The honest answer is that they do different jobs, and most scaled stores run both. But if you are choosing where the next €1,000 goes, there is a reasonable way to decide.
Start with one question: do people search for this?
If buyers type the name of your product category into Google — jewelry, dog beds, desk lamps — then demand already exists and Google is usually the cheaper first euro. You are answering a question rather than interrupting a scroll.
If nobody searches for your product because they do not know the category exists, Google Search has nothing to harvest. You need something that creates demand: Meta, or Demand Gen and YouTube on Google's side.
What each is genuinely better at
| Meta | ||
|---|---|---|
| Intent | High — they described what they want | Low — you interrupted them |
| Creative dependency | Moderate; Search barely needs it | Total. The creative is the campaign |
| Speed to first data | Fast on Search | Fast, but noisier |
| Policy risk | Store-level review, suspensions bite hard | Account bans, usually faster to appeal |
| New demand | Weak on Search, real on Demand Gen/YouTube | Its core strength |
The attribution trap
Both platforms will claim the same sale. Someone sees a Meta ad on Tuesday, searches your brand on Thursday, buys. Meta claims it. Google claims it. Add the two reports together and you have more revenue than your bank does.
This is also why brand traffic matters so much — brand searches are often Meta's demand arriving through Google's door.
What we do, and why we say it out loud
We only run Google. Plenty of our clients run Meta themselves or with someone else, and the two coordinate fine on tracking and creative. We would rather be genuinely good at one channel than mediocre across three — and an agency that claims mastery of every platform is describing a sales page, not a team.