Meta Ads vs Google Ads: Which Should You Start With?

Intent versus discovery

Neither is better in general. They answer different situations, and the right first channel depends on which situation your product is in.

When to start with Google Ads

• People already search for your product or category, in numbers you can check (see below).
• It's a considered or replacement purchase, where buyers compare options before they buy.
• You sell brands or products that people search for by name.
• Your prices or delivery terms compare well, because Shopping ads put your price next to other stores' prices.
• Your product data is in good shape: clear titles, accurate prices, good photos and correct stock.

When to start with Meta Ads

• Your product is new, or solves a problem people don't search for.
• It sells on sight, as fashion, beauty, home goods and gifts often do, where the photo or video does the persuading.
• It's bought in one visit rather than after weeks of research.
• You can produce new creative regularly, because creative is what Meta campaigns run on.
• You want to build an audience you can reach again later.

How to check search demand before you decide

Don't guess whether people search for your product. A few free tools will tell you:

• Google Keyword Planner, free inside a Google Ads account, estimates how often people in Egypt search for a keyword, often as a range, and suggests what a click might cost.
• Google Trends, set to Egypt, shows whether interest in a term is rising, falling or seasonal.
• Searching the terms yourself. If you see Shopping ads and other stores' text ads, people are buying through that search.

Check every way people might phrase it. In Egypt that can mean Arabic, English, and Arabic written in Latin letters, and the numbers can differ a lot between them.

If a category gets few searches, Google Ads has little to work with however good the campaign is. That's a strong sign to start with Meta.

Google Shopping for stores in Egypt

Shopping ads show a product's photo, name and price directly in Google results. They run from your product data in Google Merchant Center, and Egypt is on Merchant Center's list of supported countries, with prices in Egyptian pounds.

On Shopify, the Google & YouTube channel syncs your products to Merchant Center, so you don't have to maintain a product feed by hand. Products still need complete, accurate data to be approved, and the quality of titles and images affects which searches they appear for. The same product data is available to Performance Max campaigns, which can show your products across Google's channels.

Costs to plan for on either platform

• VAT. Google Ads charges 14% VAT to accounts with an Egypt business address unless you provide a valid Tax Registration Number and Unique Identification Number. Meta adds Egyptian VAT in a similar way unless your Tax Registration Number is on the ad account. Plan your budget with it included.
• Tracking. Each platform has to see your purchases to optimize for them. On Shopify, the Facebook & Instagram channel can send purchases to Meta through the pixel and the Conversions API. Google Ads needs its own conversion tracking set up.
• Creative. Meta runs on images and video, and some Google campaigns, such as YouTube and Performance Max, use them too. Search and Shopping ads depend more on good text and product data.
• Enough budget per channel. A small budget split across both platforms can leave neither with enough results to optimize. One channel done properly beats two done thinly. Our Meta Ads budget guide shows how to work out that minimum.

Running both without double-counting

The channels feed each other. Someone sees your product on Instagram, then searches your brand name on Google two days later and buys through a search ad. Meta and Google may both count that sale, because each platform reports the conversions it contributed to.

So don't add up the purchases each platform reports. Use your Shopify orders as the source of truth and compare them with total ad spend across both channels. Total spend divided by total orders gives a blended cost per order you can trust.

A common way to run both is Meta to introduce the product and Google to catch the people who search for it afterwards, including searches for your brand name. Watch those brand searches. If they grow while Meta is running, Meta is doing part of the work Google gets credit for.

Three examples

A new clothing label with a distinctive style

Few people search for a brand they've never heard of, and the product sells on looks. Start with Meta Ads. Add a Google campaign for your brand name once people start searching for it.

A store selling accessories for popular phones

People search for a case or charger by phone model, and compare prices before they buy. Start with Google, where Shopping ads put your product and price in front of them, and use Meta later for bundles and new arrivals.

A skincare brand with one hero product in a known category

Either could work, so check. If Keyword Planner shows healthy search volume for the category and your prices compete, Google is a strong start. If volume is thin, or your product's advantage needs showing rather than telling, start with Meta.

Getting help with either channel

Boostify manages Meta Ads and Google Ads for e-commerce brands in Egypt, planned together with the Shopify store the traffic lands on. See Google Ads and Meta Ads for what's included.