As a marketing agency owner in Melbourne, I get asked one question more than any other: "Should I be spending my money on Google Ads or Facebook Ads?" The truth is, there's a simple way to think about it that cuts through all the noise.

Google Ads helps you find new customers. Facebook Ads helps new customers find you.

Let me put it another way. When I'm working with a client, I explain that Google is like setting up a stall in a market where people are actively yelling out for what you sell. It's about demand harvesting. Facebook, on the other hand, is like putting up a massive, eye-catching billboard on a busy highway. It's about demand generation—catching the eye of people who didn’t even know they needed you until they saw your ad.

Understanding the Core Difference in User Intent

The "Google Ads vs Facebook Ads" debate isn't about which platform is better. It's about which one aligns with your business goals right now. It all comes down to your customer's mindset.

Think about your own day. One moment you might have a problem—say, your Shopify store breaks—and you're frantically searching for a solution. The next, you're just chilling, scrolling through Instagram, catching up with friends, with zero intention of buying anything. These are two completely different moments, and they require two completely different marketing approaches.

Capturing Active Searchers with Google Ads

I see Google Ads as your digital storefront, placed exactly where people are looking for your products or services. They're typing things like 'emergency plumber Melbourne' or 'best running shoes for flat feet' directly into the search bar. This is what we in the industry call high-intent traffic. These people have a problem, and they want a solution now.

• Your Goal: Be the best, most relevant answer to their search.
• The Approach: Target super-specific keywords that signal they're ready to buy. For a service business, this is how you get quality contact form submissions.
• The Result: You capture qualified leads at the exact moment they’re making a decision.

This is exactly why Google Ads is an absolute powerhouse for service-based businesses, tradies, and eCommerce stores that sell products people actively search for. If you're running a business that solves an immediate need, this is your starting point.

Generating Interest with Facebook Ads

Facebook (or Meta) Ads is a different beast entirely. It’s like placing a captivating ad in a popular magazine or on a giant screen in Federation Square. People aren't looking for you, but my job as a marketer is to grab their attention with compelling images, videos, and clever copy. I am, in essence, interrupting their social scrolling to introduce them to a brand.

To really get your head around the sophisticated engines driving these platforms, it helps to understand what artificial intelligence in marketing means. This tech is the brains behind the incredibly detailed audience targeting and ad delivery that makes both platforms work so well.

The core mindset shift I teach my clients is this: With Google, you’re fulfilling existing demand. With Facebook, you’re creating it from scratch.

Quick Comparison: Google Ads vs Facebook Ads

To make it even clearer, here’s a high-level look at how I see the two platforms stack up for an advertiser.

This table shows the fundamental split in strategy. With Google, you're answering a question. With Facebook, you're starting a conversation. Both are powerful, but they serve very different purposes in your marketing toolkit.

Reaching Your Ideal Customer With Advanced Targeting

The real power behind both Google and Facebook Ads lies in their incredible targeting capabilities. They just go about it in completely different ways. As a digital marketing agency in Melbourne, I’ve seen firsthand how choosing the right targeting method can make or break a campaign for an eCommerce client.

With Google, you’re targeting keywords. These are the exact phrases people type when they have a problem. This direct approach is extremely powerful for eCommerce, especially for a specialised business like a team of Shopify developers.

You can zero in on people in Melbourne searching for a specific product or service at the very moment they need it. It’s all about being the best answer to a direct question.

Keyword Targeting on Google Ads

Google’s strength is capturing intent. My success with clients depends on understanding the nuances of how people search. It's more than just picking obvious keywords.

• Match Types: You have options like broad, phrase, and exact match. For an eCommerce client wanting product sales, we almost always focus on phrase and exact match keywords in a standard search campaign to stop the budget from being wasted on irrelevant clicks.
• Negative Keywords: Just as important is telling Google what not to show your ads for. A luxury handbag store would have me add negative keywords like "cheap" or "repair" to filter out the wrong kind of searcher.
• Location Targeting: You can target entire cities like Sydney or Brisbane, or get granular and target specific postcodes. For local eCommerce businesses offering click-and-collect, this is non-negotiable for an efficient budget.

This method is incredibly precise. I'm focusing on capturing people who are already halfway down the purchasing funnel. They know what they want; my job is to show them we have it.

Audience Building on Facebook Ads

Facebook, on the other hand, is where I build audiences based on demographics and psychographics. I create a profile of the ideal customer based on their interests, behaviours, age, location, and even significant life events. This is an absolute goldmine for eCommerce businesses, especially Shopify stores selling products that appeal to a specific lifestyle.

To get the most out of your campaigns and make sure the message resonates, it's essential to properly identify your target audience before you spend a single dollar. This groundwork is something I stress with every client.

I always explain it like this: Google targets what people are searching for. Facebook targets who people are. This is the fundamental difference in our approach to finding customers.

The Australian Facebook Ads market is a unique landscape. Facebook dominates social advertising in Australia with over 21 million users, and 66% of internet users are reachable through its ads. The largest user segment is men and women aged 25-34, making up 12.8% of the total Australian user base.

For advertisers like me, this means there’s a massive, highly engaged audience ready and waiting. This is especially true when you consider that nearly one in four Australian Android users spend an average of 20 hours and 15 minutes a month on the app.

One of the most powerful tools in Facebook's arsenal, and one I've had incredible success with for Shopify clients, is the Lookalike Audience. We take a list of their best customers—people who have purchased multiple times or have a high average order value—and ask Facebook to find new people who share similar characteristics.

It’s like creating a clone of your perfect customer. When I pair this with retargeting ads that show previous website visitors the exact products they viewed, it creates a powerful system for finding and converting new customers who didn't even know they needed the product yet.

Right, let's talk about the money side of things. How much will it actually cost to get started with Google Ads versus Facebook Ads, and what sort of return can you realistically expect? As a digital marketing agency based in Melbourne, I’ve seen firsthand how the cost dynamics play out here in Australia, and getting this part right is what separates a profitable campaign from a money pit.

This isn't just about finding the "cheaper" platform. It’s about me helping you understand the value behind every dollar you spend and figuring out where that money will work hardest for your specific goals.

What the Key Cost Metrics Actually Mean

When I get into ad costs with a client, we’re really looking at three main numbers. Each one tells a different part of the story about how a campaign is performing financially.

• Cost-Per-Click (CPC): This is simple—it’s what you pay every time someone clicks on your ad. It’s a direct measure of what it costs to get a visitor to your website.
• Cost-Per-Mille (CPM): This is the cost for one thousand ad impressions (or views). I think of CPM as the cost of getting eyeballs on your brand, whether they click or not.
• Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA): This is the one that really matters for your bottom line. It measures the total cost to get one new customer or lead, like a product sale.

How these three metrics work together is what ultimately defines your Return on Investment (ROI).

Google Ads: High Intent Comes at a Premium

You can almost always expect to pay a higher CPC on Google Ads. Why? Because you’re paying a premium for high-intent searches. Think about it: someone actively typing "Shopify developer Melbourne" into Google is miles closer to buying than someone just scrolling through their Instagram feed.

Because of this, the quality of traffic from Google is often far superior. For an eCommerce store, a higher CPA on Google can be totally justified if those clicks are turning into high-value sales. The ROI can be phenomenal because you're paying to get in front of people who've already put their hand up and said, "I need this, right now."

Facebook Ads: Cheaper Reach with a Creative Catch

Facebook’s auction system often results in lower CPCs. You can get your message in front of a huge audience for a relatively low cost, which is great for building awareness. The catch? You need seriously good creative to stop the scroll and convince a passive user to actually buy something.

Here in Australia, we're in a unique spot. While Australia is the world's third most expensive market for Facebook advertising with a CPM of $11.04, that doesn't mean clicks are expensive. In fact, the average CPC on Facebook in Australia is just $0.85, a full 24% cheaper than in the US. This weird pricing dynamic creates a massive opportunity, and it's why an impressive 61% of Aussie small businesses using Facebook ads report a jump in sales. You can dig deeper into these Australian advertising benchmarks to see what they mean for your business.

For an eCommerce brand, Facebook can deliver an incredible Return On Ad Spend (ROAS). If I can nail the creatives and find that winning combo of visuals and audience, we can hit a low CPA and scale campaigns profitably, finding new customers who didn't even know they needed the product yet.

At the end of the day, this isn't about finding the cheapest clicks. It's about understanding the kind of traffic each platform delivers. Google gives you high-quality, ready-to-buy traffic, but you'll pay more for it. Facebook offers a cost-effective way to generate new demand and build an audience, but only if your creative is strong enough to cut through the noise.

Choosing the Right Ad Formats and Creative for Each Platform

This is where the difference between Google and Facebook becomes crystal clear. The skills, resources, and creative approach needed for each platform are worlds apart. One is a copywriter's game of precision and intent; the other is a visual battle for attention.

On Google Search, your ad is almost entirely text. Success hinges on your ability to write compelling, concise copy that weaves in your target keywords and speaks directly to the searcher's problem. It’s all about crafting the perfect headline and description to earn that high-intent click.

This straightforward, text-based approach is a lifesaver for businesses needing direct leads. You don't need a huge design team; you need someone who understands the psychology of search and can write killer ad copy.

Google Ads Creative for eCommerce

For eCommerce businesses, the game on Google changes slightly. The heroes of your campaign are no longer just words but your products themselves. This is especially true for Google Shopping Ads.

• Google Shopping Ads: Here, the most critical "creative" elements are your product image, title, and price. An optimised product feed is your best weapon. Clear, professional product photos on a white background are absolutely essential. When I'm working on a client's Google Shopping ads, getting this feed right is my top priority.
• Performance Max (PMax) Campaigns: PMax uses a mix of assets—images, logos, videos, and text. While it automates delivery, providing high-quality visuals is crucial for success across the Google Display Network and YouTube. I always advise clients that a strong PMax campaign needs a good library of creative assets.

In both cases, the creative lift is relatively low compared to social media. Your focus is on optimising product data and ensuring your prices are competitive, rather than producing a constant stream of new video content.

I always say: on Google, your ad's job is to be the best answer. On Facebook, your ad's job is to be the most interesting interruption. This distinction dictates your entire creative strategy.

Meta Ads: A Visual Battleground

Facebook and Instagram, however, are visual platforms. A plain text ad will be completely ignored. Your success depends almost entirely on your ability to produce scroll-stopping creative: stunning images, engaging videos, and interactive carousels.

At our Facebook ads agency, we've found that creative is the single biggest lever for performance. You can have the perfect audience targeting, but if your creative is stale or boring, the campaign will fail. It's why we have such a rigorous creative testing process.

Our Meta ads creative testing process usually involves these steps:

1. Develop a Hypothesis: I start with an idea. For example, "A user-generated-style video showing the product in use will outperform our polished studio shots."
2. Create Variations: I'll have my team create multiple ad variations based on this hypothesis, testing different hooks in the first three seconds, different calls-to-action, or different background music.
3. Launch and Learn: We run these ads to a specific audience and monitor key metrics like Click-Through Rate (CTR) and Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA).
4. Analyse and Scale: After gathering enough data, I analyse the results. Winning concepts are scaled with more budget, while losing concepts inform our next round of hypotheses.

This cycle of testing and learning is constant. Unlike Google Search ads, which you might "set and forget" for a while, Facebook creative fatigues quickly. You need a steady pipeline of new ideas and assets to keep performance high, which requires significantly more resources in design and video production.

Measuring Success and Navigating a World Without Cookies

If you don't have accurate data, you're just throwing money at a wall and hoping it sticks. Both Google and Meta platforms have powerful analytics, but they measure success in fundamentally different ways. The right choice for your business often comes down to the kind of data clarity you need to make decisions.

Google Ads is brilliant for direct, last-click attribution. It’s incredibly straightforward for me to show a client that a click from a specific keyword led directly to a sale. As a digital marketing agency in Melbourne, my team and I live inside tools like Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics, meticulously tracking every conversion to get a clean view of what’s driving immediate results.

This clarity is why so many businesses start with Google Ads. The ROI is simple to calculate when you can draw a straight line from an ad click to a paying customer.

The Murky Waters of Facebook's Attribution

Facebook's attribution model, on the other hand, is far more complex and, frankly, a bit murky. A user might see your ad on Instagram while scrolling, not click, but then remember your brand and search for you on Google a week later. Facebook’s attribution window tries to capture this "view-through" conversion, but recent privacy changes have made this much harder to track reliably.

This forces a completely different way of thinking about ROI. I can't just look at the last click; I have to help clients accept that Facebook plays a huge role in influencing future purchases, even if it doesn't get the final credit in their analytics.

The critical takeaway is this: Google Ads gives you clean, direct-response data, making it perfect for measuring immediate ROI. Facebook Ads requires a more holistic view, forcing you to measure its influence on the entire customer journey, not just the final click.

Why Server-Side Tracking Is No Longer Optional

The era of relying solely on the browser-based Meta Pixel is over. Privacy updates, like Apple's App Tracking Transparency, have crippled the amount of data it can collect. This is where setting up the Meta Conversions API (CAPI) becomes completely non-negotiable for accurate tracking, especially for eCommerce businesses.

At my agency, CAPI installation for Meta is one of the very first things we do for a new client. It’s not a "nice-to-have" anymore. Here’s why I insist on it:

• It’s Far More Reliable: CAPI sends data directly from your server (like your Shopify store’s server) to Meta’s server. This bypasses browser-based tracking blockers and ad blockers, giving you a much more complete picture of what's actually happening.
• It Makes Your Ads Work Better: Better data leads to better ad delivery. When Meta has more accurate conversion data, its algorithm gets smarter and can more effectively find other users who are likely to buy from you.
• It's Future-Proofing: As browser cookies are phased out for good, server-side tracking will become the standard. Implementing it now puts you miles ahead of the competition.

A Look at Australian Conversion Data

When you look at local data, you start to see some compelling differences between the platforms. While Google Ads often shows fantastic conversion rates for high-intent searches, averaging between 3-6% across Australian industries, Meta Ads boasts an impressive average conversion rate of 9.21% based on industry data.

The most significant difference, however, is in the cost per lead. Facebook Lead Ads average around $27.66 per lead in Australia, whereas a comparable lead from Google Ads can cost closer to $70.11. This makes Facebook approximately 60% cheaper for pure lead generation in many cases.

You can dive deeper into these platform-specific metrics for Australian businesses to see how they apply to your industry. The data tells a clear story: while Google might drive a higher-quality lead from the get-go, Facebook can fill the top of your funnel with potential customers far more cost-effectively.

So, Which Platform Should You Choose? Or Should You Use Both?

Alright, we've broken down the intent, targeting, costs, and creative for both platforms. But the million-dollar question remains: where should you actually put your ad spend? The whole Facebook Ads vs Google Ads debate isn't about finding a single winner for all time; it's about picking the right player for what your business needs right now.

From my experience running a marketing agency in Melbourne, the starting point is usually pretty clear once you look at the business model.

Your Starting Point Decision

For most service businesses—think tradies, consultants, or even a specialised WordPress developer—I almost always recommend starting with Google Ads. The logic is simple: you need to capture people who are already looking for you. When a potential customer is actively searching for your exact service, being the first result they see is the fastest path to a qualified lead.

On the other hand, for eCommerce businesses, especially those on Shopify with products that look great in photos or videos, Facebook Ads is often the better launchpad. It’s brilliant for building an audience from nothing, sparking initial sales through impulse buys, and creating brand awareness before people even realise they need what you're selling.

The Real Magic: An Integrated Strategy

But here's the thing: the ultimate strategy isn't about choosing one platform over the other. The real growth happens when you stop thinking in terms of 'Facebook vs Google' and start thinking 'Facebook and Google'. A powerful, integrated approach uses the unique strengths of each platform to create a full-funnel marketing machine that just works.

Here’s a simple but incredibly effective way I combine them for my clients:

1. Generate Demand (Facebook/Instagram): I use visually compelling Meta ads to introduce a brand and its products to new, cold audiences. The main goal here isn't immediate sales—it's building awareness and getting people interested.
2. Capture Demand (Google Search): As people become aware of the brand from social media, many will eventually search for it by name. I need to be there when they do. A branded search campaign on Google captures this high-intent traffic and makes it dead simple for them to convert.
3. Retarget Everywhere: This is crucial. I use retargeting campaigns on both platforms. I show ads to previous website visitors on Facebook and Instagram to stay top-of-mind, and use Google Display ads to follow them across the web.

This decision tree gives a simplified view of how to approach tracking, depending on which platform you start with.

The flowchart shows that while both platforms need solid tracking, Google is all about capturing direct search intent (via tags), whereas Facebook is about understanding user behaviour over time (via the pixel and CAPI) to build audiences.

By using both, I cover all the bases—from the very first moment someone discovers a brand to the final click to buy. This ensures no potential customer slips through the cracks.

Got Questions? Here Are Some Common Ones

When business owners in Melbourne and across Australia are trying to figure out where to put their ad dollars, a few questions always pop up. It's a confusing world, so let me clear up the big ones right away based on my own experience.

How Much Do I Need to Get Started?

There’s no magic number, but I always tell clients to start with a budget they’re comfortable testing for at least a full month. I call it a "learning budget."

For a local eCommerce store running Google Shopping Ads here in Melbourne, a starting point of $500-$1,000 per month is usually enough to get the ball rolling and gather some meaningful data on what products are getting traction.

With Facebook Ads, you can be a bit more nimble. You could start with as little as $10-$20 per day to test which images, videos, and audiences get a reaction. The key, like with any marketing, is consistency. Your first month is for finding out what works, not necessarily for immediate, massive returns. Once you’ve got a winning formula, that's when you can scale spending with confidence.

Which One’s Better for a B2B Service Business?

Generally, Google Ads is the stronger play for B2B. Why? Because decision-makers in other businesses are actively searching for solutions to their problems, which makes Google Search the perfect place to show up. I can target specific, high-intent keywords tied to their services and capture that existing demand.

Facebook can work for B2B, but it requires a more strategic approach. You might target users by their job title or industry, for example. Just remember, the user's mindset on Facebook is less business-focused. The sales cycle is often longer and usually needs more nurturing to turn a casual scroller into a qualified lead.

Can I Run These Campaigns Myself, or Should I Hire Someone?

You can absolutely learn to run these campaigns yourself. But I'll be honest, the learning curve is steep. These platforms are complex beasts that are constantly changing, and a few simple mistakes can get very expensive, very fast.

Working with a specialised digital marketing agency in Melbourne like mine means you're tapping straight into years of hands-on experience. We handle the nitty-gritty technical setup—like implementing the Meta Conversions API or configuring Google Tag Manager—and apply proven strategies that save you time and, ultimately, lead to a much better return on your investment.

Alpha Omega Digital is a marketing agency based in Melbourne, Australia but also services clients from Sydney, Brisbane, Newcastle, Perth, Adelaide, Darwin and Hobart. Have a project in mind? Contact us.