Resources · Google Ads
Google Ads, SEO or Facebook ads: where a local business should start
By Francis Valente, Navaro Systems · Updated 17 October 2026
Short answer: Start with the channel that matches how your customers already behave. If people search for what you do at the moment they need it (a plumber, a broker, a used car), Google Ads puts you in front of them this week and SEO does it without a click fee over months, so run Ads now and build SEO alongside. If nobody searches for it yet and you have to create the want (a new product, an event, a visual business), Facebook and Instagram ads reach people who weren't looking. Few small businesses should start with all three at once.
Key points
- Search channels catch demand that already exists. Social channels create it.
- Google Ads is the fastest and stops the day you stop paying. SEO is the slowest and keeps paying after you stop.
- Facebook and Instagram ads are cheap per view and hard to attribute to enquiries.
- Pick by customer behaviour, not by what's fashionable.
- All three need the same foundation: a page that converts and a way to count enquiries.
Catching demand or creating it
The useful question isn't which channel is best. It's whether your customer goes looking for you or has to be interrupted. A burst hot water service gets searched for. A new range of candles doesn't, until someone sees them. Google (Ads and SEO) catches people who are searching. Facebook and Instagram put something in front of people who aren't.
Side by side
| Channel | How fast | What it costs | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Ads | Days | Per click, no minimum, stops when you stop | Services people search for when they need them |
| SEO | Months | Your time or a retainer, compounds | The same searches, for the long run |
| Facebook and Instagram ads | Days | Per view or click, cheap to reach, hard to attribute | Visual products, offers, awareness, reminding past visitors |
Google Ads
You pay per click and set your own budget. Google says a campaign can spend up to twice its average daily budget on a busy day, but no more than 30.4 times that budget across a month. You can be on the first page for the searches that matter tomorrow, measure cost per enquiry within weeks, and switch it off at any time. The risks are paying for the wrong searches and sending clicks to a page that doesn't convert, both of which are fixable.
At the end of the month, you will have spent no more than 30.4 times your average daily budget.
SEO
Earning a place in the unpaid results and the map pack. It's slow, it rewards patience and clear pages, and it keeps delivering after the work is done. For a local business the biggest lever is the Google Business Profile and reviews, which you can do yourself. The mistake is expecting it to replace Ads in the first few months.
Facebook and Instagram ads
Meta's ads reach people by who they are and what they're interested in, not by what they're searching for. They're cheap per thousand views and good at showing something visual to a defined area. They're weak for urgent services (nobody scrolls Instagram for an emergency electrician) and harder to connect to enquiries, because the path from seeing an ad to ringing a week later rarely gets measured. They work well for retargeting: reminding people who visited your site and didn't enquire.
Where to start, by type of business
- Trades and urgent services: Google Ads first, Google Business Profile and reviews from day one, SEO as the long game.
- Cafés, salons, anything visual and local: Google Business Profile first, then Instagram organic and a small Meta budget for the area.
- A new product nobody knows to search for: Meta ads to create the want, Google Ads later to catch the searches they generate.
- Professional services such as brokers, accountants and lawyers: SEO and referrals first, Google Ads for the specific services with search demand, Meta mostly for retargeting.
- Independent car yards: the marketplaces bring the buyer to the car, the Business Profile and your own site bring them to you, Google Ads for your area once the site converts.
The foundation all three need
A page that says what you do and where, with a phone number and a short form a visitor can use without hunting. Conversion tracking that counts real enquiries. A Google Business Profile with the same details as the site. Without those, every channel looks like it doesn't work, because nothing is being measured.
Navaro runs Google Ads for small businesses at $1,000 a month flat for accounts spending up to $5,000 a month on ads, $800 if Navaro built your website, no contract, and the account stays yours.
Questions people ask
Is SEO better than Google Ads?
They do different jobs. Ads works this week and stops when you stop paying. SEO takes months and keeps going. For a local service business the usual answer is Ads now and SEO alongside, with the Google Business Profile as the first SEO job.
Do Facebook ads work for a trades business?
For urgent work, rarely, because nobody is scrolling for it. For planned work such as renovations, landscaping or solar, a local Meta campaign with real photos can bring enquiries, and retargeting people who visited your site is cheap.
What budget do I need to start with Google Ads?
Google has no minimum. The practical minimum is enough clicks a month to learn from, roughly a hundred, which depends on what a click costs in your trade and area. The Google Ads cost guide on this site has a calculator.
Should a small business do all three?
Not at the start. Pick the channel that matches how customers find you, get it measuring enquiries properly, then add the next. Spreading a small budget across three channels usually means none of them gets enough data to improve.
Sources
- Google Ads Help: About overdelivery and your average daily budget
- Google Search Central: SEO Starter Guide
- Meta: Advertising on Facebook and Instagram
Free 60-second website read at navaro.com.au, no sign-up. Or ring Francis Valente on 0426 951 399.