"Should I advertise on Google or on Instagram?" It's the question that comes up most in the first conversation. And the honest answer is: it depends on one thing only, which is where your customer is right now.
It's not about which platform is better. Both work. They just do different jobs.
The difference that explains everything
On Google, the person is searching. They typed "dentist in Chicago" because they have a toothache right now. The intent already exists. You just need to show up at the right moment.
On Meta, the person isn't searching. They're scrolling past a friend's photo, and you interrupt. Nobody opens Instagram to buy. The intent doesn't exist yet: you have to create it.
That changes everything: the kind of ad, what you can expect, and the cost of each click.
When Google makes more sense
Google is the shortest path when people are already searching for what you sell.
Urgent, need-driven services are the classic case: dentist, lawyer, locksmith, repairs, clinics. Nobody needs to be convinced they have the problem. They just need to find someone available and trustworthy.
The upside: the intent is already there, so the conversion tends to come more directly.
The downside: because you're bidding against everyone who wants the same thing, the click costs more. And if nobody is searching for what you sell, there's nothing to capture.
When Meta makes more sense
Meta (Instagram and Facebook) is the path when your product has to be shown to create desire, or when your audience doesn't know the solution exists.
Aesthetics, fashion, restaurants, online courses, launches, new products. The person wasn't looking for it, but they saw it, got interested, and that's where the conversation begins.
The upside: big reach, cheaper clicks, and enormous targeting power.
The downside: because the intent didn't exist, the path to the sale is longer. It takes good creative and patience for the right audience to show up.
A practical way to decide
Say it out loud:
Do people type what I sell into Google?
- Yes, and urgently → start with Google.
- No, they don't even know it exists → start with Meta.
- Sort of → start with Google on a small budget, and test Meta in parallel.
Simple as that. And notice the word: start. It's not forever.
The mistake on both sides
There are two classic, opposite mistakes.
The first is putting everything into one channel and never testing the other. You stay stuck with what you know and never discover where the cheaper customer was.
The second is spreading a small budget across too many places. $500 split across three platforms becomes $166 each. None of them gets enough volume for the algorithm to learn, and you conclude that "ads don't work." It wasn't the ad. It was the dilution.
Concentrate until it works. Then expand.
And TikTok?
TikTok comes in when the audience is younger and the product has visual, discovery-driven appeal. The click tends to be cheaper, but it demands native creative, made for the platform. A cut-down TV spot doesn't work there.
It's not the first place to go when you're starting out. It's a good third step once the other two are already running.
What actually decides it
After years of doing this, the pattern is always the same: the platform matters less than where the click lands.
An excellent ad that dumps the person onto a confusing page won't sell. A mediocre ad that leads to a clear, fast page with an obvious path to getting in touch will sell. The click is just the beginning. What happens after it is where the money is won or lost.
That's why we never separate the two. There's no point arguing Google versus Meta if the house isn't ready to receive guests.
Find out where you stand
If you're not sure which pillar is holding back your growth, Arya runs a free diagnosis of your marketing: seven questions, and she tells you where the bottleneck is, whether it's attracting, converting, or scaling.
And if the question is where your operation loses customers before you even pick a channel, the marketing diagnosis answers in two minutes.
