The honest answer depends on one question: does your customer find you when something's broken, or when they're planning something? Everything else about the Google-vs-Meta decision follows from that.
The difference is intent, not the platform
A person typing "emergency electrician near me" into Google has a problem right now and is choosing from the first few results. A person scrolling Instagram at 9pm who stops on a before-and-after of a garage floor didn't know they wanted epoxy until they saw it. Google Search is for capturing demand that exists; Meta is for creating it, or for reaching someone who's been thinking about a job for weeks and hasn't searched yet.
That's why the same tradie can get a $12 lead on one platform and a $60 lead on the other, and which one is the $12 depends entirely on the trade.
What our own accounts show
These are lifetime figures from the accounts we run — the full list is on the results page.
| Trade | Google Ads (cost per enquiry) | Meta (cost per lead form) |
|---|---|---|
| Car detailing | $10.68 (Newcastle), $10.85 (Gold Coast) | $13.21 (Wollongong), $10.02 (Perth) |
| Roofing | $46.82 (Newcastle), $59.93 (Maitland) | $24.28 – $47.66 (roof restorations, three metros) |
| Concreting | $12.15 (Townsville), $37.38 (Central Coast) | — |
| Glazing / shower screens | $8.54 (Brisbane) | — |
| Bathroom renovation | — | $11.65 (Perth South), $57.67 (Hobart) |
| Epoxy flooring | — | $22.76 (Adelaide), $24.33 (Melbourne) |
Two patterns. Trades bought on urgency and licence — glazing, concreting repairs, plumbing, electrical — are cheapest on Google and we usually don't bother with Meta until the search campaign is humming. Trades bought on the look of the finished job — detailing, epoxy, roof restorations, bathrooms, decks, landscaping — do well on both, and Meta is frequently the cheaper lead because a good before-and-after does the selling.
Lead quality is different too
A Google Search enquiry is usually a phone call from someone ready to book. A Meta lead is usually a form submission from someone interested — they need calling back quickly, ideally within minutes, and a percentage will have forgotten they filled it in. That's not a flaw, it's the nature of interrupting someone's feed; it just means Meta leads need a follow-up process, and the close rate is lower per lead. Price both channels on cost per booked job, not per lead, before deciding one is "cheaper".
Which first, by trade
- Google first: plumbers, electricians, glaziers, locksmiths, air-conditioning, pest control, roof repairs, concreters, tree removal, water damage, mobile mechanics — anything urgent or credential-checked.
- Meta first, or both together: detailing and ceramic coating, epoxy flooring, decks and patios, landscaping, pools, bathroom and kitchen renovations, roof restorations and repaints, fencing — anything where a photo of the finished job is the pitch.
- Google, then Meta for retargeting: almost everyone, once the search campaign has a few months of data. Showing your ad to people who already visited the site is the cheapest Meta campaign there is.
Two rules that apply either way
Neither channel works pointed at a slow homepage. Fix the site — or let us build one free — before spending on either; a fast, phone-first landing page is worth more than any bidding trick. And run one channel properly before adding the second: a single well-structured campaign with real conversion tracking produces cleaner data and better decisions than two underfunded ones. When you're ready, the Google Ads and Meta Ads pages explain exactly how we build each.
