Which is cheaper, Google Ads or Facebook Ads?

Facebook is almost always cheaper per click, because the audience has lower intent. Google typically converts at a higher rate for the same reason. Cost per acquisition is the only comparison that matters, and which wins depends on your category and offer.

Can I run both on a small budget?

You can, but splitting a small budget across two platforms often means neither gathers enough data to optimise. If the budget is tight, pick the one that matches where your demand is, prove it works, then expand.

Which is better for a service business in Pakistan?

Usually Google first, because people search for services when they need them. Meta then works well for remarketing and for building awareness in categories where the buyer would not think to search. Property, healthcare and home improvement typically use both.

Should I bid on my own brand name?

If competitors are bidding on it, generally yes, since the clicks are cheap and losing your own branded traffic is expensive. If nobody is bidding against you, the case is weaker. Check the auction insights report before deciding rather than assuming.

Strategy

Google Ads vs Facebook Ads: Which Should You Use?

The honest answer for most businesses is both, but in a specific order. Which one you start with depends on whether people are already searching for what you sell.

By M. Saleem Khan 18 August 2026 7 min read

The fundamental difference

Google Ads is demand capture. Someone types a query, and you appear. They have already decided they want something; you are competing to be the one they choose. Intent is high, and so is the price of a click.

Facebook Ads is demand generation. You interrupt someone who was not looking for you. Intent starts at zero and has to be created by the advert. Clicks are cheaper, volume is higher, and the path from first impression to enquiry is longer.

Almost every argument about which is better collapses once you accept they are doing different jobs. Comparing them on cost per click is like comparing the price of a taxi to the price of a map.

Start with Google if people are already searching

Run the test first: is there search volume for what you sell? If people are typing your category into Google every month, that demand exists whether you advertise or not, and capturing it is the cheapest revenue available. Take it before you spend on creating new demand.

Google also suits businesses with urgent or problem-driven demand, high-consideration purchases people research, and anything where the buyer can describe what they want in words.

Start with Facebook if nobody is searching

If your category has little or no search volume, paid search has nothing to capture. This is common for genuinely new products, impulse purchases, and offers people did not know existed. In that case Meta is where you start, because you have to create the demand before you can capture it.

Meta also suits visually demonstrable products, broad consumer audiences, and remarketing to people who already visited your site.

The attribution trap that kills good campaigns

This is where most businesses go wrong, and it is worth understanding before you spend anything.

Someone sees your Facebook advert on Monday, does not click, and thinks nothing of it. On Thursday they google your brand name and enquire. Last-click attribution credits Google with that conversion and gives Facebook nothing.

So the report shows Google performing brilliantly and Facebook losing money. Facebook gets cut. A quarter later, branded search volume quietly declines, because nothing is creating awareness any more, and the Google campaigns that looked so efficient start to struggle. The channel that was generating demand was cut on the strength of a metric that could never have credited it.

Guard against this by measuring upper-funnel and lower-funnel campaigns against different standards, agreed before launch, and by watching total business enquiries alongside per-channel reports.

A reasonable sequence

Capture existing search demand first, including your own brand terms if competitors are bidding on them
Add remarketing on Meta, which is cheap and converts well because those people already know you
Once search is capped, meaning you are capturing most of the available demand, expand into Meta prospecting to grow the pool
Judge prospecting on its contribution to total enquiries and branded search volume, not on last-click return

Businesses that skip straight to step three, without first taking the demand that already exists, tend to pay more for every customer than they needed to.

How the targeting differs in practice

On Google you target intent. The searcher writes the query, and you decide which queries are worth appearing for. Your control is exercised through keywords, match types and negatives.

On Meta you target people, and increasingly you do not. Detailed interest targeting has been progressively simplified, and broad targeting with strong creative now frequently outperforms narrow audience definitions, because the algorithm identifies responsive people faster when given room.

The practical consequence: on Google, the work is in keyword and query management. On Meta, the work is in producing a steady supply of genuinely different creative. Teams that treat both channels as the same job usually underperform on whichever one they understand less well.

Budget split, and when to move it

There is no universal ratio. A sensible approach is to fund search to the point where it is capturing most of the available demand, then put incremental budget into demand generation.

Impression share is the signal for the first part. If your search campaigns are losing impression share due to budget on terms that convert profitably, that is the cheapest place for the next rupee. Only once search is comfortably funded does moving budget to prospecting make sense.

The exception is a category with almost no search volume, where there is nothing to capture and Meta is where you must start regardless.