How the Three Platforms Work Together
Google, Meta, and Amazon are usually bought as three separate line items, which is why they so often cannibalise each other. Treated as one plan, each takes a different job: Google captures demand that already exists, Meta creates demand that does not, and Amazon converts shoppers who have already decided to buy something in your category.
Where each platform earns its budget
- Google Search and Shopping - the closest thing to buying a customer who has already raised their hand. Efficient, but capped by how many people are searching.
- Meta Advantage+ and prospecting - the only reliable way to grow the pool of people who will search for you next month.
- Amazon Sponsored Ads - where category share is won or lost, and where a competitor outbidding you costs you the sale outright.
- Retargeting across all three - the cheapest revenue in the account, and the easiest to over-credit if attribution is left unchecked.
"Budget follows evidence, not habit. If a platform cannot show incremental revenue over a full buying cycle, it does not get the next increase - however good its own dashboard looks."
Choosing where to start
Most accounts should not switch all three on at once. We start where demand already sits, fix tracking and creative there, then add the next platform once the first is producing a stable cost per acquisition. The table below is the shorthand we use when planning that sequence.
| Platform | Demand it captures | Best-fit objective | Metric we optimise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Search & Shopping | Existing, in-market intent | Lead and purchase capture | Cost per acquisition |
| Meta Advantage+ | New demand you create | Prospecting and retargeting | Blended CAC |
| Amazon Sponsored Ads | Purchase-ready shoppers | Category share of sales | ACoS and TACoS |
| Performance Max | Mixed, automation-led | Portfolio-wide scale | Return on ad spend |
