Discovery call
30 minutes. You tell us about your business, your average job value, your service area, your customer, and what you've tried. We tell you honestly whether Google, Meta, both, or neither fits. No pitch.
Google · Facebook · Instagram
One clear strategy across search and social, with calls, forms and bookings traced back to the campaign that created them.
By Justine Coupland, RN — AHPRA-registered nurse & automation specialist · Last updated July 2026
Paid advertising helps Australian service businesses reach customers at two different moments. Google Ads appears when someone is already searching for a service. Facebook and Instagram ads introduce or remind people about an offer while they scroll. Before recommending either channel, LUNA Systems reviews your competitors, the searches customers use, public social ads, offers and landing pages. Google campaigns can include search ads, calls and lead forms. Social campaigns can include Reels, static ads, carousels and follow-up ads for previous visitors. We track useful enquiries and booked work where your systems allow, then report the numbers in plain English: money spent, real enquiries, bookings and cost per booking. Your business owns the advertising accounts, and Google or Meta bills your card directly. LUNA charges a fixed management fee rather than a percentage of ad spend. Management is month-to-month with 30 days' notice. Results depend on demand, competition, budget, offer and follow-up, so no fixed lead volume or return is guaranteed.
How It Works
30 minutes. You tell us about your business, your average job value, your service area, your customer, and what you've tried. We tell you honestly whether Google, Meta, both, or neither fits. No pitch.
If you've already got campaigns running, we audit the account first and show you what appears to be wasting budget. We also review the search results, public Meta ads, offers, creative formats, and landing pages your competitors are using before we map the channel mix, campaign plan, and budget. Written plan. Yours to keep.
We set up clear tracking for calls, forms and bookings, then connect it to your customer or booking system where possible. That lets us see which campaigns create useful enquiries before we launch and gather data.
Inside the account most days in the first month. After that, weekly: pause what is not creating useful enquiries, build on what is, write new ads or refresh creative, and refine targeting. The monthly report is plain English.
What's Included
Google Ads
One scorecard
Facebook + Instagram
For narrow B2B audiences, we can also assess LinkedIn Ads when the targeting and job value justify its higher click costs.
Plain-English Reporting
You should not need to learn a reporting system or decode a page of marketing acronyms. We turn the campaign data into a clear monthly snapshot of what was spent, what came in and what became real work.
If your booking or customer system records revenue, we can connect that too. If it does not, we report the useful data we do have instead of guessing at a return.
Buying Moments
Needs it now
Comparing options
Sees it and wants it
Small, specific audience
How It Compares
The honest comparison isn't Google vs Meta in the abstract, it's which one fits how your customer actually buys. Here's how the two channels stack up on the things that decide whether ad spend turns into booked work, no pricing, just what you actually get.
| Google Ads | Meta Ads (Facebook + Instagram) | |
|---|---|---|
| Customer mindset | Already searching for a service or solution | Scrolling, discovering or being reminded |
| Works well for | Urgent and planned services with clear search demand | Visual offers, local awareness, promotions and follow-up |
| Ad formats | Search text, call ads and lead forms | Reels, static images, carousels, Stories and lead forms |
| Usually doesn't suit | Low-intent, impulse-only categories with no search demand | Trades and emergency services: nobody scrolls Instagram thinking "I need an electrician now" |
| What we test | Searches, ad wording, locations, times and landing pages | Creative, audiences, offers, placements and follow-up ads |
| How you are charged | Google bills your account for clicks and other selected actions | Meta bills your account from the budget limit you set |
| Transparency on spend | Full owner access: every keyword, ad, and dollar | Full owner access: every audience, ad, and dollar |
| Best number to watch | Cost per useful enquiry or booking | Cost per useful enquiry or booking |
FAQ
It depends on how your customer buys. If they already know what they need and search for it, Google is usually the first channel to test. If the offer is visual or needs to be introduced before somebody searches, Facebook and Instagram may fit better. Some businesses use both: one captures active searches and the other follows up or creates demand. We recommend the smallest sensible mix rather than selling every platform by default.
It can be when people already search for your service, the likely cost of a booking makes sense against your job value, and your website gives them a clear next step. It is less useful when search demand is tiny, the margin is very low, or the business cannot answer and follow up enquiries quickly. We assess those basics before recommending a test budget.
Meta does not have a fixed price list. The platform uses an auction, so cost changes with your audience, location, competition, campaign goal and creative. You choose a daily or monthly limit. We suggest a testing range after reviewing the market, and Meta bills that spend directly to your account.
It depends on your service area, competitors, average job value, and the cost of reaching your audience. A metro service business might begin testing Google Ads at $1,500 to $3,000 a month, while a regional or niche business may be able to test with $500 to $1,000. Meta testing can sometimes begin around $500 a month, although larger audiences and more creative variations need more data. These are planning ranges, not promised performance thresholds. Your ad spend and our management fee are separate: Google or Meta bills your account directly, and we never take a cut of that spend.
Channel selection, competitor and audience research, campaign setup, search terms and exclusions, budgets, ad copy, creative briefs, Reels, static or carousel variants where relevant, call and form tracking, regular optimisation and a plain-English monthly summary. Landing-page work can also be scoped when the current page is likely to hold the campaign back.
Not always. If an existing service page is fast, specific and gives the visitor one clear action, it may be suitable. A separate landing page makes more sense when the current page covers too many services, does not match the wording of the ad, or makes enquiries hard. We review that before launch rather than building an extra page automatically.
We label and track the path from the ad to the action. That can include phone calls, enquiry forms, online bookings and, where your customer system supports it, the final job value. If part of that path cannot be connected reliably, we tell you what is known and what is missing instead of presenting an estimate as fact.
ROAS means the revenue traced back to advertising compared with the ad spend. ROI goes further by considering other costs, such as management and fulfilment. You do not need to use either acronym: our summary explains how much was spent, how many useful enquiries and bookings came in, and what revenue can be connected when your systems record it.
Most Australian agencies price one of two ways: a fixed monthly fee, or a percentage of your ad spend (commonly 10 to 20%). We only do fixed fees, on either platform. A percentage-of-spend model quietly rewards the agency for getting you to spend more, whether or not it books more work, and that's a conflict we don't want. Our fee depends on the size of the account and how many campaigns we're running, and it's disclosed in writing before you sign.
Some industries don't fit either channel well: low-margin offers, very small audiences, or services where the economics do not support the likely cost of acquiring a customer. We'll tell you on the discovery call if we think another channel is a better use of your budget rather than recommending campaigns we do not believe are a good fit.
No. Month-to-month, cancel any month with 30 days' notice, on either platform. You keep full owner access to your Google Ads and Meta ad accounts either way. If you leave, the account and its history stay with you.
Yes. You have full owner access to both accounts. You can log in any time and see every keyword, ad, or audience, and every dollar. Google and Meta bill your card directly. We never touch your ad spend or run "agency-managed" accounts that hide the data.
Google Ads can begin generating clicks within hours, but enquiry and booking timing depends on search demand, competition, budget, your offer, and the landing page. We usually allow 4 to 6 weeks to collect enough conversion data to make useful optimisation decisions. Meta also needs a learning period while the platform tests audiences and creative. Paid advertising is an iterative process, so we do not promise a fixed number of leads or a guaranteed launch-week result.

Founder, LUNA Systems · Registered Nurse (AHPRA: NMW0002113429)
Former nurse and beauty therapist turned automation consultant. Justine builds custom AI systems for Australian service businesses, so they can stop chasing leads and start growing.
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We will tell you if Google, Meta, both or neither makes sense before launch. You keep full owner access, Google or Meta bills your card directly, and management is month-to-month with 30 days' notice. Your account and its history stay with you if you leave.
Tell us what you sell, where you sell it, and what a good booking is worth. We'll tell you whether Google, Meta, both, or neither is the sensible next move.
Get in touch
Tell us a bit about what you're after and we'll get back to you within one business day with honest advice on where to start.