Google or Facebook ads — which is worth it in 2026?

The difference in one sentence: Google advertising finds someone already looking for what you sell. Meta advertising (Facebook, Instagram) addresses someone who isn't looking — but who, on the description, might be interested.

One captures existing demand. The other tries to create demand. Neither substitutes for the other.

When is Google the right answer?

• When people search for your service: plumbing, vehicle recovery, a solicitor, an irrigation system.
• When the decision is urgent and the visitor wants to find somebody now.
• When there is a concrete, easily named product or service.

Here the intent already exists; you just have to be there. That's also why a click is usually more expensive: you're paying for the intent.

When is Meta the right answer?

• When you sell something new or little known that nobody searches for by name.
• When the product looks good in a photo or a video.
• When the audience is best described by a life situation rather than by a search.

Here the creative decides. The same targeting and the same budget with two different images produce two entirely different results.

What's the same for both

Advertising buys traffic. Not clients — traffic. Whether that becomes a client is decided by what happens after the click. If what the ad promised isn't there within one scroll of where it sent people, the money is gone.

So the most common mistake isn't the choice of platform, it's this: ads run to a page that asks for nothing, or loads slowly, or promises something different from the ad.

Before you start either

• Have measurement. If you can't see which ad produced an enquiry, you'll only ever optimise clicks.
• Have one goal. A call, a form, a booking or an order. If it's all of them, it's none of them.
• Have enough budget to learn. A euro a day won't tell you what works.
• Have patience. The first weeks are data collection, not results.

And if you want both?

That makes sense, but not starting both at once. Begin with whichever fits the description above, measure it, and only expand once the first channel works. Two half-configured systems are worse than one well-configured one.