Short answer: Start paying for ads when four things are true: you have a specific offer, a page built for it that works on a phone, someone who answers calls and messages quickly, and a number for what a new customer is worth. Run a small, time-limited test, count real inquiries rather than clicks, and keep going only if the cost per customer is below what a customer is worth to you.
Ads are the fastest way to get in front of people who are searching for what you sell. They are also the fastest way to spend money with nothing to show for it. The difference usually has little to do with the ad itself. It comes down to what happens before and after the click.
Here’s how we decide, with a client, whether it’s time.
Ads multiply what’s already there
An ad sends a person to your website or your phone. If the page is slow, the offer is vague, or the call goes to voicemail at 4:45 on a Friday, the ad just buys you more of that. If the page is clear and someone picks up, the ad buys you customers.
That’s why the first question is never “Google or Facebook?” It’s “what happens to someone who clicks today?”
The four things to have in place first
1. A specific offer. “We do HVAC” is not an offer. “Furnace tune-up, $89, this week” is. “Same-day water heater replacement” is. People click on an answer to the problem they have right now.
2. A page built for that offer. Not your home page. A page that repeats what the ad promised, says what it costs or how pricing works, shows proof (photos, reviews, years in business), and has a phone number and a short form at the top. It has to load in a couple of seconds on a phone, because that’s where most local searches happen.
3. Someone ready to answer. Ads deliver calls during business hours and messages at night. Decide who answers, how fast, and what they say. A missed call from an ad is the most expensive call you’ll ever miss.
4. A number for what a customer is worth. You don’t need a spreadsheet. You need a rough answer to: when someone becomes a customer, how much profit do they bring in, in the first year? Without that number, you can’t tell a good campaign from a bad one.
If any of the four is missing, fix it first. It’s usually cheaper than the ads would have been.
Signs ads are worth testing now
| Situation | What it suggests |
|---|---|
| You’ve just opened, moved or added a service | Search and Maps take time to notice you. Ads can fill the gap while that builds. |
| You have capacity you need to fill this month | Ads turn on in a day. SEO and social take months. |
| Your organic results are strong for your name but weak for your services | Ads can cover the service searches while you build pages for them. |
| A competitor dominates the map in your town | Ads let you appear above the map while you work on reviews and your profile. |
| You sell something seasonal | Ads can be switched on for the season and off after. |
And signs to wait: you can’t answer the phone you already have, your website is broken on a phone, or you can’t say what a customer is worth.
How to size a first test
A first campaign is an experiment, so treat it like one. Pick one service, one area and one month. Then work backwards from what you can afford to learn.
A simple way to set the budget:
- Estimate what one new customer is worth in profit. Say a typical job brings in $400 of profit.
- Decide what you’re willing to pay to win that customer. Paying $100 to make $400 is a good trade for most businesses.
- Ask how many inquiries it takes to win one customer. If one in three inquiries becomes a job, each customer costs three inquiries.
- Look up roughly what a click costs in your trade (Google’s Keyword Planner gives estimates), and how many clicks become an inquiry on a good page. One in ten is a reasonable starting guess.
With those numbers, $100 per customer means about $33 per inquiry. If clicks cost $3 and one in ten clicks calls you, an inquiry costs about $30, which works. If clicks cost $12, the same page needs to convert far better, or the service isn’t a good fit for search ads yet.
This is a worked example with made-up round numbers, not a promise of what your campaign will cost.
Then set the test budget high enough to get enough inquiries to judge, usually at least 20 to 30 clicks a week, for four weeks, and put a date in the calendar to review it.
Count customers, not clicks
The ad platforms report clicks, impressions and “conversions.” None of those is a customer. Before the test starts, set up a way to count what matters:
- Calls from the ad and the page, using the call extension and a tracking number on the landing page.
- Form requests, tracked as a conversion.
- A simple log of who called, what they wanted and whether they became a customer. A notebook by the phone works.
At the end of the month you’ll know your real cost per customer. That’s the only number that tells you whether to continue.
When to stop, change or grow
- Stop if you’ve had enough clicks to judge (a couple of hundred) and almost no inquiries. Something about the offer, the page or the market isn’t working; fix that before spending more.
- Change if inquiries come in but they’re the wrong kind. Tighten the keywords, add negative keywords for jobs you don’t want, or change the offer.
- Grow if the cost per customer is comfortably under what a customer is worth. Raise the budget gradually and watch whether the cost per customer holds.
Ads and SEO aren’t rivals
Paid and unpaid search results are separate. Buying ads doesn’t raise your organic ranking, and Google says plainly that you can’t pay for a better position in the local map results. What ads can do is buy visibility while your organic presence grows. Most of our clients do both: a modest ad budget for the services that need calls now, and steady work on their Google listing, website and reviews for the long run. Our local SEO versus ads guide goes deeper on choosing.
If someone runs your ads for you
Ask for three things in writing: the ad accounts in your business’s name, your ad spend shown separately from the management fee, and a monthly report of cost, calls and requests by campaign. Google’s own guide for advertisers working with third parties says you’re entitled to ask for your account’s cost and performance data. If an agency won’t give you those, find one that will.
Sources
This guide is general information for small business owners, not legal or financial advice. Search platforms change their systems often; we review our guides when they do.