Paid search
Google Ads is the fastest lead source most service businesses will ever have, and the fastest way to lose a budget. The difference is rarely skill with the software. It is whether anyone did the math first, built the campaign around the few services that clear it, and then showed up every week to tend the account.
Who this is for
That is the shape of this work. Before a dollar runs, we work out what a lead is worth to you: average job value times close rate. Then we build the smallest account that can win those leads, track every call and form back to the keyword that produced it, and report in customers and cost per customer rather than impressions.
- Have run Google Ads before and could not say what a lead or a customer cost
- Sell an urgent or high-value service that people search for by name
- Pay an agency a percentage of spend and get a dashboard of clicks back
- Qualify for Local Services Ads and have not turned them on
- Can answer the phone within the hour when the ads make it ring
What's included
The math before the build
Customer value, close rate and the benchmark cost per lead for your category, worked through together. If the numbers say no, we say no.
Local Services Ads
Setup, the Google Verified screening, the review flow that drives placement, weekly disputes on the junk leads, and a budget you can live with.
One tight search campaign
Two or three ad groups for your highest-value services, phrase and exact match, a negative list from day one, and a landing page per ad group.
Call and form tracking
A tracked number and conversion tracking live before the first ad runs, so every lead carries the keyword that produced it.
The weekly half hour
Search terms read, junk paused, budget moved to what converts. An account nobody reviews drifts within a month.
Reporting in customers
Cost per lead, cost per customer and the return multiple, on one page a month, with the recommendation written in plain language.
How it runs
- 01
Math
Value times close rate against the benchmark. A yes, a careful test, or a no, before anything is built.
- 02
Build
Tracking first, then Local Services Ads if you qualify, then the search campaign and its landing pages.
- 03
Tend
A weekly search-term review for the first 90 days, because new accounts drift fastest.
- 04
Decide
At day 90: what a customer cost, what they are worth, and whether you would make that trade every month.
Numbers to know
Only the figures an article on this site cites a source for. Your own numbers beat any of them, which is what the tools are for.
The all-industry median in WordStream's 2026 benchmarks, drawn from 13,474 US campaigns. Home services run about $91, business services $94 and attorneys $132.
The 2026 median across industries (WordStream). In our experience a landing page built for one service beats a home page by a wide margin.
Replying within an hour made firms about seven times as likely to qualify a lead as waiting an hour longer (Harvard Business Review). Ads only pay when somebody answers.
What changes in 90 days
Google Ads management is a monthly retainer sized to the account, not a percentage of ad spend, so the incentive is to find the cheapest customer rather than the biggest budget. A setup project comes first when the account is new or needs rebuilding. Pricing is discussed plainly on the first call.
What marketing help costs, and how to compare quotes- A written yes or no on ads for each service, with the math behind it
- Every lead traced to the keyword and campaign that produced it
- A cost per customer you can compare with every other channel
- An account you could hand to anyone, because the structure and the rules are documented
Run your numbers
Free, no email, and every result has a link you can send.
Before you ask
The short versions. Anything else, put it in the message.
No. Management is a monthly retainer sized to the account. A percentage of spend rewards the manager for spending more, which is the opposite of the job. The fee is agreed before the build and reviewed when the scope changes.
How this work is pricedGo deeper
Often paired with
Let's talk
Tell me what's going on with your marketing. I'll reply within a business day, and we'll find the constraint together on a 30-minute call. No pitch, no deck.