Paid Advertising — April 2026

The Facebook Ads vs Google Ads debate has been raging since about 2015, and most of the advice online is still wrong. Not because the platforms changed — they did, dramatically — but because the answer was never about which platform is better. It is about which platform matches your customer's buying behaviour. Get this wrong and you will blow your budget regardless of how clever your targeting is. The fundamental difference is intent. Google Ads captures existing demand. Someone types "emergency plumber Gold Coast" into Google — they have a problem right now and they are looking for a solution. Facebook Ads create demand. Someone is scrolling through their feed, sees your ad for a kitchen renovation, and thinks "actually, our kitchen is looking pretty dated." Both are valuable. But they require completely different strategies, different creative, and different expectations for how quickly they convert. When Google Ads Wins Google Ads dominates when your product or service solves an immediate, searchable problem. Trades, professional services, emergency services, medical practices, legal services — anything where the customer knows they need something and turns to Google to find it. The cost per click is typically higher than Facebook, but the conversion rate is also dramatically higher because you are reaching people at the moment of intent. We run Google search campaigns for service businesses that generate leads at a quarter of the cost of their Facebook campaigns, because every click is someone actively looking for what they sell. When Facebook Ads Win Facebook ad management makes more sense when you are selling something people want but are not actively searching for. E-commerce products, events, courses, new brands, anything visual or aspirational. Facebook's targeting lets you put your offer in front of people based on demographics, interests, and behaviours rather than search terms. This is powerful for awareness and consideration, but it means your funnel needs to be longer. Someone who discovers your product through a Facebook ad is typically 3-5 touches away from purchasing. If your attribution model only counts last-click conversions, Facebook will always look worse than it actually is. The Budget Allocation Framework Here is the framework we use with clients. If you are a service business with strong local search volume, start with 70% Google Ads, 30% Facebook. Use Google to capture the people already searching for you, and use Facebook for retargeting website visitors and building brand awareness in your service area. If you are an e-commerce or product business, flip it — 30% Google Shopping and search, 70% Facebook and Instagram for discovery and prospecting. These are starting ratios. After 60-90 days of data, the numbers will tell you where to shift budget. The metric that matters is cost per acquisition, not cost per click or cost per impression. We have seen businesses where Facebook generates cheaper clicks but Google generates cheaper customers. And we have seen the exact opposite. Let the data decide. The Creative Gap Google Ads are text-based at their core. Your ad copy needs to match search intent precisely — the headline should mirror the query, the description should address the objection, and the call to action should be specific. There is almost no room for creativity. It is pure direct response. Facebook is the opposite. You are competing with photos of people's kids and holiday snaps. Your creative needs to stop the scroll within the first half second. Video outperforms static images by 2-3x on average. UGC-style content — real people, real settings, phone-quality footage — outperforms polished brand videos. The platform rewards authenticity, and the algorithm punishes anything that looks like an ad. This is why Facebook ad management requires a completely different skill set from Google Ads. The Retargeting Layer Regardless of which platform drives your initial traffic, both platforms should be running retargeting campaigns. Someone visits your website from a Google search but does not convert — hit them with a Facebook retargeting ad featuring a testimonial or case study. Someone engages with your Facebook content but does not click through — retarget them on Google when they search for your category next week. The platforms work best together, not in isolation. The Biggest Mistake We See Businesses running both platforms with no attribution model. They cannot tell which platform drove the sale, so they either duplicate budget or cut the wrong channel. Set up proper UTM tracking, connect both platforms to your CRM, and measure cost per actual customer — not cost per lead, not cost per click. When you can see the full picture, the Google vs Facebook ads question answers itself.