Meta or Google? One finds customers. One gets found.

Meta ads and Google ads both bring in business, but they work in opposite ways — and picking the wrong one for your goal is how budgets get wasted. Here's the plain-English difference, so you know which fits your business right now.

The quickest way to understand it: Google catches people already looking for you. Meta puts you in front of people who weren't looking yet. Both are powerful. They just do different jobs.

Google ads: catching demand

When someone types "emergency plumber near me," they have a problem and their wallet is already out. Google ads put you at the top of that search, right when they're ready to buy.

• High intent. These people want your service now — they're searching for it.
• Great for urgent, need-it-now services — plumbing, roofing, locksmiths, towing.
• The catch: you're bidding against every competitor for the same searches, so clicks can cost more.

Meta ads: creating demand

On Facebook and Instagram, nobody's searching for a contractor — they're scrolling. Meta ads interrupt that scroll with something they didn't know they wanted yet: your before-and-after, your offer, your work.

• Massive reach, lower cost per view. You can get in front of a lot of local people affordably.
• Great for demand you can spark — renovations, med spas, hair salons, anything visual or "I've been meaning to…".
• The catch: you're reaching people before they're ready, so the offer and follow-up have to do more work.

Side by side

So which should you pick?

Start with one honest question: are people already searching for what you do?

These are starting points, not rules. The best mix depends on your margins, your market and your goals — which is exactly what we figure out with you.

Why the winners run both

Here's what most successful local businesses land on eventually: Google catches the people ready today, Meta warms up the people who'll be ready next month. Together they cover the whole journey — someone sees you on Instagram, remembers you, then Googles you when the pipe bursts.

It's worked across the trades we've run ads for. One roofing client saw $8.96 leads at a 10.7% close rate in a single month; a carpet-install client pulled 235 leads at $10.84 each. Results vary and nothing's guaranteed — but the pattern holds: the right platform, pointed at a page built to convert, does the heavy lifting.

And that last part matters as much as the platform. An ad on either network is only as good as where it sends people — which is why we build the landing page and the ads together, and websites start at $30/month so the whole path is handled.

Not sure which fits your business? Tell us what you do and we'll tell you straight where your first dollar should go.