Digital advertising for the weeks you cannot wait for organic
SEO compounds but it is slow. Advertising is instant but it stops the day you stop paying. Most businesses need both, in different proportions at different times, and the useful agency is the one that tells you which one your situation actually calls for.
No contract past 90 days · You own every account · No ranking guarantees, ever
$450 to $800 per month + your ad spend
- LSA Only — $450/mo: the pay-per-lead channel, managed properly
- Full Funnel — $800/mo: search + LSA + retargeting, waste hunted weekly
- Break-even maths BEFORE you fund anything
- Cost per booked job reported monthly
27 things we actually do
Not a highlight reel. This is the whole list, so you can check whether the thing you care about is on it before you get on a call.
Before any money is spent
- Cost-per-click pulled for your actual terms, dated and sourced
- A break-even calculation from your job value and close rate
- The honest answer on whether the maths works before you fund it
- Conversion tracking installed and tested with a live test call
- Landing page reviewed — traffic to a weak page is a donation
Search campaigns
- Campaign and ad group structure by service, not one bucket
- Exact and phrase match discipline instead of broad-match spray
- A negative keyword list built before launch and grown weekly
- Ad copy written per service, tested in pairs
- Sitelinks, callouts, call and location extensions
- Geographic targeting set to where your trucks actually go
- Ad scheduling matched to when someone can answer the phone
- Bid strategy chosen for lead volume, not impression share
Local Services Ads
- Eligibility check for your trade and licence status
- Google Guaranteed application and verification support
- Job type and service area configuration
- Lead dispute handling for the ones that were not real leads
- Review flow, since LSA ranking leans on reviews heavily
Beyond search
- Retargeting to people who visited and did not call
- Performance Max, only where it can be constrained sensibly
- Local paid social where the trade has a visual before-and-after
- Competitor conquesting where it is legal and worth it
Measurement
- Call tracking with recording, so a lead is a lead and not a click
- Cost per call and cost per booked job, separately
- Wasted-spend report — what we blocked and what it saved
- Search terms report reviewed weekly, not monthly
- A monthly note in plain English, including the months it did not work
What the first six months look like
So you know what month one is, rather than finding out after you have signed.
The maths first
What a job is worth to you, what you close, and what a click costs in your market. If those three numbers do not produce a profit, we say so before you spend anything. Some trades in this market do not work on paid search at all.
Tracking before traffic
Call tracking, form tracking and conversion actions installed and verified with a real test call. Running ads without this is buying a number you cannot read.
Build small, start narrow
Tight match types, a negative list built before launch, and the geography set to where you actually go. It is far cheaper to widen a campaign that is working than to rescue one that has been spraying for a month.
Week one to four — the search terms report
This is where the money is saved. Every week we read what people actually typed and block the ones looking for jobs, for cities you do not serve, or for a DIY answer.
Then the landing page
Once the traffic is clean, the page becomes the constraint. Same spend, better page, more calls — usually a bigger lever than another round of bid tuning.
Ongoing — and the exit
We would rather ads be a bridge than a permanent line item. As the organic work lands, the honest move is to reduce the ad spend, and we will tell you when that point arrives.
Exactly what you get, at every price
Two plans. Spend goes to Google on your own card, in your own account — we never mark up media, so we make the same whether you spend $1,000 or $10,000.
LSA Only
$450 /mo
The cheapest call on the page, managed properly.
Licensed trades — plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing, locksmiths. Local Services Ads sit above everything else Google shows and charge per LEAD, not per click. If your trade qualifies, this is where paid money goes first.
-
Google Guaranteed application walked through to the green badge
Licence, insurance, background check — the paperwork that stops most contractors ever getting the badge. The badge is the click.
-
Job types and service area tuned to the work you actually want
No more paying for a faucet-drip lead when you wanted the repipe. The targeting is the profit margin.
-
Every junk lead disputed, every week
Wrong number, wrong city, solicitor — those leads are refundable, and we file every dispute for you. Money most businesses never get back, back.
-
The review flow LSA ranking feeds on
LSA position leans on review count and recency harder than anything else you control. We keep the engine fed.
-
Cost per lead and cost per booked job, reported monthly in plain English
You see what a job costs to win through this channel — next to what we would expect it to cost, so you know when it is working and when to turn it off.
What this plan is not: No search campaigns, no retargeting, no landing pages. If your trade does not qualify for LSA, this plan does not apply and we will say so on the first call instead of selling you into it.
Start with the free auditFull Funnel
$800 /mo + your ad spend
Search ads, LSA and retargeting — with the waste hunted weekly.
You need the phone ringing this month, the job value supports the click cost, and you want one person accountable for the whole paid picture. Spend goes on your card, in your account, never marked up.
-
The break-even maths before a dollar moves
Job value, close rate, real click cost in your market. If the numbers do not produce a profit, you hear that before you spend — not in a month-nine review.
-
Search campaigns built tight — one service per ad group, exact and phrase match
The person typing "emergency plumber near me" already decided to buy. Structure decides whether you pay for that intent or for everyone vaguely nearby.
-
The search terms report read every week, negatives added every week
This is where paid accounts live or die: blocking the job-seekers, the DIYers and the wrong towns before they eat the budget. Most agencies check monthly. The waste does not wait for them.
-
LSA managed alongside, where the trade qualifies
Both channels compete for the same call. Running them together means they stop bidding against your own money.
-
Call tracking with recording, plus retargeting for the ones who did not call
You hear the actual leads, and the visitor who compared you for a week keeps seeing your name until they stop comparing.
-
Cost per booked job — the only number that matters — reported monthly
Clicks and impressions are always up and to the right. Your P&L is not fooled, and neither is this report.
First five Birmingham businesses: 25% off any plan for your first 90 days.
We are new in town and we would rather prove it than promise it. The trade is simple: you get the discount, and once the work has earned it, we ask for an honest Google review and permission to publish your numbers as a case study. When the five spots are gone, they are gone.
Claim a founding spotNot sure which fits? That is what the free audit decides. We look first, then recommend a plan — and if the honest answer is the smaller one, that is the one you will hear.
More specific than "Digital Advertising"
Most businesses need one or two of these, not all of them. Each one says who it is for so you can rule it out quickly.
Google Search Ads
Someone typing "emergency plumber near me" has already decided to buy. That intent is worth more than any audience you could target on social, which is why search gets the budget first.
Right for you if: You need calls this month and the job value supports the click cost.
Local Services Ads
For several trades these sit above everything else on the page and charge per lead rather than per click. When a trade qualifies, this is usually the cheapest call available.
Right for you if: Licensed trades — plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing, locksmiths, and others Google has opened up.
Account rescue
Auditing an account that is spending without producing. Usually it is broad match, missing negatives, no conversion tracking, or geography set to the whole state.
Right for you if: You are spending and cannot tell what it is buying you.
Landing pages for paid traffic
A page built for the one search that sent the click, with the phone number at the top and nothing else competing for attention.
Right for you if: Ads currently point at your homepage.
Call tracking setup
Numbers, recording, and attribution wired into analytics so a lead is a lead and not a click. Can be installed on its own, without management.
Right for you if: You want to know what your existing marketing is producing before changing it.
Retargeting
Reaching the people who visited and did not call. Cheap relative to search, and only worth running once there is enough traffic to retarget.
Right for you if: Considered purchases where people compare for a week before deciding.
Eight questions to ask every agency you talk to
Including us. If an answer here does not match what you get on a call with someone else, that is the useful part of this page.
Show me the live search results for three terms you would target.
Google answers some queries with an article and others with a map of local businesses. Those need completely different pages. Anyone who has looked will have the screenshots.
Bad answer: A keyword list with volume and difficulty columns and no screenshots of the actual results page.
What is the monthly search volume for my main term, and where did that number come from?
Volume comes from a paid database and should be quotable with a date and a source. It is a fact, not an opinion.
Bad answer: "Thousands of people are searching for this every month."
Who owns the website, the domain, the Google Business Profile and the analytics?
If the agency owns any of them, leaving costs you everything you built. It should all be in your name from day one.
Bad answer: Anything vague about "our platform" or "our hosting".
Do you guarantee rankings?
Google does not sell placement in organic results, so nobody can guarantee a position. The correct answer is no.
Bad answer: Yes, in any form, including "guaranteed page one" and "guaranteed traffic".
What is the minimum contract, and what happens in month one if I cancel?
SEO is slow, so long terms are defensible — but the term should be stated up front, not buried.
Bad answer: A twelve-month auto-renew you find out about at signature.
How will I know it worked?
The measure is calls, forms and booked jobs. Rankings and traffic are how you get there, not the point.
Bad answer: A monthly PDF of ranking positions with no call tracking attached.
Which of my competitors do you already work with?
An agency running three plumbers in one city is competing against itself with your money.
Bad answer: Refusing to answer.
What would you tell me not to spend money on?
Every real assessment finds something not worth chasing. An agency that finds nothing is selling, not assessing.
Bad answer: Everything is an opportunity.
The part nobody puts on the page
Advertising is rented traffic. The day the card stops, the calls stop. It is the right tool for a gap or a launch, and the wrong one to depend on for five years. We would rather it be a bridge to the organic work than a permanent line item.
What people search to find this
Pulled from a paid keyword database, dated and sourced. You can check any of it.
| Keyword | Searches / mo | Demand | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| google ads | 550,000 |
|
92 |
| digital marketing agency | 40,500 |
|
75 |
| google local ads | 6,600 |
|
28 |
| digital marketing birmingham al | 110 |
|
0 |
| marketing agency birmingham al | 140 |
|
0 |
Source: DataForSEO · United States · 31 July 2026
Digital Advertising questions
How much should I spend on ads?
Do you mark up ad spend?
Who owns the ad account?
How fast do ads work?
Ads or SEO?
What is Local Services Ads and do I qualify?
Why is my current agency’s reporting all clicks and impressions?
What is the minimum ad budget you will manage?
Do you run Facebook and Instagram ads?
Can you fix an account someone else built?
The other two services
Search Engine Optimization
Most of what gets sold as SEO is a monthly report showing positions that moved.
From $395 to $1,250 per month →
Content Marketing
The industry standard is a 3,000-word article because a tool said longer ranks better.
From $450 to $900 per month →
Industries we do this for
Let's look at your actual results page
Tell us the work you want more of. We will pull the live search results for it and send you what we find, including when the answer is that it is not worth chasing.