Facebook and Instagram put you in front of people who were not looking for you. Google puts you in front of people who were.
That one difference decides whether these ads work for your trade, and it decides it before you spend a dollar.
Which trades do well on Facebook and Instagram?
The ones where a customer can be talked into wanting something they were not searching for that morning.
Kitchen remodeling, pools, landscaping, med spas, dental cosmetics, solar, custom decks. Somebody scrolling sees a finished job in a neighbourhood they recognise and thinks about their own house.
Those trades also have a long decision, so being in front of somebody repeatedly over weeks does something useful.
Which trades usually waste money there?
The emergencies. Nobody is talked into a burst pipe.
A plumber, a garage door company or a mold crew gets hired at the moment of need, and that moment happens in a search box. Money spent showing a plumbing ad to somebody with no leak is money burnt.
There is one exception worth naming. Emergency trades that also sell planned work, like a water heater replacement or a maintenance plan, can advertise that half.
What does a working local ad look like?
The picture, and after the picture, the first line.
Finished work in a recognisable area beats a stock photo every time. A driveway that looks like driveways in your county tells the reader you are nearby without saying it.
Then say what the ad is offering in plain words. A free estimate, a spring booking window, a specific job you just finished. Vague brand advertising does little for a business with a service area.
Do we make videos for you?
We write the hook, direct the shot list and cut the result. You film it on your own phone.
Nobody gets sent out to your site with a camera, because we do not do that. A phone in the hands of the person who did the work usually looks better than a polished production anyway.
Some clients want a presenter. We can build one that is generated by AI, and the ad says so on the face of it. Passing a generated presenter off as a person is not something we will do.
What does it cost to find out?
Enough weeks to get past the learning period, which is the part most people cut short.
A campaign switched off after eight days has told you nothing. The platform spends the first stretch working out who responds, and turning it off during that is paying for the education and skipping the lesson.
We do not quote a cost per lead before an account has data behind it. Anybody who gives you that number on a first call is reading it off somebody else’s account.
Should you do these instead of search?
Rarely. In most local trades this belongs beside the search work.
Search catches the person who has decided. Social reaches the person who has not thought about it yet, and it stops you being forgotten during a long decision.
A business that has neither should usually build the search side first, because that demand exists whether you advertise or not.
How to decide in one question
Ask whether your customers ever put the job off for a month.
If they do, there is a window where an ad can reach them, and Facebook and Instagram are a reasonable place to spend. If the job happens the same day it is discovered, spend the money where people search.
Our meta ads management for local business page sets out how we build the accounts and what comes back in the monthly report.
Not sure which side of that question your trade falls on? Book a call and we will work it out with you.