This is the question we hear most when an SMB finally decides to pay for visibility: "Do we start with Google or with Facebook?" The honest answer is neither, by default. It depends on one thing, and it is not your budget or your industry. It is the person's intent at the moment they see your ad.
Putting $1,000 in the wrong place does not cost you $1,000. It costs you $1,000, plus a month, plus the conclusion that "advertising does not work for us". We see this mistake every week. Here is the framework for avoiding it, platform by platform.
Google captures demand that already exists
When someone types "emergency plumber Laval" into Google, the need is already there. That person is not wondering whether they have a problem: there is water in the basement and they are looking for who to call right now. You are not creating demand, you are capturing it. This is intent advertising.
That is why Google often converts faster and costs more per click. You pay more per visit, but the visit is worth more, because the person has already reached the decision. The flip side: if nobody is searching for what you sell, Google has nothing to capture. No search volume, no campaign. You cannot capture demand that is not there.
Meta creates demand in someone who was not looking
On Facebook and Instagram, nobody is looking for your product. The person is scrolling their feed and runs into your ad. You are interrupting them. Your job is to create interest from nothing, with an image or a video that stops the thumb. Meta's advantage is targeting by profile and interest: you are not aiming at a keyword, you are aiming at a type of person. That is powerful for introducing a product people would like if they saw it, but would never have thought to search for.
The flip side: the person asked you for nothing. The cost per click is often lower, but the path to the sale is longer. It takes a good visual, a clear offer, often several touches before they move. And the B2B nuance: many SMBs default to LinkedIn out of reflex, but if your customers are actively searching for a solution (accounting software, a specific supplier), Google captures that search in B2B too. The professional buyer uses Google like everyone else. In B2B, keep Meta for awareness and retargeting.
The right question is not "Google or Meta". It is: are my customers already searching for what I sell? If yes, capture the demand. If no, create it. Everything else follows from that answer.
How to test your first $1,000 properly
An honest test means one platform at a time, not both mixed together with no measurement. Budget roughly $600 to $800 of media over three to four weeks minimum, on the platform the framework points to. Under three weeks you are judging noise, not signal: the algorithms need time to learn.
The measurement that counts is not the click, nor even the cost per lead. It is the cost per actual customer. Ten leads at $25 that never sign cost more than three leads at $70 where two do. Track enquiries all the way through, or you will optimize the wrong number.
The mistakes that burn the budget
Cutting too soon. On day 5 a campaign looks bad because it is still learning. The SMB panics, changes everything, starts over, and the algorithm starts learning from scratch too. Nobody ever wins that game. Then, judging on clicks: a handsome click-through rate does not pay your bills, and a campaign with fewer clicks but more customers wins every time. And the worst of all: launching Google and Meta at once in the first month with no tracking by source. You will never know which one worked, so you will have nothing to decide on for the following month. One platform, one clean measurement, one clear decision.
The grid: if… then start with…
If you are in emergency or local services (plumbing, roofing, moving, snow removal) and people look for you when the need hits: Google. If you sell a visual product or a B2C service where the purchase is inspired (fashion, decor, restaurants, beauty, events): Meta. If you are launching a new product nobody is searching for yet: Meta, to create the demand. If you are in B2B with a solution people actively search for: Google.
And if you are still hesitating after that, it probably means your offer or your target customer is not precise enough — and that is what needs fixing before you pay for traffic. Settling this usually takes about fifteen minutes once we look at your offer, your customer and your market together. That is exactly what we do during the 15-minute diagnostic call: we tell you where to start, with what budget, and how to measure, before you spend your first dollar.
Google Ads remarketing — the cheapest channel per contact, and the volume threshold it needs.