Google Ads vs Facebook Ads
Google Ads vs Facebook Ads for a trade.
Short answer: for most trades, start with Google. Someone typing “emergency electrician near me” has a problem right now and wants to hire. Facebook shows your ad to people who were not looking for anything. Google catches the work that already exists; Facebook creates work that is not there yet.
So the real question is not “which platform is better”, it is “what kind of work do you do?” Urgent, someone-needs-it-today jobs belong on Google. Considered, look-at-these-before-and-afters jobs belong on Facebook. Here is how to pick, with real UK numbers, not the American figures every other guide reheats.
The one thing to understand
The difference that decides it.
Google is demand capture. You pay to show up the moment someone searches for exactly what you do, at the exact time they want it done. Facebook is demand generation, or interruption if we are honest: you put your work in front of people scrolling between photos of a mate's holiday, who have no leaking pipe and no plans to hire you today.
Neither is better, they do different jobs. At any given time only around one in twenty people in your market is ready to buy. The other nineteen are not searching yet. Google fishes in that one. Facebook plants a seed in the nineteen, so that when their boiler does pack in, or they finally book that extension, yours is the name they remember.
The plain version
Google finds the people who need you this week. Facebook reminds the people who might need you one day.
For a trade with a tight budget, the people who want you this week are almost always where the first pound should go.
Match it to your work
Which one suits your jobs?
“Ads” is not one thing. The right platform depends on whether your customer is in a hurry, and whether the job is a grudge purchase or a treat they have been dreaming about.
| Type of job | Start with | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Emergency (burst pipe, no power, lockout, boiler down, leaking roof) | They are searching in a panic and call the first name they trust. No one books a burst pipe off a Facebook ad. | |
| Repair & servicing (boiler service, fault-finding, guttering) | Still a "get it sorted" search, just less frantic. The intent is there. | |
| Considered & visual (kitchen, bathroom, extension, landscaping, driveway, resin, solar) | Facebook can win | Months of thinking, and the choice is emotional. Before-and-after photos stop the scroll and start the daydream. |
| Getting known in a new area | Cheap reach to get your van and your work seen before anyone needs you. |
The rule of thumb
The more urgent the job, the more it belongs on Google. The more visual, and the longer people mull it over, the more Facebook pulls its weight. Most trades are mostly urgent, which is why most trades should start with Google.
The money, in pounds
What they actually cost.
Here is where every other guide lets a trade down: their numbers are in dollars, pulled from American shops. These are real UK figures. On Google you pay per click, and it swings hard by trade and area.
| Trade | Typical UK cost per click |
|---|---|
| Home services (average) | around £3.20 |
| Electrician | roughly £2.50 to £8 |
| Roofer | around £3 to £5 |
| Emergency plumber | £4 to £12, and £15 to £25 in London |
Facebook works differently: you pay per thousand times your ad is shown. In the UK that runs around £6.60 to £9.50, climbing past £26 in the run-up to Christmas when every retailer floods the auction. A lead averages about £17.60, and trades tend to sit below that.
The number that matters
Judge it on cost per won job, not cost per click.
A cheap Facebook click from someone idly curious can cost you more per booked job than a dear Google click from someone with your number half-dialled. A £10 click that books a £3,000 bathroom is the cheapest advertising you will ever buy.
One honesty note: the “cost per lead” figures of £70 to £180 floating around online are American data and run far higher than the UK. Do not budget off them.
The option the other guides forget
There is a third door.
Most comparisons treat this as Google versus Facebook and stop there. But there is a third option, and it is often the best one for a trade: Google Local Services Ads. They sit right at the very top of the search results, above the normal ads, and they work completely differently. You pay per lead, not per click, roughly £15 to £50 for a real call or message, not a tyre-kicker who clicked and bounced.
They carry the Google Verified badge (rebranded from Google Guaranteed in October 2025), which means Google has checked your insurance and your Companies House details, so you show up with a tick that says you are the real deal. And if a lead is junk, wrong postcode or a wrong number, you can dispute it and not pay. For a lot of trades this is the cheapest, lowest-faff way to buy work that already exists. Not one of the guides ranking above this even mentions it.
Two things nobody warns you about
The bits that catch trades out.
Speed
A Google lead is hot: they are phoning because they need you now, and if you do not answer they ring the next name within the minute. A Facebook lead is cold: cheaper and there are more of them, but they filled in a form on a whim and forget within the hour. If you cannot ring a Facebook lead back within minutes, you waste it. For a one-van operator up a ladder, that matters.
The photos
Facebook rewards good pictures and video, before-and-afters and a walk-round of a finished job, that stop the scroll. Which means someone has to actually shoot them. Google search ads need none of that, just the right words and a website to land on. If you have not got the time or the eye for content, Facebook fights you.
If you can only spend so much
Which to buy first.
Say you have a few hundred pounds a month. Do not split it thin across both, you will do neither well. Put it where the ready-to-buy customers are first: Google, or Local Services Ads, to catch the people already searching for you. Get that paying and the leads flowing, then layer Facebook on top once you have a bit of budget spare and some decent photos to run.
“Is £20 a day enough?”
It depends entirely on your click price. On a cheap keyword at £2 a click, that is ten clicks a day, enough to learn from. On “emergency plumber” at £10-plus a click, £20 buys you two clicks, and Google's bidding never gets the data it needs to work. Below roughly £30 a day in a dear trade, you are not running ads, you are feeding a meter.
The honest bit
When not to bother yet.
If you are an emergency trade with next to no budget, before you pay for a single click, get your free Google Business Profile sorted and chase reviews so you show up in the map results, and look hard at Local Services Ads. Sometimes the free map listing plus pay-per-lead beats paid search on cost per job, and we would rather tell you that than take your money. We wrote the how-to on both: getting more Google reviews and do I even need a website.
Where we come in
What we'd run for you.
We run Google Ads for trades, and we lead with Google for a straight reason: for most of the trades we work with, the person who needs them today is on Google, not Facebook. That is the microwave, leads this week. If your work is the visual, considered kind that genuinely sells better on Facebook, we will say so rather than push a service that is not the right fit for you.
Whatever we run, the click has to land on a website built to turn it into a phone call, because the ad only gets someone to the door. There is more on the money side in are Google Ads worth it and how much you should spend.
Straight answers
Questions trades actually ask.
- Do Google Ads work better than Facebook Ads?
- Neither is better across the board, they do different jobs. Google catches people already searching for what you do, so it wins for urgent trade work like a burst pipe or no power. Facebook puts your work in front of people who are not looking yet, so it suits considered, visual jobs like a new kitchen or a landscaped garden. For most trades, whose work is mostly urgent, Google is the place to start.
- Is £20 a day good for Google Ads?
- It depends entirely on your click price. On a cheap keyword at around £2 a click, £20 a day is ten clicks, enough to learn from. On something like "emergency plumber" at £10 or more a click, £20 buys you two clicks, and Google’s bidding never gets enough data to work properly. In a pricey trade, below roughly £30 a day you are not really running ads, you are feeding a meter.
- How much do Facebook Ads cost compared to Google Ads?
- A Facebook click is far cheaper, but you are not really comparing like for like. Google bills you per click, and UK trade clicks run from about £2.50 for an electrician up to £12 or more for an emergency plumber. Facebook bills you per thousand times your ad is shown (around £6.60 to £9.50 in the UK), and a lead averages about £17.60. The catch is that a cheap Facebook click from someone idly curious can cost you more per booked job than a dear Google click from someone ready to hire. Judge it on cost per won job, never cost per click.
- How much do Facebook Ads cost per 1,000 views?
- In the UK, Facebook cost per thousand impressions (the CPM) averages roughly £6.60 to £9.50, with a normal range of about £8 to £18. It climbs past £26 in the run-up to Christmas, when every retailer floods the auction and pushes the price up for everyone.
- Which is better for an emergency trade like a plumber, electrician or locksmith?
- Google, almost every time. Someone with a burst pipe, no power or a lockout is searching in a panic and will call the first credible result they see. No one books an emergency off a Facebook advert. Pair Google search with Local Services Ads and a free Google Business Profile and you cover the people looking for you right now.
- Which is better for kitchens, extensions or landscaping?
- This is where Facebook can genuinely earn its place. These are jobs people mull over for months, and the decision is emotional as much as practical. Strong before-and-after photos and short videos stop the scroll and start the daydream, planting your name before they ever search. Google still catches the ones who are actively looking, so many trades doing this kind of work end up running both.
- What are Google Local Services Ads?
- They are a separate kind of Google ad that sits right at the top of the results, above the normal ones, and you pay per lead instead of per click, typically £15 to £50 for a real call or message. They carry the Google Verified badge (rebranded from Google Guaranteed in October 2025), which means Google has checked your insurance and Companies House details. If a lead is junk, wrong postcode or wrong number, you can dispute it and not pay. For a lot of trades it is the cheapest, lowest-faff way to buy work.
- Can I run both Google and Facebook ads on a small budget?
- You can, but on a few hundred pounds a month you are usually better off not splitting it thin. Put it where the ready-to-buy customers are first, which for most trades is Google or Local Services Ads, get that paying, then layer Facebook on top once you have a bit of budget spare and some decent photos to run. One platform done properly beats two done badly.
- Why are my Facebook leads worse quality than my Google leads?
- Because the mindset is different. A Google lead is phoning because they need you now. A Facebook lead filled in a form on a whim while scrolling, and will forget they did within the hour. Facebook leads are cheaper and there are more of them, but they go cold fast, so you have to ring them back within minutes. If you cannot, they are wasted.
Want the people already searching for you?
Tell us a bit about your business and we'll tell you straight which ads suit your work, and whether you're ready to run them. Got a question first? Just message us.