Two channels doing two different jobs. Meta creates demand from people who were not looking for you; Google captures it from people already searching. Run one without the other and you usually pay twice for the same customer.
Most wasted budget comes from asking one channel to do the other's job. Here is how the work divides in the United Kingdom.
Nobody opens Instagram planning to buy from you. Meta's job is to interrupt well enough that they want to, then stay in front of them until they do.
Read the detail: Meta Ads in the United Kingdom
Someone typing your category into Google has already decided they want it. The job is being there, and making the next step obvious enough that they take it.
Read the detail: Google Ads in the United Kingdom
Why this matters to your bottom line. When both run without shared measurement, they claim the same conversions and you fund the same customer twice. Sorting attribution out first typically recovers more margin than any bidding change, and it costs nothing extra.
Two separate numbers, and only one of them is paid to me.
Paid by you, directly to Meta and Google, on your own billing account. Realistically you need around £1,800 a month across both channels before the data becomes readable enough to act on.
Below that figure you are not testing, you are guessing expensively. I will tell you on the call if that is where you are.
A flat monthly retainer for the work — strategy, build, testing, optimisation and reporting across both platforms. Based on account size, never a percentage of your spend.
A percentage model rewards me for spending more of your money. That is a strange incentive to build into an agreement you are relying on.
Your risk is limited by design. Media spend sits on your billing account so you can stop it yourself at any hour. The retainer is month to month with 30 days notice. The ad accounts, pixels and data are in your name, so if we part ways you keep every bit of history you paid to build.
Structure, tracking and 90 days of spend across Meta and Google, checked against your actual margins rather than platform-reported returns.
One source of truth so the two channels stop claiming the same conversions and you stop funding customers twice.
Meta builds demand, Google captures it. Budgets and targets set against what each is actually responsible for.
Money moves toward whatever holds up profitably at higher spend, reported monthly in language you can act on.
You can start with one, and often should. Which one depends on whether people are already searching for what you sell. If they are, Google first. If they do not know they need it yet, Meta first. Running both badly is worse than running one well.
By what each is accountable for, not by a fixed ratio. Typically the channel capturing existing demand gets funded to the point where it stops finding profitable volume, and the rest goes to creating new demand. That split gets reviewed monthly against results, not set once.
Media spend goes directly to Meta and Google on your own billing account — around £1,800 a month across both is where the data becomes readable. My fee is a flat monthly retainer on top, based on account size. Never a percentage of your spend.
I will not quote one before seeing your account, and you should be wary of anyone who does. What I will do on the call is tell you honestly whether your margins, your offer and your budget make paid ads viable at all.
Month to month, 30 days notice, and the ad accounts, pixels and data stay in your name throughout. You keep every bit of campaign history you paid to build, which matters because that history is what the bidding algorithms learn from.
Me. The person on the call is the person in the account, every month. The client list is kept deliberately short for exactly this reason — there is no junior to hand you to.
Bring your accounts and your margins. You will get a straight view of where the money is going and what I would change first — whether or not you hire me.
Book a free strategy call →Auction prices, competition and customer value vary sharply between cities. Blanket national targeting overpays in one place while missing another entirely, so each of these has its own page.
Your industry decides the funnel and the policy traps, and this market decides the costs and the rules. These pages cover both at once.