Meta ads or Google ads for a local service business? It depends on one thing

Google Ads reach people who are searching for your service right now; Meta ads (Facebook and Instagram) reach people who are not searching but might want you later. For a local service business, that one difference decides where to start. If people search for what you do at the moment they need it — a plumber, an emergency locksmith, a dentist, a lawyer — start with Google. If what you sell is wanted rather than needed, or people do not know it exists — landscaping design, a new gym, a photographer, a renovation — Meta will usually reach them first and cheaper.

Google Ads: intent, at a price

A Google search ad appears when someone types “emergency plumber near me”. That person is about to hire someone in the next hour. That intent is why Google clicks in service categories are expensive — tens of dollars each in many US markets — and why they are worth it if your page and your phone are ready. The failure mode is spending the budget on broad terms, sending clicks to a slow homepage, and never tracking which clicks became calls. Local Services Ads, Google’s pay-per-lead format for eligible trades, is worth checking first because you pay for the enquiry, not the click.

Meta ads: attention, at a lower price

A Meta ad interrupts someone scrolling. They were not looking for you, so the ad has to earn a moment of attention with a picture or a short video of real work, and the offer has to be simple. Clicks are far cheaper than Google’s, and Meta’s targeting by area and interest is good for local businesses. The failure mode is the opposite of Google’s: plenty of cheap clicks from people who were mildly curious, few of whom were ready to buy, and a landing page that asked them to fill in nine fields.

The thing that matters more than the platform

Where the click lands. Sending paid traffic to your homepage is the most common way to waste an ad budget: it is slow, it is generic, and it asks the visitor to work out where to go. A landing page built for the ad — one service, one offer, one form or one phone number, fast on a phone — will typically turn several times as many clicks into enquiries. If you are going to spend on ads, spend on the page first.

Measure enquiries, not clicks

Both platforms will happily report clicks and impressions forever. Neither number pays your invoices. Before the first dollar, make sure a form submission, a call from the ad, and a chat with your assistant are each tracked as a conversion, so in a month you can see cost per enquiry by platform and by ad. That number, and nothing else, decides where the next month’s budget goes.

A sensible starting split

If you must choose, choose by intent as above and run one platform well for two months before adding the second. If you can run both, most local service businesses do well with Google for the “need it now” searches and a smaller Meta budget showing real work to people in the service area, so that when the need arrives your name is familiar.

What we do

Our paid ads management is $500 a month for up to $3,000 of ad spend, then 15% of spend; the ad spend itself is paid by you directly to Google or Meta. We build the landing page, set up conversion tracking so enquiries are counted, and report cost per enquiry each month rather than clicks. If your site is too slow to send traffic to, we will say so before you spend a dollar on ads.