Meta vs. Google Ads for e-commerce
Nicklas Segatz Mortensen · Growth Hacker · Fractional CMO · Meta Ads Nerd · 8 July 2026 · 4 min.
Short answer
Meta interrupts people who weren't searching and excels at creating demand and finding new customers. Google captures people who are already searching and harvests existing demand. Most e-commerce brands should run both — not pick one.
Sådan virker det
Meta skaber efterspørgsel: den afbryder folk, der ikke søgte, og er stærk til at bygge brand og finde nye kunder. Google høster efterspørgsel: den fanger folk, der allerede søger. De færreste skal vælge — de fleste vinder på at bruge dem til hver deres rolle.
01Creating vs. harvesting demand
Meta is an interruption channel: it shows people something they weren't searching for, which makes it strong at building awareness, creating demand and finding brand-new customers through prospecting. Google (Search and Shopping) is an intent channel: it captures people actively searching and harvests demand that already exists.
That's why they so often amplify each other: Meta creates the demand that later surfaces as Google searches. Cut one away and measure on last-click, and you'll systematically undervalue the channel that set the customer journey in motion.
Sådan virker det
Meta skaber efterspørgsel: den afbryder folk, der ikke søgte, og er stærk til at bygge brand og finde nye kunder. Google høster efterspørgsel: den fanger folk, der allerede søger. De færreste skal vælge — de fleste vinder på at bruge dem til hver deres rolle.
02When to weight which
If demand for your product category already exists (people search for it), Google is an obvious place to start — you're harvesting ready-to-buy customers. If the product is new, visual or impulse-driven, Meta is often stronger at creating the demand in the first place.
For most growing e-commerce brands the answer is both — and the call should be made on MER and incrementality, not on each platform's own attributed ROAS, which systematically overvalues the lower funnel.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to choose between Meta and Google?+
Rarely. They solve different jobs — Meta creates demand, Google harvests it — and they amplify each other. Most growing brands run both and judge them together on MER and incrementality.
Where should I start if the budget is small?+
If there's already search demand for your products, Google often returns fastest because it harvests ready-to-buy customers. If the product is new or impulse-driven, Meta is usually stronger at creating the demand.
Related terms
Glossary
What is prospecting?
Prospecting is top-of-funnel advertising aimed at new, cold audiences that have had no prior contact with the brand. The purpose is to build awareness and win entirely new customers.
Read the entry →Glossary
What is Performance Max (PMax)?
Performance Max (PMax) is a Google campaign type that runs across all of Google's inventory — Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Gmail and Maps — steered by one algorithm toward a single conversion goal.
Read the entry →Glossary
What is MER?
MER (Marketing Efficiency Ratio) is your total revenue divided by your total marketing spend across every channel. It ignores the platforms' own attribution and shows how efficiently the whole marketing machine is working.
Read the entry →Glossary
What is incrementality?
Incrementality is the added effect a marketing effort creates: the sales that happened only because the ad ran. Sales you'd have gotten anyway aren't incremental — whatever the platform credits.
Read the entry →We run both Meta and Google — and allocate between them on MER, not on siloed ROAS.
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Nicklas Segatz Mortensen
Growth Hacker · Fractional CMO · Meta Ads Nerd at Oaksmond
Growth hacker and fractional CMO with 10+ years' experience and hundreds of millions in managed ad spend behind him. Background from larger Danish and international scale-ups, and from the agency world.
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