You have one budget.
You want the fastest path to paying customers.

Here's the honest split.

The one-line difference

Google finds people already looking for what you sell.
Facebook finds people who would want it if they knew it existed.

Demand harvesting versus demand creation. That's the whole thing.

Start with Google when…

  • People search for your service by name — "emergency plumber near me", "invisalign London".
  • The need is urgent and unplanned.
  • Your market is small and local.
  • You can't produce creative regularly.

Start with Facebook when…

  • Nobody searches for your category — coaching, new products, most offers.
  • You need volume: 20 leads, not 3.
  • Your offer needs explaining before someone wants it.
  • You can show a result visually — before/after, screenshot, demo.

Cost: the part nobody says plainly

Google clicks are usually more expensive but warmer.
Facebook clicks are usually cheaper but colder.

A $12 Google click from someone typing "buy now" can be cheaper than a $1 Facebook click from someone who was watching a dog video.

Judge on cost per customer, never on cost per click.

Which is easier to run yourself?

Google punishes bad keyword structure quietly. You bleed on search terms you never intended to buy.

Facebook punishes bad creative loudly. You see it in a day.

For most owners, Facebook gives faster feedback — if someone is actually watching the account.

The realistic sequence

  1. If there's existing search demand, take it. Google first, small budget, tight keywords.
  2. Once that's stable, add Facebook to create demand you can't harvest.
  3. If there's no search demand at all, skip step one entirely.

Check whether the numbers work before you spend

Try the free ROAS Calculator →

The real cost of either channel

It isn't the ad spend. It's the attention.
Both platforms leak money the week you stop looking.

That's the part Adslive removes on the Meta side: it launches the campaign from a plain-English brief and keeps watching it around the clock, so nobody has to remember to log in on a Sunday.

General guidance. Costs and performance vary widely by industry and location.