Case Study: Meta vs. Google Ads (Which is better?)

When I talk to a new client, the first thing I do is spend some time on the phone with them to get to know their business a little better, and to try and determine the best approach to begin. I say that very intentionally. Most of the time I get the strategy right, but not always…and that’s where testing and figuring out the best approach comes in. While I don’t make clients sign long-term contracts - small business owners don’t need more stress on their plates! - I do recommend sticking with my services for at least 3 months to see if they’re actually working, because nobody bats 1000 from the very beginning.

I met Joanna of Land Income at a business networking event with the Visalia Chamber of Commerce, and she mentioned the possibility of marketing her business. When she explained to me what she and her husband do, however, I was hesitant at first since I had never advertised in that space before. Land Income sells farmland investments that provide long-term growth and gains for their investors. This was all new to me, and I never promise to help someone if I don’t truly believe I can.

After meeting with them I did some research to try and find the best approach to solve the problem of finding new investors for their business. I decided to test Google Ads alongside Meta Ads…and I assumed the former would be better than the latter. After all, a huge benefit of advertising on Google is the intent of the user, and how many people would want to invest after stumbling across a Facebook ad versus searching out investments?

Well, it turns out I was happily wrong! I worked with their web developer (Bryan Soto with VCR Creative, who I would highly recommend!) to build a custom landing page for Google Ads to take in leads. On the other hand, I set up Lead Ads on Facebook to capture potential investors’ contact information.

From the very beginning, the Meta ads took off. We had dozens of inquiries…but there’s always a catch. Spammers can easily find these lead forms, fill them out, and waste a whole lot of time. So before celebrating our success, I wanted to see if these names would pan out to be real people who were interested in the Woodbridge Almonds investment.

It turns out they were…and since starting the ads in the middle of the summer, we have captured over 100 leads and counting. Of course not every single lead is going to be a qualified, interested investor, but many of them have. We have been able to follow up with many of these names, schedule tours, and generate interest in the California land investment opportunity.

Meanwhile, the Google Ads were not nearly as successful! While we generated a few leads, we ended up stopping the campaign and redirecting the budget towards the Facebook leads. I never would have guessed this, but that’s why I started out with research and took a trial approach to see what actually works. I did the same with the creative I used on Meta - I tried different images, different sizes, and different captions, then built off our strongest ad to create a second round when I refreshed them the next month.

We have experienced wild success with these Meta Lead Ads, and I am excited to continue advertising for Land Income to see how we can grow together. This is business-building through paid ads at its finest! Meanwhile, I’m including some different ad creative that I used below…which one do YOU think performed the best?