Google Ads catch the homeowner who is searching for your trade right now, so emergency and high-intent work belongs there. Meta ads (Facebook and Instagram) put an offer in front of a homeowner who has not searched yet, so system replacements, maintenance plans, seasonal promotions, and retargeting belong there. Under about $2,500 a month in ad spend, our rule for clients is Google only. Above that, add Meta for the jobs Google cannot reach and answer every Meta lead inside five minutes.

"Facebook ads vs Google ads" is the question contractors have asked for a decade. Meta renamed the ad platform, folded Instagram into the same auction, and the answer sharpened: they do different jobs. This page covers what each one charges you for, which of your services belong on which platform, what the leads look like, and how we split the budget for clients by company size.

Meta Ads vs Google Ads at a Glance

Factor Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram) Google Ads (Search)
What you pay for Impressions by default; you can choose to pay per link click on some objectives. Clicks on your search ad.
Homeowner intent Low to medium. They were scrolling, not searching. High. They typed your trade into Google.
Best jobs Replacements, maintenance plans, seasonal offers, retargeting past visitors. Emergencies, repairs, "near me" searches, anything urgent.
Lead comes in as An instant form or a message. You call them. A phone call or a form from your landing page. They call you.
Speed-to-lead requirement Severe. The lead cools in minutes. High. The caller is ready now.
Creative needed Photos, video, before and after, an offer. Headlines and descriptions. A landing page.
Targeting Location, age, interests, behaviors, your own lists, lookalikes. Keywords, negatives, location, schedule, device.
Time to first lead, in our accounts Days to a week while the system learns. Hours to days.
Budget floor we set for clients $300 to $500 a month for retargeting only; $1,500 for prospecting. $1,500 a month in a small market; $3,000 to $5,000 in a metro.

How Each One Charges You

Meta: an auction for impressions

Meta's help center explains that "Meta ads use an auction system where ads compete for impressions based on bids and performance," and that "Usually, you're charged based on the number of impressions your ad receives unless specified otherwise during ad creation." For some objectives you can switch to cost per link click, in which case "You aren't charged for your ad if you choose cost per link click pricing and it doesn't receive any link clicks."

In practice a contractor sets a daily or lifetime budget, picks an objective (leads, calls, or website traffic), and Meta spends the budget showing the ad to the people in your area it thinks will act. You are buying attention and paying for it whether or not the person cares about a new water heater this month.

Google Search: an auction for clicks

Google describes its standard ads as "customizable, pay-per-click text ads open to any business." You bid on the words a homeowner types, you pay when they click, and the click lands on a page you built. Your ad only reaches someone who just searched for what you do. That is why the intent is high and the cost per click is too.

Facebook ads vs Instagram ads: same account, same auction

Contractors ask whether to run Facebook or Instagram. Both run from one Meta ad account, in one auction, with one budget. You choose placements or let Meta pick. For home services the useful split is by format, not platform: photo and before-and-after ads for the feed, short vertical video for Reels and Stories on both apps. Run both and let the results decide.

Demand Capture vs Demand Creation, in Contractor Terms

A burst pipe, a dead AC in July, a tree on the garage: the homeowner goes to Google and calls the first company that looks real. Homeowners do not scroll Instagram for an emergency plumber. That is demand capture, and Google owns it. Local Services Ads and search ads should get every dollar of that budget before Meta sees a cent; our LSA vs Google Ads comparison covers how to split those two.

A 14-year-old furnace, a roof past 20 years, a tune-up the homeowner keeps putting off: nobody is searching yet. A Meta ad with a real photo of your crew and a plain offer reaches that homeowner on the couch and, in our accounts, starts the job months before it would have shown up in Google. That is demand creation. Google cannot do it, because there is no search to catch.

The third use is retargeting. A homeowner clicks your Google ad, reads your page, and leaves without calling. A Meta ad follows them that evening. We wrote up how that works in the guide to retargeting ads for contractors.

Which Jobs Go Where

Job type Platform Why
Emergency repair (no heat, no water, storm damage) Google The homeowner is searching now. Meta cannot reach urgency.
Repair, general service call Google Search intent is present and the ticket supports the click cost.
System or roof replacement Both Google for the active shopper; Meta to reach the owner of an aging system before they shop.
Maintenance plan, tune-up, seasonal offer Meta Nobody searches for it. An offer in the feed creates the appointment.
Retargeting past website visitors Meta In our accounts, the cheapest audience and the one most likely to call back.
Storm season push (tree, roofing) Both Google for the day after the storm; Meta for the two weeks before it.
Reviews, referrals, brand in a new territory Meta Reach at low cost per person. No search volume to buy.

What the Leads Look Like

A Google search lead is a phone call from someone who needs you today. Close rates run high because the homeowner already decided to hire; they are deciding whom. AMN Plumbing in Ormond Beach, Florida, a Watson & Co. plumbing client, closed 83% of 94 exclusive leads in about 60 days and booked $130,000 or more in its first 30 days of paid lead generation.

A Meta lead is a form. The homeowner tapped "Get quote" while scrolling, typed a phone number, and kept scrolling. They may not remember doing it by dinner. That lead is real, and it is yours alone, but it dies fast. The whole economics of Meta for a contractor rests on calling the lead back within five minutes. If nobody in your shop can do that during business hours, do not run Meta lead forms; run Meta retargeting to your website instead and let Google carry the calls.

For the tree service side: TreesRX in Port Orange runs Google and Meta together at a blended cost per lead of about $47, with 469 leads in August 2026. The Meta side of that account exists to feed the schedule in the weeks Google search volume dips, and it only works because the office calls every form lead back inside minutes.

Cost per lead by trade and channel shifts every quarter, so we keep the ranges in the Facebook ads cost guide and the Google Ads budget guide rather than here.

Not sure how much of your budget belongs on Google and how much on Meta? The planner gives you a budget and lead projection for your trade, and the full channel split once you leave your details.

Build My Budget

Which One Fits Your Situation

Under $2,500 a month in ad spend

Google only. Fund Local Services Ads to their ceiling, then search ads for your highest-ticket service. Meta at this budget spreads too thin to teach the system anything. The one exception: a $300 to $500 retargeting campaign aimed at people who already visited your site.

$2,500 to $6,000 a month, someone can call leads back in minutes

Google first, Meta for one job type. The split we run: 70% or more on Google. Put the rest into retargeting plus a single Meta campaign with a single offer: a replacement financing message for HVAC or roofing, a maintenance plan for plumbing, a storm-prep trim for tree service. Below about $5,000 total, that Meta slice is under our $1,500 prospecting floor, so keep it to retargeting and the one offer to a narrow audience. One offer, real photos, five-minute callbacks.

Above $6,000 a month, tracked calls, a CRM that texts leads back

Both, split by season. Google carries the base year-round. Meta scales up before each peak (spring for tree and roofing, early summer and late fall for HVAC) and down after. Retargeting runs all year.

Nobody in the shop can answer a form lead within an hour

Google, and fix the phones first. A Meta form lead that waits an hour is a lead you paid for and handed to whoever called them back first. Set up missed-call text-back and a form auto-response before you spend a dollar on Meta lead forms.

The Meta side, done right, is its own playbook: our guide to Facebook ads for home services covers campaign types, creative, and what changed on the platform. The Meta Ads service page and Google Ads service page cover what we run for clients on each.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Meta Ads or Google Ads better for a home services company?
Google Ads, if you can only run one. A homeowner with a broken AC or a leaking pipe searches Google and calls, and Google Ads put you in front of that search. Meta ads reach homeowners who have not searched yet, which makes them the right tool for replacements, maintenance plans, seasonal offers, and retargeting, but the wrong tool for emergency work. Most contractors above $2,500 a month in spend should run both.
Is $10 a day enough for Facebook ads?
For a contractor, $10 a day (about $300 a month) is enough for one retargeting campaign aimed at people who already visited your website, and nothing else. In our accounts, prospecting to cold homeowners at that budget produces a handful of form leads a month and no useful data. Put the first $1,500 a month into Google, then fund Meta prospecting when you can give it $1,500 of its own.
Are Meta ads really worth it for contractors?
Yes, for three uses: retargeting website visitors, promoting a seasonal offer or maintenance plan, and reaching owners of aging systems before they start shopping. They are not worth it for emergency services or for a shop that cannot call a form lead back within minutes. Meta leads are real and exclusive, but they cool fast, and the callback speed decides whether the spend pays.
Is $20 a day good for Google Ads?
$20 a day is about $600 a month, which in our accounts buys a small number of clicks in most home services markets and not enough to learn which keywords book jobs. If that is the whole budget, put it into Local Services Ads, where you pay per lead instead of per click. We fund Google search ads at $1,500 a month or more so the campaign can run long enough to optimize.
How much money do you need to run Google Ads for a contractor?
The floor we set for clients is $1,500 a month in ad spend in a small market and $3,000 to $5,000 in a metro, on top of management. Below that, in our accounts, the campaign cannot buy enough clicks to find the keywords that produce calls. Start with Local Services Ads if the budget is tighter, then add search ads for your highest-ticket service once LSAs are maxed.
Should I run Facebook ads or Instagram ads?
Both, from the same Meta account. Facebook and Instagram share one auction and one budget, so you pick placements rather than platforms. For home services, use photo and before-and-after ads in the feeds and short vertical video in Reels and Stories on both apps, then let the results shift budget toward whichever placement books jobs.

Sources checked September 19, 2026: Meta Business Help Center on how Meta charges for ads and charges for ads that receive no impressions or clicks; Google's Local Services Ads page for its description of standard pay-per-click search ads. Client figures are from Watson & Co. accounts and apply only to the trade named.