Meta ads or Google Ads
Google reaches a person who has already typed what you sell; Meta reaches a person who did not know your product existed. Fund Google when your category is searched and your margin survives the click. Fund Meta when the product is discovered, visual or bought on impulse. Most ecommerce brands need Meta first and Google once there is demand to catch.
In detail
Demand created, demand caught
| Meta ads | Google Ads | |
|---|---|---|
| What the buyer was doing | Scrolling, not looking for you | Searching, looking for something like you |
| What the ad must do | Interrupt well, then explain in a second | Answer the query better than the result beside it |
| The creative | Everything; ten versions in rotation, the losers cut weekly | A headline, a price and a product feed; the search terms matter more |
| How fast you learn | A week or two of cheap reach before the signal is clean | Days, because every click was a stated intent |
| What a bad month looks like | Spend with no messages or orders; the creative was wrong | Clicks on terms you do not sell; the negatives were missing |
| The ceiling | As large as the audience you can afford to reach | As large as the number of people searching, and no larger |
| Where the sale closes | Often in the inbox, for products bought by conversation | Usually on the product page, because the buyer arrived ready |
| Who it fails | A buyer who needs to compare suppliers before paying | A product nobody knows to search for yet |
When should an ecommerce brand fund Meta first?
When the product has to be seen to be wanted. Personalised gifts, home goods with a look, a new category, anything bought on sight: nobody types these into a search bar at a volume worth buying, so Google has nobody to show your ad to. Meta can put the product in front of the right scroller and let the creative do the selling. It is also the channel when the sale closes in a conversation, because the campaign can be pointed at the inbox rather than at a cart. The cost is patience: the first fortnight buys reach and learning, not orders.
When should an ecommerce brand fund Google first?
When people already search for what you sell, by name or by problem, and your margin on an order covers what a click costs in your category. A replacement part, a branded product people compare prices on, a service in a named town, anything bought after a search: Google catches the person at the moment they have decided. Shopping ads with a clean feed put the price and the picture in the result, which is most of the selling done. The limit is the ceiling. Google cannot make more people search, so once you have caught the demand that exists, the next dollar has to go somewhere else.
How we decide on the first call
- 01
Type your category into Google
We search the way your buyer would and read the page. If the results are marketplaces and national brands, you would be paying to sit beneath them, and we say so.
- 02
Ask how the buyer decides
Bought on sight, or bought after comparing? A product chosen in a second belongs on Meta; a product chosen after a spreadsheet belongs on Google.
- 03
Do the click arithmetic
What a click costs in your category against what an order earns you. If the margin cannot carry the click, Google is off the table whatever the intent.
- 04
Ask where the sale closes
If your buyers open with a question, the campaign is pointed at the inbox, and that is a Meta campaign whatever the platform calls the objective.
- 05
Pick one and write the number
One channel for the first month, one number it has to hit, and the second channel added when the first has earned it.
The Gallery, as the Meta case
The Gallery sells personalised newborn wear in Pakistan. Nobody searches for that at a volume you could build a campaign on, and every order needs a conversation about a name, a date and a size. So the money went to Meta, the creative was built to start a message, and the orders were counted in the inbox where they closed. Every campaign to July 2026 returned $5.20–$6 for every $1 of ads. The figure carries its date on purpose; a return without one cannot be weighed, and the spend behind it is not yet published.
There is no equivalent Google figure on this site, because no client has cleared one for publication, and we would rather show you one dated figure than two invented ones.
Signs you are funding the wrong one
- Google is spending and the search-terms report is full of things you do not sell.
- Meta is reaching people and nobody is messaging or buying; the creative is the problem, not the platform.
- Your order value is small and the clicks in your category are dear.
- Your category has no name yet, so the search campaign has nothing to catch.
- You run both from one budget and cannot say which produced last month’s orders.
The questions that follow.
Can we run Meta and Google at the same time?
Yes, and most brands end up there. Start with one, give it a month to show a number, then add the other. Two half-funded channels teach you less than one funded one.
Which is cheaper, Meta or Google?
Neither, in any way that holds across categories. Meta reach is cheap and the signal is slow; Google clicks are dear and the signal is fast. Compare the cost of an order, not the cost of a click.
Does Drifted run Google Ads?
Yes, under Tailored, priced to the number. Starter’s ads option is Meta on one account, and we say on the first call which one your buyer needs.
Who holds the ad spend?
You do, on your own billing, paid to Meta or Google directly. Our fee is flat and never a share of the budget.
What about search without ads?
That is search visibility: the pages written so you are found without paying for the click. It is slower than Google Ads and keeps working after the budget stops; it runs under Starter and Standard.
The price is published.
Where this leads.
No deck. No discovery theatre. One metric, one date, in the contract.