Google Ads or Facebook ads for a local business?

Google Ads or Facebook ads? For a local business it comes down to one question: do your customers search for you when they need you, or do they need to see you before they know they want you? Google Search ads reach people who are already typing what you sell. Facebook and Instagram ads reach people who were not looking yet. Below is how to tell which side you are on, what a lead costs in your trade on each, and what to do when the budget only covers one.

The one question that decides it

Think about the moment a new customer finds you.

They search. A pipe bursts, a tooth aches, the car makes a noise, the AC dies in August. People in that moment open Google and type. Google describes its Search campaigns exactly this way: ads for people "actively searching" for your products and services. If that is how your customers arrive, Google is the natural first choice.

They scroll. Nobody wakes up planning to try a new brunch place, book a lash lift or buy a handmade candle. They decide when they see it. Meta shows ads in the places people scroll: the Facebook and Instagram feeds, Stories and Reels. If your business sells on looks, mood or an offer, start there.

Most businesses lean clearly one way. If yours honestly sits in the middle, the next two sections help.

Side by side

The lead costs come from two separate WordStream reports. The Google figure is the median of 13,474 US search campaigns from April 2025 to March 2026. The Meta figure is the median of 726 US campaigns that used the leads objective between April 2024 and June 2025.

What a lead costs in your trade, on both

Here are the industries that appear in both reports:

Before you move your whole budget to the cheaper column, keep two things in mind.

First, the reports cover different years, and the Meta sample is much smaller. Treat each row as a rough direction, not a price.

Second, a lead is not the same thing on both sides. On Google it is usually a call or a form from someone who searched for the service. On Facebook it is often a name and a phone number typed into a form inside the app, sometimes by someone who was only curious. Our view is that the cheaper lead often needs more follow-up before it turns into a customer. That is an opinion, not a figure from either report.

Notice also that for beauty, doctors and dentists, Google leads were not more expensive at all.

Start with Google if

• Customers call you when something breaks or hurts: plumbers, electricians, locksmiths, towing, HVAC, urgent dental care.
• People compare a few options before they pick: lawyers, accountants, contractors for a big job.
• You do not have much to show in pictures, but you have a clear service and a phone that is answered.
• People already search for your service plus your town. Google's Keyword Planner shows how many do, as we explain in How much does Google Ads cost for a small business?

Start with Facebook and Instagram if

• What you sell looks good on a phone screen: food, hair, nails, flowers, a renovated kitchen.
• You have something new to announce: an opening, a seasonal menu, an event, a class with free spots.
• Customers come back again and again, so reaching the same neighbors many times is worth it.
• Your typical sale is small, and the Google clicks in your trade would eat the margin.

If this is your side, read How much should a small business spend on Facebook ads? before you set a budget.

Real estate, jobs and loans: both platforms tie your hands

If you advertise homes for sale or rent, a job opening or a financial product, both platforms limit how you can pick your audience in the US.

• Meta requires a Special Ad Category for these ads. Its help page lists what is limited or unavailable: age, gender, ZIP code, exclusion targeting, lookalike audiences and saved audiences, and some interests. Audiences built around a city or a dropped pin get an expanded radius.
• Google does not allow targeting housing, employment and consumer finance ads in the US and Canada by age, gender, marital status, parental status or ZIP code. Targeting by radius or by city is still allowed.

For a real estate agent this changes the comparison. On Meta you cannot aim a listing at, say, young families in two ZIP codes. On Google Search the ad is still triggered by what people type, so a search for homes in your town can still bring up your ad. Agents also have state rules about what the ad must say, covered in Real estate agent posts: ideas and your state's ad rules.

With a small budget, pick one

Splitting a small budget between both platforms usually means neither gets enough to work. Two reasons:

• Meta needs volume to settle. An ad set leaves what Meta calls the learning phase after about 50 results in a week. Until then, costs are less stable. Half a small budget gets there even more slowly.
• Google needs enough clicks to learn which searches pay. You only find out which searches bring buyers by paying for them. At $8 or $9 a click in home services, a few hundred dollars buys a few dozen clicks a month, which says very little.

Our rule of thumb: under about $1,000 a month in ads, put it all on the platform that matches how your customers find you. Run it for two or three months, count customers rather than clicks, and only then add the second one. Whichever you pick, keep your profiles active: a curious customer who looks you up after an ad should find a business that is clearly open.

If Google is your side

Our Google Ads service sets up search campaigns for you: keywords, ads and areas picked for your business, a weekly check of searches, bids and budget, and a plain-English report every month. Your ad budget is separate and goes straight from your card to Google. Over $5,000 a month in ads we quote 15% of the budget. If your customers turned out to be scrollers instead, the same page lists our Facebook and Instagram ads service. Both are on our pricing page.