One captures demand. The other creates it. Understanding the difference — and how they work together — is the foundation of any effective paid media strategy.
People are actively searching for what you offer. They have intent. You're capturing demand that already exists.
High intent = high conversion rates = often higher CPCs. Someone searching "emergency plumber Edinburgh" needs a plumber. Right now. That's a high-value click.
You're interrupting people's social feed. They're not searching for you. You're building awareness or re-engaging people who've shown interest before.
Lower intent = lower CPCs but more work to convert. The creative and targeting strategy has to do the heavy lifting that search intent does automatically on Google.
Key insight: Neither is inherently better. Google Ads wins on intent. Meta Ads wins on reach, visual storytelling, and audience targeting. The smartest businesses use both — but understanding which to prioritise first makes all the difference.
You have a product or service people actively search for — legal advice, a local tradesperson, an accountant, a specific product category.
You're in a high-intent vertical — legal, trades, financial services, healthcare, or professional services of any kind.
You want leads quickly. Google Search can deliver enquiries within days of a campaign going live — no learning phase required.
You sell something with clear commercial keywords — "buy X", "hire X near me", "X service Edinburgh", or any phrase with obvious purchase or enquiry intent.
Your sales cycle is short and customers convert quickly after searching — they search, they click, they enquire or buy within the same session.
You're launching something new with no existing search demand — there are no keywords because people don't know to search for it yet.
You have a visual product that benefits from image or video creative — fashion, food, interiors, beauty, lifestyle goods.
You want to build brand awareness at scale before pushing for conversions — Meta's reach into billions of daily active users is unmatched.
Your customers need nurturing over time — higher-value or considered purchases where people research for weeks before deciding.
You want to run retargeting across Facebook and Instagram to bring back past website visitors who didn't convert first time.
Your target audience is definable by interests, demographics, or lookalike audiences based on your existing customers.
The most effective paid media strategies aren't built around a single channel. They're built around the customer journey — and the customer journey rarely happens in one place.
The full-funnel approach combines both channels' strengths: Meta Ads to build awareness, seed interest, and re-engage warm audiences — Google Ads to capture the demand that results from that awareness and intent-driven searches.
Here's what that looks like in practice:
Google Ads: Capture searches like "kitchen fitter Edinburgh" or "home extension quotes Glasgow" — people who have decided they want the work done and are now looking for someone to do it.
Meta Ads: Remarket to website visitors who viewed the portfolio or got partway through the contact form but didn't submit. Show project photos and testimonials to nudge them back.
Google Ads: Google Shopping campaigns for high-intent purchase searches — people who know what they want and are ready to buy, showing your products at the moment of decision.
Meta Ads: Prospecting campaigns to reach new audiences with video and creative, plus Dynamic Product Ads (DPA) retargeting to recover abandoned carts and browsers.
There's no universal formula. But there are sensible starting points based on what your business is trying to achieve.
Lean Meta-heavy to build awareness and a retargeting pool. Use Google for high-intent terms only, or to capture any existing search demand in your category.
Prioritise capturing existing search intent where conversion rates are highest. Use Meta for retargeting and incremental new audience reach.
Roughly even split as a starting point. Let ROAS data inform adjustments — if Shopping is outperforming, lean in. If Meta DPA is recovering carts efficiently, scale it up.
Search intent dominates in B2B. Decision-makers search with specific intent. Meta can supplement with remarketing and LinkedIn-style awareness, but Google leads.
The right split changes as you learn. Start with a sensible hypothesis based on your business type, measure the results, and adjust. There's no shame in finding that one channel dramatically outperforms the other and rebalancing accordingly. Data should drive the decision — not assumptions.