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Most accounts we take over run a 50/50 split between Google and Meta, set on launch day. It feels fair, and it usually means half the budget sits behind the channel that isn't bringing enquiries. Every business finds families differently, some through search, some through the feed, and the mix shifts through the year. Track where the enquiries come from, tied back to the ad that drove them, and move the budget toward it every month.
Most accounts we take over arrive with the same budget split. Half to Google, half to Meta.
It's an easy decision to make and an easy one to defend. If one channel has a bad month, the other one covers for it.
The problem is that it rarely matches where the enquiries actually come from.
Why does an even split cost you enquiries?
When you put your budget evenly across both platforms, you're putting money behind what's working and what isn't at the same time. The total spend is the same either way. What changes is how much of it is pointed at the channel that's actually bringing families in.
The same thing happens inside a platform. Budget spread evenly across four campaigns or four locations gives the weakest one exactly the same money as the strongest.
Where do families actually come from?
In some areas parents are already searching on Google by the time they're ready to book or enrol. They type the suburb name and what they're after, whether that's childcare, a play centre or a junior sports club, compare a few options and get in touch. Most of the enquiries arrive that way.
In other areas Meta is doing the heavy lifting. Parents there aren't searching yet. They see a business in their feed, recognise the street, and that's the first time it occurs to them to look. The Google search comes later.
Two businesses ten suburbs apart can sit on completely different sides of that line. A 50/50 split has no way of knowing which side yours is on.
How do you tell which channel is working?
You need to know where each enquiry came from, and clicks won't tell you. A channel can send hundreds of clicks and no families.
- Track enquiries, not clicks. A form, a call or a tour booking counted as a conversion in both Google Ads and Meta Ads Manager. If your conversion tracking isn't counting every real enquiry, nothing below this line is reliable.
- Put UTM tags on every ad link so your analytics can tell a Google enquiry from a Meta one when the platforms disagree.
- Compare cost per enquiry by channel, not cost per click. A channel with a cheaper click and a dearer enquiry is the one quietly under-performing.
- Look at the last three months, not the last week. One good week on Meta is noise. Three months of cheaper enquiries on Meta is a reason to move money.
When should the split move?
Reading the numbers is an ongoing job rather than a launch-day decision, because the mix shifts through the year. Enrolment season and term start dates pull more families onto Google. A new competitor opening nearby changes what Meta needs to do. The split that was right in February can be wrong by August.
In practice, we review the split every month and move money more often than most businesses would expect. If Google's cost per enquiry has been lower for three months, Google gets more of next month's budget. If Meta's creative has started to tire and the cost per enquiry is climbing, that's a creative refresh question before it's a budget question.
When is an even split fine?
For the first month or two on a new account, before there's enough enquiry data to read, a 50/50 split is a reasonable place to start. It gives both channels a fair test. Starting even is fine. Staying even after the enquiries have shown you where they come from is the mistake.
An even split is also fine when both channels are genuinely delivering enquiries at a similar cost. That happens. The point is to know it from the numbers rather than assume it from the spreadsheet.
The third case is a budget too small to optimise. Under about $500 a month for a single centre, neither channel gets enough to reach around 70% of the target audience on Meta or 70% impression share on the keywords that matter on Google. At that level the split can't be read from the data, because neither half is big enough to produce a clear result. You can keep it even and accept that you're holding a presence on both rather than optimising, or put the whole budget on one channel so at least one of them reaches the threshold and gives you a real read. We'd usually pick the second, and we'd pick the channel that the enquiries you already get point to.
At Playground Digital, we don't split evenly by default, and we don't set a split once and walk away. We split based on where enquiries are genuinely coming from, and we keep adjusting as the numbers come in.
Not sure your budget is going to the right place? Book a free ads audit for your childcare centre or family business and we'll show you where the enquiries are actually coming from.
Em Hewitt is a Digital Marketing Specialist at Playground Digital. He has spent 10+ years in full-funnel paid social and Google across B2B, B2C and DTC, now focused on enquiries for family-first brands.