You have €1,000 a month to invest in advertising and two platforms promising customers. Where do you put it? The right answer is not “it depends”: it is a precise question about your customer. Here is the criterion, the numbers and the mistakes to avoid.
The criterion: existing demand or demand to create
Google Ads captures people who are already searching. If someone types “plumber Manchester”, “restaurant management software” or “women’s trail running shoes”, they have a need and are looking for it now. Google puts you in front of that person at that moment. It works brilliantly for services, products searched by name or category, emergencies, B2B.
Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram) creates demand. Nobody searches for “weighted blanket” at 11pm scrolling Instagram, but if they see one, they want it. Meta works for visual, impulse, new products, for brands with a story to tell and for retargeting people who already visited your site.
Guiding question: does my customer already know they want what I sell, and are they searching for it? If yes, start with Google. If no, start with Meta. Often the answer is “both, with different weights”.
How much budget you really need
Below a certain threshold the platforms do not collect enough data to optimise. Roughly:
- Google Search: at least €15-20 a day (€450-600/month) per sector, more where cost per click is high (insurance, legal, finance, where a click can cost €5-15).
- Meta: at least €15-20 a day per acquisition campaign; retargeting can start from €5 a day.
With €1,000 a month: one platform, one campaign done properly, 4-6 weeks of testing. With €3,000: Google Search for hot demand, Meta for prospecting and retargeting. Anyone proposing five campaigns on three platforms with a €500 budget is selling to themselves, not to you.
What to measure (before spending a euro)
Tracking is 50% of the result. Without correct conversions, Google and Meta optimise towards wrong or non-existent goals. Before launch you need:
- GA4 configured with the events that matter (lead, purchase, call, WhatsApp).
- Meta pixel with standard events and, better, the server-side Conversions API.
- Google Ads conversions imported or configured, with value where possible.
- Compliant cookie consent with Consent Mode v2, otherwise in Europe you lose a chunk of data and risk fines.
- A target number: how much can you pay for a customer? If a customer is worth €500 in margin, a €80 acquisition cost is excellent; at €400 you are working for Google.
The mistakes that burn the first €1,000
- The “Boost post” button on Instagram. It is not a campaign, it is a donation to Meta.
- Sending traffic to the homepage instead of a page built to convert.
- Changing everything every three days. Algorithms need 1-2 weeks of stable data.
- Broad keywords on Google without phrase or exact match and without negatives: you pay for clicks from people searching for something else entirely.
- A single creative on Meta. After two weeks it fatigues and costs rise. You need continuous variants.
- No retargeting. 97% of visitors do not buy on the first visit: getting back in front of them is cheap and pays well.
A plan for the first 90 days
Month 1: tracking, one Search campaign on high-intent keywords (or one Meta prospecting campaign if you sell a visual product), contained budget, no changes for 10 days.
Month 2: cut what does not convert, add retargeting on the other platform, test 3-4 new creatives or ads.
Month 3: gradually scale what sits below the target acquisition cost (+20% budget per week, not double in a day), introduce Performance Max or catalogue campaigns if you run an e-commerce store.
In short
Google for those already searching for you, Meta for those who do not yet know they need you. Minimum budget €500-600 a month per platform, flawless tracking before launch, patience for 4-6 weeks. If you would rather we handle it, campaign management starts at €390/month, with weekly reports and no annual lock-in.
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