Picture a partners’ meeting with a $15,000 monthly marketing budget on the table. Someone asks the question that starts the debate: “Should we be spending more on Google or Facebook?”
The marketing agency says ‘both.’ Your practice manager wants more leads. Your senior associate is drowning in low-quality enquiries, and you're wondering why this decision feels harder than it should be.
Most comparison articles treat Google Ads and Facebook Ads as if they do one job each. A more useful starting point is the difference between reaching someone who is searching for help and introducing your service while they browse. Then judge the campaigns by the clients they bring in.
My experience as an in-house head of marketing for law firms, and now at Leadtree, has made one thing clear: the platform choice needs to fit the firm’s capacity, offer and intake process. Here is how I would work through that decision.
The Difference Between Search and Social
This comparison focuses on Google Search ads and ads on Facebook and Instagram. Google Ads also includes other campaign types, including Display and Video, so it is not limited to search or immediate enquiries.
Google Search can capture existing demand. Someone searches “family lawyer Brisbane” or “emergency dentist near me” because they are looking for help. That gives you a useful signal of intent, but the search, landing page and enquiry still need to be checked for fit.
Facebook and Instagram can introduce your service. Your ad may reach someone while they are browsing rather than searching for a provider. The creative has to earn their attention and give them a reason to take the next step; that can be an enquiry as well as a visit or video view.
Both can contribute to new enquiries and longer-term demand. The useful comparison is the cost of a qualified enquiry or acquired client, with enough time allowed for follow-up, rather than the price of a click alone.
Google Search Ads: Reaching People Looking for Help
For services with clear search demand, I usually start by assessing Google Search. The question is whether the firm can turn those searches into suitable enquiries at a sustainable cost, not whether a generic cost-per-lead range sounds attractive.
Where Google Ads wins:
- Existing demand. Search ads can put your service in front of people looking for a relevant provider in the locations you serve.
- A useful intent signal. Searches such as “dental implants cost Melbourne” can help you understand what someone wants, but they do not establish that the person is ready or eligible to book.
- Connecting enquiries to outcomes. Offline conversion imports can connect supported ad interactions to later CRM outcomes. That helps you assess client acquisition, although it does not identify every search term or guarantee complete attribution.
Where Google Ads struggles:
- Cost. Competitive searches can be expensive. Use estimates and your own campaign data to assess whether the expected enquiry and client-acquisition costs fit the firm’s economics.
- Limited search demand. A search campaign depends on people making relevant searches. If the service is unfamiliar, you may also need activity that introduces it.
- Unsuitable enquiries. A relevant-looking search can still produce an enquiry the firm cannot help with. Review the search terms, landing page and intake outcome together.
The key is to connect search intent, the landing page and the intake process. Negative keywords help exclude irrelevant searches, but do not blindly block words such as “free” if you offer a free consultation. Qualify enquiries around the work the firm can actually take on.
Facebook and Instagram Ads: Introducing the Service and Generating Enquiries
Meta’s advertising tools can place ads on Facebook and Instagram. They give you a different setting in which to explain the service, build familiarity and invite an enquiry.
Where Facebook Ads wins:
- Introducing a service. Useful content can help people understand an offer before they search for a provider.
- Testing the message. Images and video let you test how people respond to different explanations, offers and reasons to enquire.
- Generating leads. Meta supports lead-generation campaigns and CRM feedback. Its lead-generation guide explains how lead quality can be incorporated into campaign measurement.
- Reaching the service area. Build the plan around the audience options actually available and permitted for your campaign, rather than assuming every demographic or sensitive characteristic can be targeted.
Where Facebook Ads struggles:
- Lead quality. An inexpensive form submission may not become a suitable enquiry. Assess eligibility, contactability and bookings in the CRM.
- Follow-up capacity. Some prospects need more information before deciding. Match the follow-up to their question and readiness rather than assuming everyone from one platform has the same sales cycle.
- Creative workload. Plan time to review the ads and test fresh messages when the evidence shows they are needed.
- Sector requirements. Check the rules for the specific service, jurisdiction, claims and audience before launch. This applies to both channels; a platform’s available targeting controls do not establish that a campaign is suitable to run.
For a lead-generation campaign, choose a meaningful enquiry goal and connect it to follow-up. Assess the quality of the people who respond before widening the audience or increasing spend.
A Budget Allocation Framework to Test
Start with the outcome you need, the search demand, your intake capacity and what you can afford to learn. The scenarios below are planning examples, not observed client results or fixed budget rules.
Scenario 1: You need high-value matters or patients NOW
If you have capacity to fill and people already search for the service, assess whether a focused Search campaign can reach enough suitable prospects. An urgent need for clients does not make either platform deliver them immediately.
Starting approach: put enough budget behind the strongest search opportunity to evaluate it. Add a separate social test only if you can fund and measure it properly.
Why: the search gives you a clear starting signal of demand. Judge the campaign on qualified enquiries and subsequent clients, with a review period that allows those outcomes to arrive.
Illustrative example: a law firm with spare intake capacity starts with one practice area and a defined service region. It sets a test budget from local search estimates and its acceptable acquisition cost, then reviews the enquiries before expanding.
Scenario 2: You're established and want to grow brand awareness
If you want to expand into a new suburb or service line, consider social creative that introduces the offer alongside search activity that captures existing interest.
Starting approach: reserve a defined budget to test the new message and market while maintaining campaigns that are already producing suitable enquiries.
Why: a new market may need both an introduction to the firm and a clear path to enquire. Decide how you will measure awareness separately from leads and clients before comparing the results.
Illustrative example: a financial planning firm entering a neighbouring area tests educational creative and a relevant landing page. It compares enquiry quality and acquisition costs with its existing market before committing a larger budget.
Scenario 3: You're balancing immediate conversions and long-term growth
If you need both current enquiries and future demand, give each campaign a clear purpose and a measure of success.
Starting approach: fund each channel only to the extent that it has a clear job and a test you can evaluate. Reallocate from evidence rather than aiming for a permanent ratio.
Why: the useful balance changes with demand, campaign performance, seasonality and the firm’s capacity. There is no universal allocation that maximises return or a fixed date when awareness becomes a client.
Illustrative example: a dental practice runs search activity for services people already look for and tests explanatory social content for another service. It compares actual bookings and acquisition costs before deciding whether both deserve more budget.
The Operational Reality
Consider a simple illustration, not a client result: 200 enquiries converting at 5% produce 10 clients. If every enquiry needs an initial review, the team still has 200 enquiries to assess.
Another campaign with 50 enquiries converting at 20% also produces 10 clients. That is 75% fewer enquiries, but it does not prove 75% less work: handling time, follow-up and acquisition cost still need to be measured. Neither set of figures is a benchmark for Google or Facebook.
This is why lead quality and intake effort belong alongside lead volume in the report. Whichever channel you use, capture whether the enquiry was suitable, whether your team reached the person and whether they became a client.
Follow-up should help a prospect take the next useful step. Offer an appointment when someone is ready, and provide relevant information when they need it; do not make an engaged prospect wait through a fixed nurture sequence.
How to Choose: The Decision Matrix
Use these questions before allocating the next part of your budget.
Consider Google Search when:
- People make relevant searches for the service in your area.
- You have an offer and landing page that answer those searches.
- You can measure qualified enquiries and subsequent client outcomes.
- The expected acquisition cost fits the economics of the work.
- Your intake team can respond to the enquiries.
Consider Facebook and Instagram when:
- You have a service or message worth introducing to a relevant audience.
- You can produce creative that explains why someone should enquire.
- You can assess leads beyond the initial form submission.
- You have capacity to respond and follow up.
- The campaign’s audience and data use are permitted for the service.
Use both if:
- Each channel has a distinct role you can explain.
- The budget gives each test enough opportunity to produce useful evidence.
- You can compare acquisition outcomes without counting the same client twice.
- You can support the creative, measurement and intake work both require.
When Facebook Ads Can Outperform Google
In certain situations, Facebook Ads can actually deliver better ROI than Google Ads, even for high-value service businesses.
Situations worth testing include:
- Limited search demand. A service may need an introduction before people know what to search for.
- A clear, useful message. An explanation or demonstration may help a prospect understand why the service is relevant.
- An established community. Social content and advertising may support existing relationships and introduce the firm to more people in its service area.
The test is whether the message and offer produce useful enquiries at an acceptable acquisition cost. A narrow audience is not automatically better than a broad one, and a platform label cannot answer that question for you.
Choose the Next Test From Your Own Results
A good paid media plan gives every campaign a job and measures whether it is doing it. Start with the strongest opportunity you can support, then expand when the results justify it.
With a smaller budget, concentrating on one well-defined test may be more useful than spreading the spend across both platforms. Decide what result would justify continuing before launch.
With more budget, you may be able to test both channels, but spend alone does not establish the right split. Compare qualified enquiries, client acquisition costs, time to conversion and intake workload.
If enquiries are poor quality, first check the targeting, offer, landing page, conversion goal and follow-up. If volume is low, investigate available demand and where the campaign is losing prospects before assuming the answer is another platform.
A 50/50 split can be a reasonable test if it answers a clear question. What matters is the evidence you will use to change the allocation, rather than treating any starting ratio as a permanent strategy.
Ready to build a paid media strategy that actually delivers high-value clients? Leadtree specialises in Google Ads and Facebook Ads for Australian service businesses, law firms, dental practices, allied health and financial advice firms. We build full-funnel systems that attract and convert the right leads. Book a 30-minute free call to discuss how we can help: https://www.leadtree.agency/product/book-call
