Meta Ads or Google Ads: where should you start?

It is the question that almost always follows the one about budget. And the answer is not an agency preference: the two platforms do not sell the same thing. Google sells access to someone who is searching. Meta sells the attention of someone scrolling through their feed.

Two different machines

The deciding question

Does your customer already know they need you? If so, they are searching, and Google is where they search. If not, you have to go and find them where they spend their time, and show them something they were not expecting.

• A water leak, a car breakdown, a dentist's appointment: the need comes before the search. Google Ads first.
• A new restaurant, a facial, a villa under construction: nobody searches for it before seeing it. Meta Ads first.
• A training course, a business service, a piece of software: often both — Meta to build awareness, Google to catch those who search afterwards.

The small-market trap

A Google campaign can only show when someone types the search. For a specific local service, the number of monthly searches may be low: the campaign then hits a ceiling, whatever the budget. Google's keyword planning tool gives an estimate of volumes before you invest — it is the first thing to look at.

In Morocco, you also need to look at the language of searches. The same request can be typed in French, in Arabic or in Darija written in Latin letters. A campaign that covers only some of them misses the rest.

What to work on first

• On Google: the list of searches you target, the ones you exclude, and the landing page. A perfect ad that leads to a generic home page loses most of its clicks.
• On Meta: the video. Broad targeting works better and better, provided the creative makes clear by itself who it is speaking to.

On Google, you choose who to speak to. On Meta, the video chooses.

The order we recommend

One platform first, the one that matches how your customers find you. Once it produces enquiries at a stable cost, the second comes in to complement it. Managing each platform costs €490 (≈ MAD 5,400) per month at UltraVision Agency; the Acquisition plan brings together Meta, Google and TikTok, with the videos and enquiry tracking. To put a figure on the Google side, the calculation is set out in the cost of Google Ads in Morocco.