Google Ads or Meta ads: where to spend your first online store budget

A question we hear at almost every meeting: “We have a limited budget, where do we start?” The answer depends on whether customers are already searching for your product or still need to discover it.

Google Ads: when the customer is already searching

Google ads are shown to people who are typing exactly what they need, for example “king size duvet” or “website design price”. Purchase intent is high, so these clicks are often the most profitable.

• Search for services and products people search for by name.
• Shopping for online stores: image, price and name right in the results.
• Performance Max once there is enough conversion data.

Meta ads: when you need to spark interest

Nobody on Facebook and Instagram is searching for your product, but they may want it once they see it. Meta is strong for visual products, new arrivals, promotions and for bringing back visitors who were on the site but didn’t buy (retargeting).

Codema tip Retargeting is the best “second step”. People who have already seen a product on your site buy far more often than a completely new audience.

Our recommendation to start

For most online stores we start like this: Google Shopping and search for the products people look for, plus a small Meta budget for retargeting. After a few weeks the data shows where the cost per purchase is lowest, and we shift the budget there.

No tracking, no decisions

GA4 purchase tracking and the Meta pixel must be working before the first ad. Without them you don’t know which campaign makes money and which one just burns budget.