This is one of the first questions almost every new client asks us, and the honest answer is: it depends on what your customer is doing right before they buy. Understanding that difference will save you far more money than any "best platform" ranking ever could.
What each platform is actually good at
Google Ads: catching intent
Google Ads shows up when someone is already searching for a solution — "digital marketing agency Lagos," "buy skincare products online," "car dealership near me." You're not creating demand, you're capturing it at the moment someone's ready to act. That makes Google Ads especially strong for businesses with clear, searchable needs: services, local businesses, and anything with obvious buyer intent.
Meta Ads: creating demand
Facebook and Instagram ads work differently — you're interrupting someone's scroll, not answering their search. That means the ad itself has to do more work: strong visuals, a clear hook, a reason to stop scrolling. Meta tends to shine for visually appealing products, impulse-friendly purchases, and building awareness for brands people haven't heard of yet.
A simple way to decide
Ask: is my customer actively searching for what I offer, or do they need to be introduced to it? If people are already typing your kind of business into Google, start there. If your product needs to be seen to be wanted — fashion, food, beauty, home decor — Meta usually earns its budget faster.
Why our own packages start with both
Here's the nuance: Google Business Profile management and Google Ads are not the same spend. Optimizing your Business Profile is about showing up correctly and credibly when people search for you locally — it costs nothing in ad spend, just setup and upkeep. That's why every one of our packages, from Standard upward, pairs Google Business Profile management with Meta advertising from day one: one covers "be found and look trustworthy" for free, the other covers "get noticed" through paid reach. They're not competing for the same budget, so there's no real tradeoff in running both together.
Where the "pick one first" thinking still applies is specifically paid budget — if you're also weighing a paid Google Ads campaign against a paid Meta campaign, spreading a small budget thin across both rarely gives either enough data to optimize well. That's a separate decision from your Business Profile, which should always be part of the foundation regardless of where your ad spend goes.
The real answer: it changes as you grow
Most of the client campaigns we run eventually use both — Meta for discovery and brand-building, Google for capturing people once they know your name and start searching for it. The starting point depends on your business today; the long-term plan almost always includes both.