Paid acquisition

In Belgium, a Google Ads campaign costs a minimum of 2-3k€/month on the media side to stabilize platform learnings. On the management side, we count 10 to 20% of the ad budget invested for the regie (daily audit, adjustments, creative, reporting). For a media budget of 10k€/month, plan between 1,000 and 2,000€/month in management fees. Below the 2,000€/month media threshold, algorithms don't have enough signals to optimize and the opportunity cost outweighs the savings.

Meta Ads (Facebook, Instagram) budget for a Belgian SME depends on the goal and target audience. For an awareness + retargeting approach, plan a media budget between 1,500 and 5,000€/month. For a direct acquisition approach with product catalog (Advantage+ Shopping, Dynamic Product Ads), the minimum threshold is higher, around 5,000€/month, because Meta algorithms need volume to stabilize their learnings. The B2C e-commerce rule: aim for a minimum ROAS of 3 to 4 on Meta, compared to 8-10 expected on Google Search. This rule is set upstream in the e-commerce strategy.

Google Ads is a paid lever: you buy an ad placement at the top of search results, or on other Google surfaces (YouTube, Display, Maps). SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is an organic lever: you work on your site so Google ranks it naturally in results. Google Ads pays per click and delivers results in days. SEO doesn't pay per visit but takes 6 to 12 months to produce durable effects. Both are complementary: Google Ads covers the short term and captures hot intent while SEO builds up.

First signals come in at 2-4 weeks, during the platform learning phase (algorithms collect data, adjust predictions, stabilize bids). Stable conclusions take 2 to 3 months. Before that delay, numbers swing all over the place and cutting too early resets the counter. That's the reason for the 6-month minimum commitment: 2-3 months to stabilize, 3 months to iterate on data that holds.

Not with the platform ROAS, which counts clicks and form-fills. With business ROAS: how much each euro invested brought back in closed revenue after the sales cycle (qualified meeting, proposal, signature). To measure it, you need to connect your CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive) as offline conversion back to Google Ads and Meta, through a clean server-side tracking layer. When a salesperson closes a deal, the info flows back to the platforms that learn to better target similar leads. That connection is what turns a B2B "black box" paid campaign into quantified piloting.

Start on a single platform first: Google Search if you have existing hot intent (searches on your product), Meta if you sell B2C with a visual catalog, LinkedIn if you sell B2B to an identifiable decision-maker. The rule: open the next one only when the first stabilizes its learnings (predictable CAC over 3 months). Activating 4 platforms in parallel from month 1 means diluting the budget below the minimum threshold of each and forcing 4 simultaneous learning phases that pollute each other.