Meta ads vs Google ads, and when to run which.

Google catches people who already want what you sell. Meta makes people want it in the first place. Different jobs, different rules.

Brands treat this like a cage match, pick a side, argue about which platform is "better." It's the wrong frame. Meta and Google sit at opposite ends of the buying journey, and the right question isn't which one wins, it's which job you need done right now.

Google captures existing demand

On Google, people are searching. They've typed their intent into a box, which means they already know they want something. Your ad meets them at the bottom of the funnel, at the exact moment they're looking to buy. That's why search traffic converts so well: the wanting already happened. The catch is the ceiling. You can only capture as much demand as exists, so Google is limited by how many people are actually searching for what you sell.

Meta creates demand that isn't there yet

Nobody wakes up searching for a product they've never heard of. Meta's job is to interrupt the scroll and manufacture the want, to show someone a problem they didn't know had a solution, or a product they didn't know they needed. Bigger ceiling, because you're not limited by search volume, but lower intent per click, and it lives or dies entirely on creative. A great Meta ad is the difference between profit and a burned budget.

So which do you start with?

It depends on your business, not on which platform is trendier.

If there's real search volume for what you sell, meaning people are already looking for your product or category, Google is often the faster path to profit. The intent is already there. You're just showing up for it.

If you're creating a new category, or your product is a visual, impulse, or story-driven buy that nobody thinks to search for, Meta is where the growth is. You have to make the demand before you can capture it.

Most brands past a certain size run both, and they work together: Meta creates the awareness and the want at the top, and Google catches the people who then go search for you by name. Picking one on a hunch is how budgets get wasted. Pick it on where your buyer actually is in their journey.

Meta and Google are two instruments in one paid-media system. See how they fit with tracking, economics, and creative in the complete paid media playbook, or have me run them as part of the media buying service.