The customer's Tuesday
Ads work when they're pointed at the right people and the page they land on does its job. They waste money very quickly when either half is wrong. A restaurant that's dead on Tuesdays, a dentist with room for new patients, a venue heading into wedding season, a roofer the week after a storm: those are the businesses where a few dollars a click, aimed at people within ten miles, pays. A business that's already booked out, or a homepage that takes six seconds to load, is where ad money goes to disappear.
What Google & Meta ads management covers
- No markup on your ad spend. Money you spend with Google or Meta goes to Google or Meta. I don't take a percentage. You pay me for the work of running it, not for the privilege of spending your own budget.
- You own the ad accounts. In your name, on your card. If you stop working with me, you keep the account, the history and the data.
- The landing page matters as much as the ad. Sending paid clicks to a slow homepage is how ad budgets disappear. I'd usually rather fix the page first.
- Start small and prove it. There's no reason to spend a thousand dollars finding out whether something works when two hundred will tell you.
- Honest reporting. What it cost, what it produced, and whether I'd keep doing it. If it isn't working, I'll say so.
How it works, step by step
Decide whether ads are the right tool
Ads are fast and they stop when you stop paying. SEO is slow and keeps going. Sometimes a small ad budget is exactly right: a restaurant's slow Tuesday, a dentist's new-patient special, a venue's wedding season, a contractor's storm week. Sometimes it's a waste, and I'll say so in the Blueprint Session before you spend anything.
Fix the page before spending a dollar
Sending paid clicks to a slow homepage is how ad budgets disappear. Before a campaign runs, the page it lands on has to load in about three seconds, say what you do on the first screen, and have a phone number that's a button. I'd usually rather fix that page first, even if it means the ads start a week later.
Set it up in your name
The ad account is yours, on your card, in your name. If you stop working with me, you keep the account, the history and the data. I never mark up your spend: money for Google goes to Google, money for Meta goes to Meta, and you pay me for the work of running it, not for the privilege of spending your own budget.
Start small and prove it
There's no reason to spend a thousand dollars finding out whether something works when two hundred will tell you. The first campaign is small, pointed at people within your real service area, on the two or three services or nights with real margin. Setup plus thirty days of management is $400.
Read the numbers, plainly
What it cost, what it produced, whether I'd keep doing it. If it isn't working, I say so and the campaign stops. If it is, I widen it a little. You get a report you can read, not a dashboard full of numbers nobody explains.
Ongoing, only if it earns it
Managed campaigns live inside the Local Growth plan at $1,097 a month and up. Plenty of businesses run one campaign a year, in season, and nothing the rest of the time. That's a fine way to do it.
Who this is for
Not one kind of business. I work with restaurants, shops, clinics, offices, venues, farms, churches and the trades, and the work bends to each one:
- A restaurant — a small budget on the two nights you're slow, pointed at people within ten miles.
- A boutique — Meta ads with real photos of new stock to people who already like shops like yours.
- A dentist or a clinic — search ads on the two or three services with real margin, sent to a page that books.
- A law office — expensive clicks, so the landing page has to be right before a dollar is spent.
- A venue — seasonal campaigns aimed at couples planning from Lexington, Louisville and Cincinnati.
- A contractor — storm-week search ads that turn on when the wind does and off when it stops.
The numbers, plainly
| 0% | Markup on your ad spend — money for Google goes to Google |
|---|---|
| $400 | Campaign setup plus 30 days of management — published price |
| 100% | Your ad account, in your name, on your card |
Say you run a restaurant that's dead on Tuesdays
Weekends take care of themselves. Tuesday and Wednesday, the dining room is half empty and the staff is standing around. Here's a campaign that costs less than the food you're throwing out.
First, the landing page: a single page that loads in three seconds, shows the Tuesday special with a real photo of the plate, the hours, and a phone number that dials. No homepage, no slideshow.
Social: the Meta campaign
Then a Meta campaign, because for a restaurant Facebook and Instagram are where the town looks at food: $6 to $8 a day, Monday afternoon through Wednesday evening only, aimed at people within ten miles who've eaten out in the last month. Real photo, three sentences, your voice.
Search: the Google campaign
Then a small Google search campaign on 'restaurants open Tuesday near me' and your cuisine plus the town, pointed at the same page.
Setup plus the first thirty days of management is $400 on the card; the ad money itself, maybe $150 a month at that pace, goes to Meta and Google with no markup.
After thirty days you get one page: what it cost, how many people tapped the number or the directions, and whether I'd keep it running. If Tuesday didn't move, the campaign stops. If it did, I don't widen it; I do the same thing on Wednesday.
What ads won't do
They won't fix a page that doesn't convert; they'll just send more people to it faster.
They stop the day you stop paying.
And for some businesses, a bakery with a line out the door, a landscaper booked through October, they're money spent on customers you'd have had anyway. I'll tell you if that's you.
Running ads for a small business in Kentucky
Ads work in Central Kentucky for one reason: the competition is thin and the clicks are cheap compared with a city. A plumber in Lexington or a roofer in Richmond can be on the first screen for a storm-week search for a few dollars a click.
They also waste money fast when the page they land on is slow or the number isn't a button, which is why I'll usually fix the page before I spend a dollar of yours.
Campaign setup plus thirty days of management is $400 on the pricing page; ongoing management lives in the monthly plans. Your ad money goes to Google or Meta with no markup, the account is in your name, and I'll tell you plainly when to spend and when to wait.
Bring me what you spend on advertising. I'll tell you what it's buying.
That's the standing offer, and it's the whole of the Blueprint Session for a lot of businesses: your current ad spend, your listing and your site on the table, and an honest answer about which of them is doing anything. Sometimes the answer is to turn the ads off. I've said that to people and they've stayed clients.
Where I work