Run Google Ads when people already search for what you sell, and run Meta Ads when you need to put your offer in front of people who are not searching yet. Google captures demand that exists; Meta, across Facebook and Instagram, creates demand that does not. Most businesses past about $6,000 a month in ad spend end up running both, but the order you start in, and the split between them, decides whether the first three months pay for themselves.
We manage both platforms for Toronto businesses every week, and the question in the title comes up on almost every first call. It is usually asked as if one platform is simply better. Neither is. They do different jobs, and picking the wrong one for your business is the most expensive mistake we see new advertisers make. This guide lays out the difference, a side-by-side comparison, how to split a budget across both, and what we recommend for four common types of business.
Intent versus interruption: the one difference that matters
Every other difference between the two platforms flows from this one. Google Ads is intent-based. The buyer types a query, such as "furnace repair north york" or "linen shirts women", and you pay to appear in front of someone who has already told you what they want. Meta Ads is interruption-based. The buyer is scrolling Instagram Reels or their Facebook feed for other reasons, and your ad has roughly a second to earn their attention before they move on.
Marketers call this demand capture versus demand creation. Demand capture means harvesting people already in the market. Demand creation means persuading people who were not in the market to enter it, or to remember you when they do. Both are legitimate. They need different creative, different budgets, different landing experiences and different patience.
A useful test: if you turned on the perfect ad tomorrow, how many people in your service area are searching for your product or service right now? If the answer is "thousands a month", Google is your starting point. If the answer is "hardly anyone, because they don't know this exists yet", Google has very little inventory to sell you, and Meta is where the audience is.
Google Ads vs Meta Ads, side by side
The table below is how we brief clients. Cost figures are typical Toronto ranges from the accounts we run and from our published cost guides; your numbers will move with industry, season and the quality of your account.
| Factor | Google Ads | Meta Ads (Facebook & Instagram) |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer intent | High. The person searched for it. | Low to medium. The person was interrupted. |
| Targeting | Keywords, location, schedule, audience layers; Performance Max adds automated reach across Google's inventory. | Broad and AI-expanded audiences, location, customer lists and lookalikes; the creative does most of the targeting. |
| Creative needs | Text ads, sitelinks and a landing page that matches the query. Image and video only for Performance Max, Demand Gen and YouTube. | Heavy. Vertical video, UGC, statics and carousels, refreshed constantly. We aim for 20+ new variants a month per account. |
| Typical cost | Paid per click. Toronto home services $15–$30 a click; e-commerce $1–$3 on Shopping; B2B $6–$30. | Mostly paid per thousand impressions. Service lead gen CPMs around $16–$30; local businesses $8–$18; e-commerce $14–$28. |
| Best for | Urgent and considered purchases people search for: trades, legal, healthcare, B2B services, products with search volume. | Visual and impulse products, new categories, local businesses with a strong offer, anything that sells better when shown. |
| Time to results | Leads can start in week one; structure and tracking fixes usually move cost per lead within 30 days. | Learning phase of 7–14 days per campaign; meaningful test data at about 30 days; scaling over 60–120 days. |
| Tracking | Google tag and GA4, enhanced conversions, offline conversion import from your CRM. | Meta pixel plus the Conversions API, deduplicated; CRM events sent back for lead quality. |
| Realistic monthly floor | About $2,500–$4,000 in media for most competitive verticals. | About $3,000–$5,000 in media to learn anything; $10,000+ to scale. |
Two rows in that table get underestimated more than the rest. The first is creative. A Google search campaign can run for months on well-written text ads; a Meta account that stops producing new creative usually declines within weeks as the same audience sees the same ads. The second is the floor. Below those budgets, neither algorithm sees enough conversions to optimise, and you pay for the learning phase without ever leaving it. For full cost breakdowns, see our guides to Google Ads costs in Toronto and Meta Ads costs in Toronto.
When Google Ads is the right first channel
Google wins when the search already happens. That covers more businesses than people expect: anyone fixing something that broke, anyone selling a service people compare before buying, and anyone with a product that has a name people type.
- The need is urgent. Nobody scrolls Instagram hoping to discover a drain specialist. They search when the basement floods. Urgency is the strongest predictor of Google performance.
- The purchase is considered and researched. Lawyers, accountants, dentists, renovation firms and B2B software are researched through search. The buyer compares three options, and you want to be one of them.
- You can measure what closes. Google's bidding is only as smart as the conversion data you give it. With offline conversion imports from a CRM, it bids for customers rather than form fills.
- You have, or can build, a landing page per intent. A keyword about emergency service should land on an emergency page, not your homepage.
For trades specifically, Google Local Services Ads sit above the regular search ads and charge per lead rather than per click; our guide to Local Services Ads for Toronto trades covers when they belong next to a search campaign. Our full approach to search, Shopping and Performance Max is on the Google Ads management page.
When Meta Ads is the right first channel
Meta wins when the product sells itself once it is seen, or when there is not enough search volume to buy. It is the stronger channel for:
- Visual products. Clothing, food, furniture, beauty and design-led products convert from a good video far more readily than from a text ad.
- New categories. If people do not know the solution exists, they cannot search for it. Meta lets you show the problem and the fix in fifteen seconds.
- Strong offers. A clear, time-bound offer travels well in a feed. "Free estimate" is not an offer; a specific seasonal price or bundle is.
- Retargeting and repeat purchase. Showing products to people who browsed, or new arrivals to past customers, is where Meta's catalogue ads earn their keep.
Kino Clothing is a good example. A streetwear brand does not live on searches for its name, so growth came from Meta creative: we expanded the creative library, tested styles, colourways and formats in parallel, and used dynamic catalogue ads to bring past visitors and customers back. The Kino Clothing case study shows a 75% increase in ROAS across all campaigns and a 45% increase in overall revenue. None of that would have come from search alone. Our Meta Ads management page covers how we run the creative testing behind results like that.
When to run both, and how to split the budget
Run both when your budget clears both floors, roughly $6,000 a month in combined media, and when you have the creative capacity to feed Meta. Below that, splitting the money starves both platforms. One well-funded channel beats two underfunded ones every time.
When you do run both, they reinforce each other. Meta puts your brand in front of people before they need you; when they do need you, they search, and they are more likely to click a name they recognise. Google then captures that search. Retargeting on Meta catches the Google visitors who did not convert on the first visit.
Our default way to split a budget is capture first, then create:
- Fund Google to its ceiling of profitable search. Increase Google spend until you are winning most of the relevant searches in your area and the marginal lead starts to cost more than it is worth. That number is finite because search volume is finite.
- Put the remainder into Meta. Meta's inventory is effectively unlimited, so it absorbs the budget search cannot use.
- Hold 10–15% for testing. New creative angles, a YouTube or TikTok test, or a new campaign type.
- Judge both on blended numbers. Each platform claims credit for the same sales. Compare total leads or revenue against total spend, then use platform data to decide where the next dollar goes.
The starting splits below are where we usually begin before the data takes over. They are starting points, not rules.
Which to run, by type of business
| Business type | Start with | Typical starting split (Google / Meta) | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home services | 70 / 30 | Urgent, searched demand; Meta adds seasonal offers and brand recall. | |
| E-commerce | Meta (plus Shopping) | 30–40 / 60–70 | Visual products sell in the feed; Shopping captures brand and product searches. |
| B2B services | 80 / 20 | Buyers research through search; Meta works mainly as retargeting. | |
| Local retail and hospitality | Meta | 40 / 60 | Discovery and offers drive visits; Google covers "near me" searches. |
Home services
A plumber, roofer or HVAC company should start on Google, because the job begins with a search. Meta comes second, for seasonal pushes such as furnace tune-ups in September or AC installs in May, and for keeping the name familiar so the eventual search ends in a click on you. Mike Holmes Inspections ran both: search for people looking for an inspection now, and Meta to reach homeowners and prospective franchisees with targeted messaging. Over ten months the program delivered more than 2,100 conversions; the Mike Holmes Inspections case study has the detail.
E-commerce
Most online stores should lead with Meta, unless they sell a product people already search for by name or type. Pair it with Google Shopping or Performance Max for the people who search after seeing your ads. Watch blended revenue against total ad spend, not each platform's own ROAS, because both will claim the same order.
B2B
Search first. Decision makers research vendors on Google, and a single closed deal often pays for months of spend. Meta is useful for retargeting site visitors with case studies and proof, less so for cold prospecting. For senior job-title targeting, LinkedIn usually outperforms both.
Local retail and hospitality
Restaurants, boutiques, salons and studios usually do better on Meta first, because people discover them while scrolling, not searching. Keep a small Google budget for "near me" and branded searches, and keep your Google Business Profile in good shape, because that is where many of those searches end.
Not sure which channel fits?
We will tell you where your first dollar should go, and where it should not.
Creative Scope is a Toronto Google Partner running Google, Meta, TikTok and YouTube ads for service businesses and e-commerce brands. A free account review looks at your search demand, your creative capacity and your tracking, and gives you a channel recommendation whether or not you hire us.
See our paid ads servicesTracking decides the winner more than the platform does
A platform comparison is only as good as the data behind it. Most accounts we audit cannot fairly compare Google and Meta because one or both is measuring the wrong thing: page views counted as conversions, duplicate form submissions, or calls not tracked at all.
- On Google: set up the Google tag through GA4 or Google Tag Manager, turn on enhanced conversions, track calls, and import qualified leads or sales from your CRM so bidding optimises for revenue.
- On Meta: run the pixel and the Conversions API together, deduplicated, so events survive browser restrictions. Send lead status back from your CRM so Meta learns which leads became customers.
- Across both: tag every link with UTMs, keep one source of truth for leads and sales, and compare platforms on cost per qualified lead or cost per sale, never on cost per click.
Get tracking right and the question in this article mostly answers itself within 60–90 days, because the numbers show which channel produces customers at a profit.
Our take
If you only remember one thing: Google sells to people who are already looking, and Meta finds people who are not. Start where your demand already is, fund that channel properly, and add the second one when the first is close to its ceiling and you can produce the creative Meta needs. If someone recommends both on a $3,000 monthly budget, ask them which one they would cut, because one of them is going to underperform.
