Straight answers for local service businesses
If people already know they need your service and search for it, run Google Ads. If your work is something people buy when they see it and get inspired, like a paver patio, a bathroom remodel, or holiday lighting, Facebook can work. Most trades should start with Google, because it catches demand that already exists instead of trying to create it. Facebook makes more sense as a second channel once your phone is ringing and you have photos worth showing.
Google, in most cases. Here's the whole reason in one sentence: Google catches people who already have the problem, and Facebook has to convince people they have one.
When somebody's water heater dies at 6am, they don't scroll Instagram. They grab their phone and type "water heater repair near me." That's Google. The person is ready, the wallet is already open, and you're competing on who shows up and answers.
Facebook works the other way. Someone is looking at photos of their nephew's graduation, and your ad slides by with a before-and-after of a stamped concrete patio. They weren't shopping. Maybe now they are. That's a longer, slower path, and it only pays off for certain kinds of work.
The difference is intent. That's it. Everything else is details.
This is why the facebook vs google ads local question almost always comes down to what you sell, not which platform is "better." Neither one is better. They do different jobs.
Google wins when the job is urgent, unglamorous, or something people only think about when it breaks:
Nobody scrolls past a photo of a repaired shutoff valve and thinks "ooh, I want that." But the second their basement floods, they're searching. Put your money where the searching happens.
Google also wins for boring recurring services people actively shop for: house cleaning, lawn mowing, pest control, gutter cleaning. People search for these on purpose.
Facebook earns its spot when your work is visual, discretionary, and expensive enough to be worth a slow sale. Think:
These are jobs where a homeowner has a vague itch ("our backyard is ugly") but never types anything into Google. A great before-and-after photo does the convincing that a text ad can't.
Facebook also does one thing Google can't do as cheaply: it keeps you visible in a small town. If you're the only deck builder in a rural county, a modest local awareness budget can make you the name everyone recognizes. That's real, it's just slow, and you shouldn't expect the phone to ring the first week.
Clicks on Google cost more. Sometimes a lot more, especially for emergency plumbing, HVAC, and legal-adjacent trades where every competitor is bidding on the same handful of words. Facebook impressions are cheap by comparison.
Don't let that fool you. Cheap clicks that never turn into jobs are the most expensive thing you can buy. The only number that matters is cost per booked job, not cost per click. A $30 Google click that closes one in four is a bargain next to a $2 Facebook click that closes one in two hundred.
Probably not well. If your total ad budget is a few hundred dollars a month, pick one. Splitting a small budget means both campaigns stay stuck in the learning phase, you never get enough clicks to see a pattern, and you end up guessing.
A reasonable sequence for most trades:
One exception: if your entire business is one visual, discretionary service, skip step two. A holiday lighting installer in October shouldn't be bidding on search terms nobody types yet.
Ads are an amplifier. They make whatever you already have louder, including the bad parts.
Track calls and form fills, not clicks. Ask every caller how they found you, and write it down. Do it for 60 days, because a single week tells you nothing.
Then compare: what did you spend, how many real leads came in, how many turned into jobs, and what was the average job worth? If a channel costs more per job than the job is worth, turn it off. No loyalty to platforms.
And be honest about attribution on Facebook. Someone who saw your patio photo three times in March and called you in May is a Facebook lead, even though nothing in the dashboard says so. That's why you ask on the phone.
If you're not sure which side of the line your service falls on, ask yourself one question: would someone type this into Google on purpose? If yes, start there. If no, you need pictures.
Cheaper per click, usually, but not cheaper per booked job. Google clicks cost more because the person is actively searching, which means a much higher share of them turn into calls. Compare cost per job, not cost per click.
Enough to get meaningful data, which for most trades means starting around a few hundred to a thousand dollars a month on one channel. Spending $150 split across two platforms won't tell you anything except that you wasted $150.
For Google, yes. Search ads send people somewhere, and your homepage is usually the wrong somewhere. For Facebook you can run lead forms without a site, but most people will look you up anyway before they book, so you're better off with one.
Boosting is fine for reminding existing followers you exist, but it gives you almost no targeting or optimization control. If you're serious about getting leads from Facebook, use Ads Manager and set up a proper campaign.
Maybe not for your core service. If you're consistently in the top map results and booked out, ads are optional. They're most useful when you're new, expanding into a new town, or pushing a service you don't rank for yet.
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