How service businesses get the call this week.

Google reaches somebody who already has the problem and is typing it in, so the intent is as high as it gets and the job can be booked the same day. The limit is that you can only reach as many people as are searching, and in a small service area that number is finite. Meta reaches people before they search, with visuals, which builds the name recognition that makes the eventual search go your way. For urgent work people search for, Google is normally where to start. For work people put off, or work that photographs well, Meta earns its place. Most businesses that keep growing run both, and the two feed each other rather than competing.

They are the listings that sit above the normal search ads with a Google Guaranteed badge, and they are pay per lead rather than pay per click. You get screened and background checked by Google first, which is a real barrier to entry and also the reason the badge carries weight. Where your trade is eligible they are often the best value in Google, because you pay for a contact rather than a click. Not every trade or area has them, so we check before promising anything.

Local Services Ads charge you per lead, sit at the very top, and carry the Google Guaranteed badge, but you control much less about the targeting and the messaging. Regular search ads charge per click, sit below, and give you full control of keywords, copy and the page people land on. They are not an either-or. Where both are available the usual answer is to run Local Services for the high intent searches and regular search ads for everything the format cannot cover.

It matters more than most people expect, and it is free. The map results often sit above or alongside your ad for exactly the same search, so a thin profile with no photos and three reviews loses work to a complete one even while your ad is running. We check it as part of the setup, because spending on ads while the free listing underneath is neglected is paying twice for the same visitor.

That is most of the job. We block the searches you do not want, keep the ads inside the area you serve, and trace calls back to the keyword behind them. If a term pulls clicks and no calls it gets cut. Without that ongoing pruning every account drifts toward paying for traffic that was never going to buy.

It varies enormously by trade and by area, so a number quoted before looking at your market would be invented. What we can do is check the real cost per click where you work, against what a job is worth to you, and tell you whether it closes. In some markets it does not, and we would rather say so than take the work and have you find out in month three.

The leads are yours and come straight to you. The ad account is whichever is easier for you: we will set one up and give you full access from day one, or we will work inside the one you already have. The work is month to month and your ad budget goes to Google directly, with our fee kept separate from it.