Google Ads or Meta Ads: Which Suits an Australian Business?

Most Australian businesses that advertise online end up asking the same question: should the money go to Google Ads, to Meta (Facebook and Instagram), or to both? There is no single right answer, and anyone who quotes you a cost per lead before they know your business is guessing. What does exist is a clear way to decide, based on how your customers buy. This guide sets it out, with the Australian rules that apply whichever platform you choose.

The difference: searching or scrolling

Google Search ads catch demand. Someone types what they need, such as “emergency plumber Parramatta” or “accountant Fortitude Valley”, and your ad can appear at that moment. You choose the keywords, and with cost-per-click bidding you pay for each click on your ad (Google Ads Help). The search terms report then shows the actual searches that triggered your ads (Google Ads Help), so you can see what people wanted. A call asset adds a button people can tap to call your business straight from the ad (Google Ads Help).

Meta ads create demand. Your ad appears in Facebook and Instagram to people who match the audience you describe, while they are scrolling, not searching. Most of them were not looking for you five minutes earlier. The ad has to stop them, explain the offer and give them a reason to act now.

Which suits which Australian business

Urgent trades and home services

When a hot water system fails or a roof leaks, people search with the problem in front of them and call whoever looks able to help soon. That is Google’s ground: keywords with the suburb or region, ads with a call button, and someone ready to answer. Meta still helps a trade business that sells planned work, such as a bathroom renovation or air conditioning before summer, where a photo of finished work does the selling.

Builders and renovators

Building and renovating is a long decision with a big price, so it often makes sense to use both: Google for people already searching for a builder or an extension in their suburb, and Meta for showing finished projects to homeowners in the areas you build. Both should point to a website that shows your work, your licence details and how to book a consultation. See our websites for builders and trades.

Professional services

Accountants, lawyers, consultants and IT firms win clients who usually search when they have a need: tax time, a dispute, a new business. Google Search is the natural first channel. Meta works later, for staying visible to local business owners and offering something useful, such as a checklist or a free review, before they need you.

Property

Developers and real estate agents sell something people love to look at, which suits Meta: off-the-plan releases, appraisal offers and open homes, shown to people in the right areas. Google then catches the searches for the project name and for selling in a suburb. Ads about housing are one of Meta’s special ad categories, covered below. More on property development marketing.

Consumer offers

Solar and batteries, home improvements, health and beauty, events and local retail are things people do not search for every day but buy when the offer is right. Meta shows the offer; Google picks up the people who later search your brand or compare options. If your ads show prices to consumers, the ACCC’s total-price rule applies (below).

Financial services

Mortgage brokers, insurance advisers and lenders can use either platform, but both require verification before financial services ads are shown to Australians. Allow time for it before launch.

Where we would usually start, not a rule. Your own cost per qualified enquiry decides what happens next.

How to start, and how to split a first budget

We will not give you a magic number, because the right budget depends on what a new customer is worth to you and what an enquiry costs in your market. Here is the reasoning we use instead.

1. Start on one platform. Pick the one that matches how your customers buy. A small budget split across two platforms, several campaigns and many ads gives each part too little data to learn from.
2. Size a Meta budget for the learning phase. Meta says an ad set usually leaves its learning phase after about 50 results in the week after its last significant edit, and recommends realistic budgets, fewer ad sets and no edits while it is learning (Meta Business Help Centre). So work backwards: if you optimise for leads, the weekly budget for each ad set needs to buy around 50 of them at the cost you expect. If it cannot, run fewer ad sets, or start on Google.
3. Size a Google budget to the searches. Google can only show your ads when people search. Start with the most commercial keywords in the areas you actually serve, read the search terms report every week, and exclude the searches that are not customers.
4. Test the second platform once the first works. Keep most of the budget where your qualified enquiries come from, and give the other platform a fixed test with an end date and a target cost per qualified enquiry.
5. Move money every month, on results. Shift budget toward the platform with the lower cost per qualified enquiry and per closed deal, not the one with cheaper clicks.

There are always two costs: the ad spend, which goes to Google or Meta, and the fee for whoever manages it. Our Google Ads management and Facebook and Instagram ads have no published fee: management is scoped to your account and quoted in AUD plus GST before anything starts, on its own or as part of a Growth Partner engagement.

Landing pages or Meta instant forms?

On Meta you choose where a lead lands. An instant form opens inside Facebook or Instagram, so people can send their details without leaving the app. Meta offers three form types (Meta Business Help Centre):

• More volume, the default, built to be quick to submit on a phone.
• Higher intent, which adds a line under the contact fields saying the business may follow up, and a review screen where people confirm their details. Meta says it only runs in the Facebook and Instagram feeds on mobile.
• Rich creative, with your colours, images and more text about the offer.

A landing page is a page on your own website built for one offer. It takes a tap more effort, but it gives you room to explain the offer, show proof and prices, and filter out people who are not a fit, and it stays yours. Google Search ads send people to a page like this (or straight to a call), so for many businesses one page serves both platforms.

How we choose: if the offer is simple and your team can call fast, a Higher intent form with one or two qualifying questions is a good start. If the offer needs explaining, or enquiries keep going nowhere, send people to a landing page instead. Either way, Meta’s lead ads have a section for your privacy policy link (Meta Business Help Centre), and if you plan to send marketing emails or texts afterwards, the form needs the consent the Spam Act expects (below). Our website design includes enquiry forms wired into your inbox or CRM.

Call every lead fast

Leads from either platform cool quickly. Meta’s own advice for lead ads is that minimising the time it takes to follow up can improve lead quality, that leads should flow into an integrated CRM rather than be downloaded by hand, and that lead ads should run in the hours your team can respond (Meta Business Help Centre). The same logic applies to a Google enquiry: the person who searched may be contacting other businesses too.

In Australia, a follow-up call that aims to sell or promote counts as telemarketing, and the calling rules apply even where the caller is allowed to ring numbers on the Do Not Call Register: Monday to Friday 9am to 8pm, Saturday 9am to 5pm, never on a Sunday or a national public holiday. The caller has to say who they are, who they work for and why they are calling, end the call if asked, and show a caller ID number people can ring back (ACMA).

If your team cannot call within minutes, our speed-to-lead service calls new Facebook, website and Google Ads leads typically within 60 seconds, inside Australian calling hours, then qualifies them and books them in. And if you would rather pay only for results, the Pickup System runs the ads, calls every lead and books qualified appointments into your calendar for AU $150 + GST per confirmed appointment, with the ad spend funded and managed by us.

Measure cost per qualified enquiry and per closed deal, not clicks

Clicks, impressions and even cost per lead are signals, not results. A cheap lead that never answers the phone costs more than a dearer one that books a job. Track five numbers for each platform, every month: spend, leads, qualified enquiries, booked appointments and closed deals. Then work out two costs:

• Cost per qualified enquiry: ad spend divided by the enquiries that met the criteria you agreed with your sales team.
• Cost per closed deal: ad spend (plus management fees, for the full picture) divided by new customers.

Write down what “qualified” means before the ads start: the service, the area you cover, the job size and the timeframe. Then send outcomes back to the platforms. Google lets you import offline conversions to measure what happens after a click or call, such as a sale over the phone or in your office (Google Ads Help). Meta’s Conversions API creates a direct connection between your CRM and Meta’s ad systems (Meta Business Help Centre). With both in place, you can judge each platform on customers, not form fills.

Australian rules that bite

The ACCC on ad claims

Everything in an ad, on a landing page and in a form has to be accurate, truthful and based on reasonable grounds, and it makes no difference whether you meant to mislead. That covers social media, testimonials and websites as well as the ads themselves (ACCC). The traps the ACCC lists include:

• Fine print that conflicts with the headline, such as “free” with a charge in the small print.
• Claims about the future, such as savings or results, made without reasonable grounds at the time.
• “Was” and “now” prices that are not a genuine saving.
• A price that leaves out GST or other costs. If your ads show prices to consumers, show the total as a single figure, including GST and unavoidable fees; prices shown only to other businesses do not have to include GST (ACCC).

The Spam Act for follow-up texts and emails

Before you send a commercial email or SMS you need the person’s permission, either express (they knowingly agreed) or inferred (they gave you their details and would reasonably expect marketing from you). Keep a record of express consent, include a clear way to unsubscribe that keeps working for at least 30 days, and remove people within 5 working days of asking. Businesses that send branded texts also need their sender ID on the SMS Sender ID Register, or telcos label the messages “Unverified” (business.gov.au).

Meta’s special ad categories

When you create a Meta campaign you have to say whether it promotes a special ad category: employment, housing, financial products and services, or social issues, elections or politics. Meta says using a category may limit your audience options (Meta Business Help Centre). Recruiters, property marketers and finance businesses should check this before they plan their targeting.

Financial services verification on both platforms

To show financial services ads to people in Australia, Google requires advertisers to be verified, which includes proving they are licensed by ASIC. Most go through Google’s verification vendor first, while approved third parties, such as marketing agencies running lead generation for a licensed business, can apply directly (Google Ads Help). Meta requires financial services advertisers targeting Australia to verify the ad’s beneficiary and payer, including their Australian Financial Services Licence details unless exempt, and to carry a “Paid for by” disclaimer. The verified details show on the ads and in Meta’s Ad Library for up to seven years (Meta Business Help Centre).

How we run Google and Meta for Australian businesses

OneAdsphere is a New Zealand and Australian marketing agency, founded in Auckland in 2024. Australian clients contract with ONEADSPHERE (ABN 59 645 963 842), registered for GST, from our office in South Brisbane. One team runs the strategy, the ads on both platforms, the creative, the landing pages and the follow-up, with the ad accounts set up in your business’s name, and we judge the work on cost per qualified enquiry and per closed deal, not cost per click. No one can honestly promise a number of leads or jobs, and we do not.

Start with Google Ads management, Facebook and Instagram ads or the whole Growth Partner team, add a landing page or website and speed-to-lead when you need them, or call us on 0421 311 308 to talk it through.

Google Ads vs Meta ads in Australia: common questions