Guide
For most trades the honest answer is you'll want both eventually, but if you're starting with one, Facebook is usually the better first move. Google catches people already searching for you. Facebook creates demand from homeowners who weren't looking yet. Which one wins depends on your trade.
Written by Kaine Cruickshanks, ex-tradesman and founder of CopyByKaine · Last updated September 2026
These two platforms do completely different jobs, and picking the wrong one for your trade is why a lot of tradesmen waste money. So let's cut through it.
Google is intent. Someone types "emergency plumber near me" or "kitchen fitter Edinburgh," and your ad shows up right when they're looking. The demand already exists, you're just competing to be the one they click. That's powerful when people actively search for your trade, but it also means you're bidding against every other trade doing the same, and you only reach people already in the market today.
Facebook is the opposite. Nobody opens Facebook looking for a media wall or a fitted wardrobe. But show them a stunning finished one, filmed properly, and you plant the want that wasn't there a second ago. You're not waiting for demand, you're creating it, and you're reaching homeowners long before they'd ever think to Google it. That's a much bigger pool of people, and far less of a bidding war.
Google is strongest for urgent, "I need this now" trades. Emergency plumbers, locksmiths, boiler breakdowns, blocked drains. When something's broken, people search, they don't scroll. If most of your work is a homeowner with a problem that needs fixing today, Google earns its place.
Facebook is strongest for trades where the job is a want, not an emergency, and where the work looks good on camera. Fitted wardrobes, media walls, exterior cleaning, kitchens, bathrooms, garage conversions. Nobody's urgently searching for these, but they'll happily fall for one they see done well. The visual transformation is the whole sell, and that's exactly what Facebook is built for.
On Google, you're paying to outbid other trades for the same handful of searchers, and in busy trades that gets expensive fast. On Facebook, you're reaching a far bigger audience who aren't being fought over in the same way, and a good qualifying funnel means you're only paying attention to the ones who are actually serious. For most homeowner-facing trades, that stretches your budget further.
If you fix emergencies, start with Google. If you sell an upgrade a homeowner has to see to want, start with Facebook. And whichever you run, the same rule applies: the ad is only half of it. Without a qualifying funnel and fast follow-up behind it, both platforms just hand you tyre-kickers.
I focus on Facebook lead generation because that's where most Scottish trades get the best return, but I'll always tell you straight if Google's the better fit for what you do. Here's how Facebook ads work for trades when they're set up right.
Ready When You Are
Book a quick call and I'll tell you honestly which fits your trade and your area best. No hard sell.