Key Takeaways
- Google Ads captures intent — it reaches people actively searching for your service right now, making it the faster path to leads.
- Facebook Ads creates awareness — it reaches your target demographic before they search, building familiarity that pays off over time.
- Facebook's targeting capabilities (geographic, demographic, interest-based) are more granular than Google's for non-search placements.
- Retargeting — showing Facebook ads to people who visited your website via Google — is the most cost-effective way to combine both platforms.
The question of Facebook Ads versus Google Ads comes up in almost every paid media conversation with Ontario businesses. It's often framed as a choice — which one should I use? — when the more useful framing is: what stage of the customer's awareness am I trying to reach? Google Ads intercepts people who already know they have a need and are actively looking for a solution. When an Ontario homeowner types 'emergency furnace repair Hamilton' into Google, they're at the bottom of the funnel — ready to call someone. That's where Google Ads excels. Facebook Ads operate higher in the funnel: they reach people based on who they are and what they're interested in, before those people have necessarily identified a need or started searching. A Hamilton HVAC company advertising to homeowners over 40 with homes valued above $400,000 on Facebook is planting a seed that may become a Google search or a referral call six months later. Both are valuable; they serve different moments in the customer journey.
Definition: Intent-Based vs Audience-Based Advertising
Intent-based advertising (Google Ads search) reaches users at the moment they express a specific need through a search query — you bid to appear when someone searches for your service. Audience-based advertising (Facebook Ads) reaches users based on who they are — their age, location, interests, income level, or behaviour — regardless of whether they've expressed specific intent at that moment. Both approaches can drive leads and sales; they address different stages of the customer journey and require different creative and bidding strategies.
When Google Ads Is the Right Choice for Ontario Businesses
Google Ads excels for businesses where searchers have explicit purchase intent — services with immediate need, high-consideration purchases, and categories with established search volume.
Google Ads is the right primary paid channel for Ontario businesses where the typical customer knows they have a problem and is actively searching for a solution. Emergency services (plumbing, electrical, HVAC repair), legal services, healthcare providers, and professional services like accounting and financial planning all fall into this category. The searcher typing 'tax accountant Ottawa' or 'emergency dentist Mississauga' is ready to call someone — showing up in that moment with a well-written ad and a fast, focused landing page converts at high rates relative to most other advertising channels.
Google Ads also suits businesses where competitors are actively advertising and the organic search positions for key terms are dominated by large players. A local Ontario law firm may never outrank LegalZoom or large national firms organically for high-volume terms like 'family lawyer Toronto' — but they can compete for that placement through Ads bidding, often with a geographic targeting advantage (showing only to searchers in their specific Ontario city) that large national advertisers don't bother to optimize for at the local level.
The key limitations of Google Ads: cost-per-click in competitive Ontario markets can be high (legal, insurance, financial services regularly see $8–$20+ per click), and the traffic stops immediately when the campaign pauses. There's no compounding effect — you're renting visibility rather than building it.
When Facebook Ads Is the Right Choice for Ontario Businesses
Facebook Ads works best for businesses with a clearly defined customer demographic, brands building awareness, ecommerce retailers, and any business using retargeting.
Facebook's advertising platform is unmatched for demographic precision. An Ontario home renovation company can target: homeowners (Facebook knows home ownership status), in specific postal codes, ages 35–60, with household income above $80,000, who have recently engaged with home improvement content. No other platform outside Google's own remarketing lists provides this level of demographic and behavioural targeting for new audience acquisition.
For ecommerce retailers, Facebook's product catalogue integration (Dynamic Ads) lets Ontario stores automatically show users the specific products they viewed but didn't purchase. A Burlington clothing retailer can set up a Dynamic Ad campaign once and have Facebook automatically show each visitor the exact items they looked at, with the current price and a link back to purchase — at scale, across the entire product catalogue. The setup requires a Facebook Pixel on the website and a product feed, but the ongoing campaign runs automatically.
The most powerful and underutilised Facebook advertising tactic for Ontario businesses is retargeting: showing ads specifically to people who have already visited your website. A visitor who spent 3 minutes on your service page and left without contacting you is a warm prospect — they know who you are and were interested enough to read about your services. Showing them a Facebook ad with a specific offer, a client testimonial, or a reminder to book a consultation converts at a dramatically higher rate than cold audience campaigns, typically at a much lower cost per lead.
Using Google Ads and Facebook Together: A Coordinated Ontario Strategy
The most effective paid media strategy for Ontario businesses with adequate budget uses Google Ads to capture intent and Facebook Ads to retain and retarget those visitors.
Running Google Ads and Facebook Ads as complementary channels rather than competing alternatives is the approach that produces the best long-term results for Ontario businesses with budgets that support both. The coordination looks like this: Google Ads captures high-intent searchers and drives them to targeted landing pages. Facebook's Pixel (installed on your site) captures every visitor. Facebook retargeting campaigns then re-engage the 95%+ of those visitors who didn't convert on the first visit — showing them brand reinforcement, testimonials, or specific offers that address the hesitations that prevented initial conversion.
The lookalike audience feature adds a further layer: once your Pixel has collected enough visitor data (typically 500–1,000 users), Facebook can build an audience of new Ontario users who share characteristics with your existing website visitors. This expands your reach beyond retargeting to new prospect acquisition based on actual visitor behaviour — a more data-driven approach to top-of-funnel Facebook advertising than interest-based targeting alone.
Budget allocation for a combined strategy: for a $2,000/month total paid budget targeting Ontario, a typical starting split is 60–70% to Google Ads (captures the intent-based searches where conversion rates are highest) and 30–40% to Facebook retargeting and lookalike campaigns. Adjust the split based on which channel demonstrates better cost-per-lead as data accumulates over the first 90 days.
- Install the Facebook Pixel on your website immediately — even if you're not running Facebook Ads yet — to build a retargeting audience
- Start Google Ads for your highest-value service terms with tight geographic targeting
- Launch Facebook retargeting for all website visitors after 90 days of Pixel data
- Build lookalike audiences from your best customers and website visitors for Facebook prospecting
- Review cost-per-lead by channel monthly and adjust budget allocation accordingly
Experience Signal
The most common mistake Ontario businesses make with paid advertising is choosing one platform and abandoning the other entirely. We had a Mississauga landscaping client running Facebook Ads only — they were getting plenty of brand awareness clicks but struggling to convert them into booked consultations. We added a modest Google Ads campaign targeting 'landscaping Mississauga' and related terms. Within 60 days, the Google Ads campaign was driving 70% of their tracked conversions at a much lower cost per lead than Facebook. Facebook continued to play a role — in retargeting Google Ads visitors who hadn't converted — but the traffic mix shifted significantly toward intent-based capture.
Frequently Asked Questions
On a cost-per-click basis, Facebook Ads are often cheaper than Google Ads — especially in competitive Ontario markets where Google Ads CPCs for high-intent terms can reach $5–$15+ per click. However, cheaper clicks don't mean better ROI. Google Ads typically produce higher conversion rates because searchers have explicit purchase intent. Facebook clicks are cheaper but require more nurturing before converting. The relevant comparison is cost per qualified lead, not cost per click — and that varies significantly by industry, audience, and campaign quality.
Yes, but the strategy differs from ecommerce or national brand campaigns. Facebook's geographic and demographic targeting allows Ontario local service businesses to reach homeowners within specific postal codes, people above a certain household income, or users who have recently moved (high intent for home services). The most effective local service business Facebook campaigns use lead generation forms (native Facebook forms that pre-fill with user data) rather than sending traffic to an external website. These reduce friction and produce lower cost-per-lead for local service categories.
For businesses with sufficient budget (at least $1,500–$2,000/month total), running both simultaneously provides genuine strategic advantages. Google Ads captures people who are actively searching and ready to decide. Facebook Ads builds awareness among people in your target demographic before they start searching — so when they do search, your brand is familiar. Retargeting is another strong use case: run Google Ads for intent-based traffic, then retarget those visitors on Facebook with a brand message or offer to recover the 95%+ who didn't convert on the first visit.
Sources
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Webnixon manages Google Ads and Facebook advertising campaigns for Ontario businesses — and will give you an honest recommendation based on your goals and budget, not on which service earns us more.
Book a Free Paid Media Strategy CallAbout the author
Marcus Lee
Senior Ecommerce Developer
Marcus leads ecommerce development at Webnixon, with deep expertise in Shopify Plus and Adobe Commerce (Magento). He has shipped 40+ scalable ecommerce builds for retailers and B2B manufacturers, leading complex technical integrations with payment gateways, ERP systems, and third-party fulfillment platforms. He writes about ecommerce architecture, platform selection, and the technical decisions that separate high-performing online stores from average ones.
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