TikTok is the trendy advertising form, while Google Ads is the old but gold one. Each platform has its own set of advantages. However, if you only have a limited budget and wonder whether Google Ads vs TikTok Ads is worth investing in? Then, this article is right for you.
Quick Summary:
- Google Ads (Demand Capture): Best for capturing high-intent users actively searching for products, delivering immediate ROI with an average Conversion Rate (CVR) of ~7.5% (2025 Benchmarks).
- TikTok Ads (Demand Generation): Excels at building brand awareness and triggering impulse buys through viral content. Cost-efficient with CPMs averaging $4-$7.
- Targeting & Cost: Google relies on keywords and has higher CPC ($2-$5 avg). TikTok uses an Interest Graph with lower costs per impression, making it scalable for reach.
- The Verdict: The better choice depends on your goal. Use Google to harvest existing demand and TikTok to create new demand. Ideally, combine both for a full-funnel strategy.
What is Google Ads?
Google Ads is a paid advertising platform that utilizes paid Google placements to launch advertising campaigns.
How it works
You can use Google Ads to create online ads that target people who are actively searching for the products and services you provide. Unlike social media ads which disrupt the user experience, Google works on a high intent paid search module. Therefore, Google Ads will proactively deliver ads to people based on their search needs. It also means that you need to pay for Google to get the ad displayed and clicked.
Types
Google provides multiple ad types to meet the advertiser’s demand:
- Search Ads: The most common type, which appears on the search engine results page (SERP) for searches related to the advertiser’s products.
- Google Display Ads: Visual ads that appear on the Google Display Network.
- Google Shopping Ads: Product listings that appear on Google Shopping tab and Search.
- Video Ads: Reach potential customers when they watch or search for videos on YouTube and across the Google Video Partners network.
Benefits
Google Ads is an effective way to drive qualified traffic with the following key benefits:
- High Intent: Targets good fit customers looking for products and services similar to those you provide.
- Versatile Goals: You can promote your business, sell products, raise awareness, increase in-store visits, and drive traffic to your website or application.
- AI Integration: Utilizing latest AI-powered campaigns like Performance Max to optimize results.
What is TikTok Ads?
Similar to Google Ads, TikTok Ads is a marketing communication tool that promotes videos on TikTok’s platform. It is often referred to as “Discovery Commerce”, where users find products they didn’t know they needed.
Don’t Make Ads. Make TikToks. On TikTok, creativity is the primary driver of performance, and ads should feel like native user-generated content to truly engage the audience.
How it works
TikTok works on a paid social module centered around the “For You” page (FYP). Therefore, TikTok Ads deliver ads to users only on this platform based on their video interaction behavior. It’s a paid feature that lets you choose a goal, such as video views, website visits, app installs, or new followers, and promote your video content.
Types
TikTok Ads are vivid, attractive, and intuitive, mainly in video format. Common types include:
- In-Feed Ads: Ads that appear in the native news feed on the “For You” page.
- TopView: A full-screen video ad that appears when a user first opens the app.
- Branded Hashtag Challenges: Encourages user-generated content by asking users to participate in a challenge.
- Shoppable Entertainment: Ad formats that integrate seamlessly with the shopping experience.
>>> Read more: All TikTok Ad Types You Need to Know [2026 Updated Guide]
Benefits
TikTok Ads provides a powerful yet simple platform for businesses with these benefits:
- Global Reach: Advertise to millions of users worldwide and drive massive scale.
- High Engagement: Designed to be vivid and joyful, bringing more excitement to the customer’s buying journey.
- Full-Funnel Solution: Effective for branding, driving traffic, and sales through formats like Spark Ads and TikTok Shop integration.
What are the differences between Google Ads vs TikTok Ads?
Google captures demand; TikTok generates demand. Google is where you go to buy; TikTok is where you go to discover.
1. Algorithm
Google Ads’s algorithm
Google Ads algorithm works based on search and display optimization (Quality Score and Ad Rank). By appearing on the appropriate websites whenever users browse the internet, Google ads allow advertisers to target customers through their interests and online activity data.
Generally, ads will be displayed in the prioritized positions on search rankings or sites belonging to Google Ecosystem (YouTube, Gmail, Maps). Thereby helping you to reach new buyers and increase your conversion rate.
TikTok Ads’s algorithm
On the other hand, TikTok masters user engagement with minimal effort because of its unique Interest Graph delivery algorithm. TikTok Ads distributes your ad video right on the TikTok app while users scroll down the For You Page. Like other platforms, you must set up many options before running an ad, such as TikTok targeting, budget, time, etc.
>>> Read more: What is the TikTok Algorithm? Your Guide to Staying Ahead
2. Targeting options
Google Ads targeting options
This ads platform offers 4 primary targeting options. Here’s how it works:
- Content keywords: Keywords are the most common and well-known targeting options for Google Ads. Here marketers use keywords to tap into topics potential shoppers are actually searching for.
- Topics: This Google targeting option allows marketers to reach a wide range of sites on Display Network. Google Ads will analyze web content text, language, and page structure and then target your ads to the most suitable sites based on the topic you choose.
- Placement: Google ads allow you to target websites on the Display Network that your customers visit. There are 2 approaches in this targeting option including Managed placements, and Automatic placements. Placement might be an entire website or a subset of a website.
- Display expansion for search: This targeting option, which works with both Search and Display campaigns, allows Google Ads to find users based on automated bidding and smart targeting.
TikTok Ads targeting options
This platform provides multiple following TikTok Ads targeting options:
- Audience targeting: This includes Lookalike or Custom Audience (uploaded from your CRM or website pixel data).
- Demographic targeting: TikTok ad demographics segmentation includes gender, age, location, and language.
- Interests and behavior targeting: With this targeting, marketers can deliver ads to segments based on interest, purchase intent, hashtag engagement history, and content behavior (e.g., users who watched to the end of a video).
- Search targeting: Recently, TikTok introduced the “Search Ads Toggle,” allowing brands to target users searching for specific terms within the app, challenging Google’s dominance.
- Device: With TikTok marketing, eCommerce advertisers can define targeting by connection types (Wi-Fi/5G/etc.), operation type (iOS/Android), operation system version (Android 4.0 and higher), and mobile carrier.
3. User Demographics
Google Ads user demographics
Google is a universal dictionary. Therefore, the audience’s age in Google Ads falls into multiple sections. As a whole, Google has billions of users worldwide. However, drilling down more distinctive Google Ads user demographics, each platform offers an advertiser’s specific ad targeting.
So what is the reason? Because Google’s user base is extremely vast, crossing segments.
- Search demographics: According to Statista, Google accounts for the majority of all desktop searches in the United States. This, of course, means that Google searchers are divided into several groups from Gen Z to Boomers.
- Display user demographics: Advertisers can target audiences beyond keywords by using topic/interest-based targeting to link ads to partner content. This includes over 200 million sites, apps, and videos covering a wide range of topics and segments.
TikTok Ads user demographics
According to Statista (Feb 2025), TikTok has grown to nearly 2 billion monthly active users (MAU) worldwide, with over 135 million users in the US alone (Demandsage).
While the platform started with Gen Z, the user base is aging up:
- Gender Split (2025): Recent data shows a shift with approximately 54.6% male and 45.4% female users globally (Exploding Topics).
- Age Groups: The 18-24 age group still accounts for the largest share (~38%), but the 35+ segment is currently the fastest-growing demographic on the platform.
- Implication: This audience evolution makes TikTok increasingly suitable for a wider range of industries beyond just youth-centric products.
4. Cost
Google Ads cost
Google works on a pay-per-click model, meaning you need to pay for Google to get the ad displayed and clicked. Specifically, with each type of ad format, Google Ads will bring different benefits. For example, with Search Ads, Google delivers your related content to users who search for it. However, Display Ads are a bit different. Google chooses to position and distribute content to users even though they may not need products/services.
Furthermore, regardless of your company’s size or available resources, you can tailor your advertisements to fit your budget. The Google Ads tool lets you stay within your monthly budget and pause or stop ad spending at any time.
- CPM (Cost Per Mille): Display Ads average $3–$19, while Search Ads CPM is significantly higher at around $38 due to high competition (WordStream, Nestscale 2025).
- CPC (Cost Per Click): In 2025, the average CPC ranges from $2 to $5 across industries. However, competitive sectors like Legal or Insurance can see clicks cost upwards of $50+ (WordStream Benchmarks 2025).
>>> Read more: How Much Does Google Ads Cost? Is It Worth Investing in?
TikTok Ads cost
TikTok has various ad-paying methods. That means advertisers can spend their budget on TikTok differently for branding or sales purposes. TikTok ads allow you to promote your product/service to users on the platform.
For more detail, TikTok offers multiple ad solutions with different price ranges. There are 3 ad-buying types methods, including
- Bidding: Based on 4 bidding methods (CPC, CPM, oCPM, CPV) to calculate ads cost. TikTok currently offers 5 bidding ad types: In-Feed, Collection, Dynamic Showcase, TikTok Shopping solutions, and Deeplink to Marketplace.
- Booking: Advertisers who want to use the branding ad solutions (Branded Effect, Branded Hashtag Challenge, and TopView) must book ad placements via the TikTok agency. This is also considered the most expensive ad type on TikTok.
- Reach and Frequency: This allows you to control the reach of your target users as well as the frequency with which your ads are shown based on a set budget. As a result, the cost of an R&F advertising campaign is flexible and can be determined based on the needs of each advertiser.
On TikTok Ads, advertisers can change their budget at any time during the campaign, and the TikTok system will never run over the budget you set. Specifically, the minimum budget at the campaign level is $500, and the minimum at the ad group level is $50.
Note: Agency accounts often have lower thresholds
- CPM: TikTok CPM is generally more affordable than Google, averaging $4–$7 in 2025 (Quimby Digital), making it excellent for mass reach.
- CPC: The average CPC on TikTok Ads is about $0.35–$1.00, which is often lower than Google Ads.
The cost of your TikTok ads is ultimately determined by campaign management. The better your accounts are structured, and your campaigns are optimized, the more cost-effective your ads will be.
5. Engagement
Google Ads Engagement
Engagement on Google Ads is primarily transactional. The user intent is to “find” or “buy,” so metrics like Click-Through Rate (CTR) are king. The interaction is brief and functional, users want to get to the destination URL quickly. While Display Ads offer some visual engagement, they rarely spark the kind of interactive community response seen on social platforms.
TikTok Ads Engagement
Engagement on TikTok is immersive and social. Users don’t just watch; they participate through likes, shares, comments, Duets, and Stitches. TikTok Ads often aim for viral impact where the ad content itself becomes a trend. This “loop” of engagement creates a deeper emotional connection with the brand, although it requires high-quality, entertaining creative content to succeed.
6. ROI (Return on Investment)
Google Ads ROI
Google Ads is known for providing immediate and measurable ROI. According to 2025 benchmarks (WordStream), the average Conversion Rate (CVR) across industries is around 7.52%. It is particularly strong for “bottom-of-funnel” campaigns where users are ready to buy, allowing easier attribution of sales directly to specific keywords.
TikTok Ads ROI
TikTok Ads often shine in long-term brand building and customer acquisition (LTV). While immediate conversions can be lower than Search, TikTok drives “Discovery Commerce.” Recent data (Quimby 2025) suggests that creative rotation can boost ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) by ~55%, and the cost per impression is significantly cheaper, allowing for broader market penetration.
Which one should advertisers choose: Google Ads vs TikTok Ads?
In general, both channels are doing so great in their missions of running advertising for brands and businesses. However, if you have to choose only one, here are the general differences between Google Ads vs TikTok Ads.
The magic happens when you combine intent (Google) with discovery (TikTok). Using both channels allows brands to dominate the entire customer journey, from awareness to conversion.
| Google Ads | TikTok Ads | |
|---|---|---|
| Demographics targeting | With Search engines, Google Ads helps to reach a diverse audience regardless of age, and gender,…not only the young ones. | TikTok Ads allows you to engage with younger demographics more effectively by leveraging the power of video marketing. |
| Targeting methodology | – Helps you find new customers. – Mostly built around search intent and keywords. – Allows you to use the power of search terms to reach new buyers and increase conversion rates. | – Helps new customers find you. – Targets potential users based on their behaviors and interests in order to increase engagement. – TikTok’s personalized branding solutions enable you to promote and raise awareness of your brand. – Have more precise and detailed targeting options than Google Ads. |
| Ad performance | – CTR for Google Ads accounting for 2% – Gives you a straightforward way to track the performance of your ad campaigns. – Has higher conversion than TikTok Ads. | – Has lower buyer intent than Google Ads. – CTR is just approximately 1%. – A quick way to build brand recognition. |
| Cost | Distribute ads based on user’s intent and search keywords therefore Google Ads cost is a little bit higher than TikTok. | As a new platform and has a broad distribution, TikTok Ads cost is generally affordable. |
>>> Read more: TikTok Ads vs Facebook Ads: Which is Best for Your Business?
FAQs
Yes. In 2026, TikTok’s CPM averages $4-$7, while Google Search CPM is around $38. However, Google Ads often yields a higher immediate Conversion Rate (CVR ~7.5%) because users are actively searching, which justifies the higher Cost Per Click.
Absolutely. A full-funnel strategy often uses TikTok Ads for “Top of Funnel” (Awareness/Discovery) to drive traffic, and Google Ads for “Bottom of Funnel” (Retargeting/Search) to capture conversions.
Not anymore. While Gen Z remains a core audience, the 35+ age group is the fastest-growing demographic on TikTok as of 2025. The platform has matured into a mainstream channel for all ages.
CONCLUSION
To conclude, Google Ads and TikTok Ads are both competent advertising platforms that can meet the virtual marketing requirements of a variety of organizations. This means that rather than viewing both platforms as competitors, you should consider them as complementing tools. If you want to executive your advertising campaign on both Google Ads and TikTok Ads, feel free to connect with Mega Digital!
