same sales as its own, so check results against your own sales records.

Do Instagram ads run through Facebook ads?

Yes. Facebook and Instagram ads are both bought through Meta Ads Manager, and one campaign can show on both.