Paid social or search ads: what to choose for your business
The argument over “which is better” is pointless, because the two channels do different jobs.
Search ads: the person is already looking
They typed “washing machine repair Astana” into Google and saw your ad. The demand already exists, and your job is to be in front of them at the right moment. This brings leads quickly, and the cost of a lead is usually predictable. The downside: the number of people searching for your service right now is limited. You cannot triple the budget, because there will be nobody left to show the ad to.
Paid social: the person does not yet know they need you
They scroll their feed and see an ad. They were not planning to buy. The job of paid social is to show the offer to people it suits and spark interest. It scales better, but the leads are usually “colder”, and without a good creative the money goes fast.
How to choose
If people search for your service (a lawyer, repairs, a clinic, delivery, training), start with search ads. If you sell something people do not look for themselves (a new clothing brand, an unusual product, an event, an app), start with paid social.
If you run an online store, you need both: search catches people looking for a specific product, paid social brings back those who have already visited the site. In our online store case, Performance Max ads and a tidy product feed gave 41 percent more revenue on the same budget.
The most common mistake
People launch both channels at once on a small budget, split it in half and get too little data in each to optimise. A month later the verdict is “advertising does not work”. But it was not the advertising that failed, it was the way the budget was sliced.
Our take
If the budget is small, pick one channel and bring it to a result. Add the second when the first pays off steadily. There is no universal “right combination”, only a sequence.
Tell us about your business, and we will say where to start and what is not worth the money.
More about the service: Google Ads
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