Facebook or Google ads: which should contractors run first?

Is there one winner between Facebook ads and Google ads?

No, and an article that names one for every contractor is guessing. The two platforms do different jobs. Google shows your ad to someone who has just typed what they need. Facebook and Instagram show it to someone who was scrolling and was not looking for you at all. Which of those people is worth more to you depends on how your trade’s customers buy, so that is the question to answer first.

Rega runs both, and we do not make more by steering you to one. The honest recommendation changes by trade, and sometimes by job type inside one business.

What is the real difference between search and social ads?

Google ads capture demand that already exists. The homeowner has a problem, searches for it, and your ad sits next to the results. Facebook ads create attention for demand that may not have formed yet. The person sees a finished job, thinks “we should do that”, and asks for a quote weeks later.

That difference decides almost everything else: how fast a click turns into a call, how much a click is worth, and how much your photos matter. Search rewards being findable at the moment of need. Social rewards showing work that makes someone want the job.

When do Google ads suit a contractor best?

When the customer has an urgent problem and will pick one of the first companies they reach. A burst pipe, a blocked drain, a lockout, a storm-damaged roof, a fallen tree over a driveway. Nobody scrolls past a photo of a neighbour’s pipe and decides to call a plumber. They search, and they ring the first business that looks credible and picks up.

For that kind of work, being in the results when the search happens is most of the game. Your Google Business Profile and your reviews matter as much as the ad itself, because the searcher is comparing two or three options in a minute or two. Speed of answer matters more here than anywhere: someone with water coming through a ceiling calls the next number if yours rings out.

The limit is that search only finds people who already know what they need. If a homeowner has never searched for what you do, Google cannot show you to them.

When do Facebook ads suit a contractor best?

When the job is a considered purchase that the customer did not start out looking for. A deck, a rebuilt landscape, a new railing, eavestrough replacement on a house that has been fine for years. Those jobs begin as an idea, sometimes one the ad plants, and the homeowner takes weeks or months before asking for a price.

Facebook reaches that person while the idea is forming, with a photo of finished work in their own area. It also suits jobs large enough to justify the ad. Rega’s rule is that ads make sense when the average job is at least $2k to $3k, ideally with a real share at $5k to $10k and up, and that applies to Google as much as to Facebook.

The limit is the reverse of search. A Facebook enquiry is often less urgent and more comparative, so speed and a clear next step matter, and the quote may sit for some time before it is decided.

What does a real Facebook ads account look like for a considered purchase?

Siteline Deck and Rail, a deck and railing company in Nanaimo, BC, is a Rega client, and its Meta account is our clearest record of Facebook ads on a considered purchase. The figures are as the dashboard shows them, for Meta only. They are not a comparison with Google, and we do not cite Google figures here.

1 June to 31 July 2026. $1,644.39 spent, 218,154 impressions, 8 purchases, $58,756.00 in conversion value, $205.55 cost per purchase, and a 35.73 return on ad spend.

17 September to 16 October 2025. 8 ad sets, $900.96 spent, 86,059 impressions, 4 purchases, $42,611.50 in conversion value, $225.24 cost per purchase, and a 47.30 return on ad spend.

Conversion value here means closed work, not form fills or quotes issued. These are two windows from one business, not an average and not a forecast. No lead count, sales figure or return is promised here or anywhere on this site. The full reading of both windows, and what a deck builder should show in the ad, is in Facebook ads for deck builders.

Can you use the same budget on both?

You can, but splitting a small budget across two platforms usually teaches you nothing from either. Each needs enough spend and enough time to show which enquiries turn into closed jobs. A budget cut in half twice is often too thin to judge.

So start with one, run it long enough for quotes to be decided, and add the second when the first is working and you can handle more demand. How to size that budget from your own job value and margin is worked through in how much a contractor should spend on Facebook ads. The same method applies to Google, since the maths starts from what one closed job leaves you.

Ad spend is always paid to the platform directly. It is never inside a management fee, on either channel.

Which one should your trade run first?

Ask three questions about your typical customer.

• Did they search for you? If most of your work starts with a panicked search, start with Google. If most of it starts with a neighbour’s project or a slow idea, start with Facebook.
• How big is the job? A large job can carry an ad that reaches people who are not yet buying. A small repair usually needs to be caught at the moment of need, or not advertised at all.
• How fast can you answer? Urgent search traffic punishes a slow reply within minutes. Considered-purchase enquiries forgive a few hours, but not a silent week. A lead system for contractors that texts back automatically helps on both.

Many trades sit in the middle. A landscaper may get urgent calls for cleanups and considered enquiries for full builds. A plumber may take emergencies from search and sell a repipe through social. Where you do both, start with the channel that fits the bigger share of your profit, not your job count.

When should a contractor run neither?

If you cannot take on more work in the next few months, if most jobs are small, or if nobody reliably answers the phone. Ads add demand. They do not add crew time, and they cannot fix a slow reply. Nor do they help if you have no real photos and no credible page to send the click to; our contractor website design page covers what that page needs.

Common questions

Is Google ads more expensive than Facebook ads? It depends on your trade and market, and we do not have a sourced figure to give you, so we will not print one. Judge each channel on the cost of a closed job over a stated window, not the price of a click.

Do Google ads get better leads than Facebook ads? They get different ones. Search enquiries tend to be more urgent. Social enquiries tend to be more considered. Better means closed work, and that is what tracking is for.

Can Rega guarantee jobs from either? No. No one can guarantee results from ads, and we do not.

Which should I start with if I am not sure? Pick the one that matches how your last ten customers found you. If you are still not sure, ask us for a market check and we will say where we think your trade sits.

Run the numbers before you pick a channel

Use the ad calculator on our Facebook ads for contractors page with your own job value to see what ads would need to return for your business. It makes no promise about results, and the same sum applies whichever platform you choose.