Google Ads vs Facebook Ads for a Service Business

If you run a plumbing firm, a clinic, a law practice or any other service business, you have probably been told to try both Google Ads and Facebook Ads. With a limited budget you need to know which one deserves the first pound.

The short version: the two platforms do different jobs. One catches demand that already exists. The other creates interest in people who were not looking. The right choice depends on how your customers buy.

What is the main difference between Google Ads and Facebook Ads?

Google Search ads show when someone types a search, so you reach people who are looking for a service at that moment. Facebook and Instagram ads (Meta ads) are shown to people while they scroll, so you reach people who were not necessarily looking.

Google describes paid search as a way to capture intent from people actively searching for your services. Meta, by contrast, suggests advertisers target broadly and let its delivery system decide who sees the ad, based on who is predicted to respond.

Think of it this way: a burst pipe produces a search. A loft conversion usually starts as a thought, sparked by something a person saw. The first is a Google job. The second can be a Meta job.

Which should a service business start with?

Start with Google Search if people in your area regularly search for what you sell. Start with Meta if people rarely search for it, if the purchase is considered and visual, or if you need to build awareness first.

Start with Google Ads when

• The need is urgent or specific: emergency repairs, same-day appointments, locksmiths, drainage, dental pain.
• People already search for your service with a location, such as "boiler repair Leeds".
• You want enquiries this week, not a slow build.
• Your job value is high enough to cover the cost of competitive clicks.

Start with Facebook and Instagram ads when

• The service is a considered purchase: extensions, landscaping, cosmetic treatments, financial planning.
• Before and after photos or video show your work well.
• Few people search for what you do, so Search has little volume to buy.
• You want to reach people in a defined area with an offer, such as a free survey or consultation.

How much do Google Ads and Facebook Ads cost?

Both are auction based and both let you cap spending, so you set the budget. There is no fixed price. Your cost depends on competition in your area, the quality of your ads and landing page, and how you bid.

On Google Search you pay when someone clicks. The price is set in a live auction, and Google says you typically pay only enough to beat the next advertiser, up to your maximum bid. Google also says relevance matters: a better match between the search, your ad and your page can lower what you pay.

Clicks on urgent, high-value searches are often more expensive, because more businesses want them. That is normal. A click that becomes a £600 job can be worth far more than a cheap click that goes nowhere.

Do not compare the two platforms on cost per click. The two kinds of click come from different intent, so the same price means different things. What matters is the cost of a booked job, which is the number to compare. Our guide on cost per lead versus cost per booked job explains how to work it out.

Where do Google's Demand Gen and Meta's lead ads fit in?

Both platforms also sell products aimed at people who are not searching yet, and both lean heavily on automation.

• Google Demand Gen runs on visual surfaces and uses AI to show your best visuals to people likely to be interested, even if they are not actively searching for you.
• Meta Advantage+ leads campaigns use AI to find people likely to become leads, and keep Advantage+ audience on when you give targeting inputs only as suggestions.

These tools can work, but they hand much of the decision-making to the platform. That makes your own tracking more important, because the platform will optimise towards whatever you tell it counts as a success.

How do you know which one is working?

Track every enquiry back to its source, then follow it to a booked job and a payment. Without that, you only see the platform's own numbers, which stop at the lead.

1. Record where each enquiry came from: the campaign, the ad and, for Google, the click ID.
2. Log every enquiry in one place, with an owner and a follow-up deadline.
3. Mark which enquiries became booked jobs and what each job was worth.
4. Divide ad spend by booked jobs for each platform. That is your real cost per customer.
5. Review after at least a month or enough enquiries to see a pattern, then move budget towards the winner.

Speed matters on both: any lead that waits for a reply is a lead you may lose. SholaX records the campaign, UTM tags and click IDs with each enquiry in its CRM, and its Results view joins that to ad spend, so you can see which ads made money. The CRM, Lead Capture and Results are free to start and work without the managed ads.

Should you run both at once?

Only when you can fund each one properly and track both. A thin budget split across two platforms often gives neither enough data to work with.

A sensible order is to prove one channel first. Run it until you know your cost per booked job. Then add the second channel with a clear job: Search to capture demand, Meta to build it and to bring people back.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Judging on cost per click or cost per lead instead of booked jobs.
• Sending ad traffic to your homepage rather than a page about the specific service.
• Setting no budget cap, or changing the budget daily and resetting the learning.
• Leaving enquiries unanswered. Whichever platform sends the lead, the reply decides whether it converts.
• Running both platforms before either is tracked properly.