Why you shouldn’t copy your Meta offers to Google Ads

The other day, I talked to Meta Ads expert Marin Istvanic to discuss what worked for our clients during Q4.

One thing that stood out during our conversation:

There are far more differences between Google Ads and Meta Ads than most people realize.

And no, I’m not talking about the narrative that “Meta builds demand, Google captures it” (which is NOT true btw).

The real differences show up in how brands advertise their products on each platform…

Things like how you structure messaging, what offers to use, or changes in the creatives.

I’ll give you a few examples.

During BFCM, one of the best offers to run on Meta was bundles.

They ate up far less of your profit margin compared to discounts, with little to no drop in conversion rates.

Brands pulled off higher AOV, which helped offset the spike in CPMs.

On Google, the story was very different.

Bundles didn’t perform nearly as well.

On Meta, you can spell out exactly what customers get for their money. People can clearly see the added value of the bundle.

On Google Shopping, that context is missing.

All users see is a promotions badge. There are no visible savings attached to it.

In practice, that can actually put you at a disadvantage during a sale event like BFCM…

Everyone’s running aggressive discounts with strike-through prices showing the savings.

The discount is obvious and far more appealing in the search results.

Speaking of offers…

Meta gives you complete freedom on what you put in your ads.

You can run different offers, angles, and sales structures with very little friction.

Google is far more strict.

When you advertise a discount, Google examines your price history and decides whether the sale is legit.

If it does not meet their criteria, your promotion may never even show.

We also noticed a clear contrast in costs during this window…

On Meta, the CPMs exploded during BFCM.

Many accounts had to pay double on peak days.

To stay profitable, you need higher conversion rates or strong offers to offset those costs.

But on Google, the CPCs held steady.

Demand Gen CPMs actually dropped in many accounts, especially where we ran an “early access” lead gen offer before the sale.

That let us go aggressive for some clients and scale them hard during Q4.

These differences feel small until you see the impact on the account.

Because they directly affect how you compete in the auction and how your ads show up in the search results.

The nuances are where the edge comes from.

You'll know which offers to push, how to present your products, and how to allocate budget during critical periods.

Now…

I’ve heard a lot of stories about how BFCM is worse than it used to be and that buyers are buying less.

But looking at our data:

Q4 was a very strong period for our clients.

We spent $5.19M during BFCM and made $25M in total for our clients.

I credit a lot of that success to the preparation we made before the sale.

In the short term, it was about planning promotions properly and aligning execution with clients months before the sale.

In the long term, it was the work done throughout the entire year.

Scaling the account, building demand from the top of the funnel, and growing a customer base on Google.

And from our data…

The top-performing brands were the ones we’d been laying the foundation for throughout the year.

So when Q4 hit, we already had an account designed to thrive.

If you’re looking to transform your Google Ads account in 2026…

Grab a call with us here. 

We’ll give you:

• An in-depth audit of your account, where we’ll uncover 10-20+ weak spots that are silently wasting your budget and hidden revenue streams that you’re not tapping into

• A personalized roadmap to fix these issues and scale your account profitably

Jackson

Founder and CEO of Echelonn.

How we can help:

Get a free Google ads audit: For brands spending more than $20k/mo. or making over 1 million annually, we’ll identify the key bottlenecks in your account, and turn it into a free 90-day scaling plan. Click here.

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