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Strategy

Google Ads vs Meta Ads: Where Should You Actually Spend Your Budget?

NUVIX · 14 March 2026 · 12 min read
TLDR: Google Ads captures people who are already searching for what you sell. Meta Ads puts you in front of people who aren't looking yet but match your ideal customer profile. Most businesses should run both, but the split depends on your product, your margins, and how people buy from you. Cheap impulse purchases tend to do well on Meta. Expensive considered purchases usually need Google. The real answer is to test both, measure properly, and put money where it converts.

The Fundamental Difference

Google Ads is demand capture. Someone types 'best running shoes for flat feet' into Google. They've already got intent. They want to buy something, or at least research it seriously. Your job is to show up with the right answer at the right moment.

Meta Ads is demand generation. Someone's scrolling through Instagram looking at their mate's holiday photos. Your ad appears between stories. They weren't thinking about running shoes five seconds ago, but the creative catches their eye, the offer is right, and now they're interested.

Neither is inherently better. They serve different purposes and work at different stages of how people buy things.

When Google Ads Is the Better Bet

People are actively searching for what you sell

If there's meaningful search volume for your product or service, Google Ads should probably be your first channel. Someone searching 'solicitor near me' or 'buy standing desk UK' has high purchase intent. They're comparing options and ready to spend money.

Check Google Keyword Planner for search volume. If your core keywords get a few thousand searches a month, there's enough demand to build a campaign around.

Your product solves a specific problem

Google works best when someone knows they have a problem and is looking for a solution. Plumbers, accountants, SaaS tools, legal services, home repairs — these are all search-first categories. The buyer has a need, they go to Google, and the best-positioned advertiser wins.

Your average order value or lifetime value is high

Google Ads clicks are often more expensive than Meta clicks, especially in competitive sectors. Solicitors can pay £15-30 per click. Insurance keywords can run even higher. If your product sells for £20 with thin margins, those economics don't work on Google.

But if you're selling a £2,000 service or a SaaS subscription with £500 lifetime value, paying £10-15 per click is perfectly viable if your conversion rate holds up.

You need leads now

Google Ads can start driving traffic within hours of launching a campaign. There's no warming up, no creative testing phase, no waiting for the algorithm to learn. Someone's already searching — you just need to appear. For businesses that need immediate pipeline, Google is hard to beat.

When Meta Ads Is the Better Bet

Your product is visual and sells on impulse

Fashion, homeware, beauty products, food and drink, fitness gear — anything where a good photo or video can make someone think 'I want that'. Meta's feed-based format is built for this. People discover products they didn't know they wanted.

If your product photographs well and the price point is low enough for impulse buying (roughly under £50-80), Meta is probably your highest-return channel.

Nobody is searching for your product

New brands, novel products, and niche categories often have little to no search volume. If you've invented a new type of kitchen gadget, nobody's Googling for it because they don't know it exists. You have to put it in front of them and create the demand.

This is where Meta's targeting shines. You can reach people based on interests, behaviours, demographics, and lookalike audiences built from your existing customers. You're building awareness and generating demand that wouldn't exist otherwise.

You've got strong creative

Meta is a creative-first platform. The algorithm does most of the targeting heavy lifting these days — broad targeting often outperforms detailed interest stacks. What separates winning campaigns from losing ones is the quality of the ads.

If you can produce good video content, user-generated content, or scroll-stopping static images, Meta rewards that disproportionately. If your creative is generic stock photos with overlay text, you'll struggle regardless of your targeting.

You want to build a brand, not just capture clicks

Google captures existing demand. Meta creates new demand and builds awareness over time. If you're a new brand trying to establish yourself in a competitive market, Meta lets you tell your story to the right people at scale.

That said, brand building is hard to measure directly. You won't see it in this week's ROAS numbers. You'll see it in branded search volume increasing over months, in direct traffic growing, and in your Google Ads branded campaigns becoming more efficient because more people know who you are.

The Case for Running Both

Here's what actually happens in most businesses that scale successfully: Google and Meta work together.

Meta generates awareness and interest. Someone sees your ad on Instagram, visits your site, browses a bit, and leaves. Later, they Google your brand name or search for the product category. Your Google Ad picks them up. They convert.

In that scenario, Meta gets no credit in last-click attribution, but it did the hard work of introducing the customer to your brand. Google gets the credit because it was the last touch. This is why looking at platform-level ROAS in isolation often misleads people into underspending on Meta and overspending on Google brand campaigns.

If you're running both:

How to Split the Budget

There's no magic ratio. But here's a rough starting framework:

If you're brand new with no existing traffic: Start with 70% Meta, 30% Google. You need to generate awareness first. Use Meta to drive traffic and build audiences, then let Google capture the demand as it grows.

If you've got existing search demand: Start with 60% Google, 40% Meta. Capture the demand that already exists, then use Meta to expand beyond what's currently searching.

If you're scaling an e-commerce brand: Shift towards 50/50 or even 60% Meta over time. Meta's broad targeting and shopping-optimised campaigns tend to scale more efficiently for consumer products. Keep Google for branded search, shopping ads, and high-intent non-branded keywords.

If you're a local service business: 80%+ Google. Your customers are searching for you when they need you. Meta can work for building local awareness, but the bread and butter is being visible when someone searches 'electrician in Birmingham'.

These are starting points. Test, measure, adjust. The data will tell you where to shift spend.

The Metrics That Actually Matter

Stop obsessing over platform-reported ROAS in isolation. Here's what to track:

The best-performing accounts we manage don't ask 'which platform is better?' They ask 'how do these platforms work together to grow the business?' That's the right question.