Google Ads & Local Service Ads
SEO compounds. Ads work Tuesday. Most contractors need both, and the expensive mistake is treating them as the same thing.
The plan
What ninety days looks like
The shape of the engagement, not a forecast. Every milestone is dated and checkable.
The short version
Two different products that sit in the same place on the screen.
Local Service Ads sit at the very top, above everything, with a Google Guaranteed badge. You pay per lead rather than per click, and you have to be verified first, background check, license, insurance. That verification is slow, which is why it gets started in week one of the sprint rather than month two.
Search ads sit below the LSAs. You pay per click, you get far more control over what you show up for and what you say, and they cover a lot of searches that LSAs simply do not.
Ads are also how you find out what your SEO should target. Thirty days of real conversion data tells us which job types convert, then we build the organic pages for those.
Included in every engagement
- Local Service Ads setup, and the Google Guaranteed verification handled for you
- Search campaigns structured by job type, not by a bag of keywords
- Aggressive negative keyword lists so you stop paying for “how to,” “DIY,” “salary” and “jobs”
- Conversion tracking on calls over sixty seconds and on form submissions
- Call recording reviewed. I listen to what happened on the leads you paid for
- Landing pages that match the ad, instead of dumping every click on the homepage
- Bid and budget management, adjusted weekly rather than set and forgotten
What gets done
How the ads get run
The account is yours, your card is on it, and you pay Google directly. I charge a flat management fee on top and never take a percentage of spend.
- Local Service Ads setup, and the Google Guaranteed verification handled for you
- Search campaigns structured by job type, not by a bag of keywords
- Aggressive negative keyword lists so you stop paying for “how to,” “DIY,” “salary” and “jobs”
- Conversion tracking on calls over sixty seconds and on form submissions
- Call recording reviewed. I listen to what happened on the leads you paid for
- Landing pages that match the ad, instead of dumping every click on the homepage
- Bid and budget management, adjusted weekly rather than set and forgotten
- Seasonal budget pacing built around the North Dakota calendar
- Geographic targeting tuned to where the profitable jobs are
- Ad copy tested continuously against your real offers and differentiators
- Monthly reporting on cost per lead and cost per booked job, not cost per click
- Flat management fee, disclosed up front, never a cut of your spend
How it runs
The order matters more than the list
Week 3
Structure
Campaigns built around your highest-margin job types, with the negative keyword lists in place before a single dollar is spent.
Week 4
Launch
Ads live with conversion tracking already working. Spending money without tracking is how contractors lose thousands and learn nothing.
Days 31–60
Cut
Thirty days of real data. Kill what did not convert, move budget to what did. This is where most of the gains come from.
Days 61–90
Scale
Raise budget on what is producing booked jobs, expand into adjacent job types, and pace for the coming season.
Here specifically
Your ad dollar goes considerably further here than in a metro.
Cost per click in a market of 137,000 people is a fraction of what the same keyword costs in Minneapolis or Denver. A budget that would be invisible in a large metro can put you in a dominant position in Bismarck-Mandan. That is one of the real structural advantages of operating here, and most local contractors never take advantage of it.
The flip side is seasonality, which is brutal and has to be planned for rather than discovered. Spending the same monthly budget in January that you spend in June is how contractors conclude that “Google Ads do not work.” Budget follows demand: heavy in the shoulder weeks when homeowners are deciding, restrained when nobody is searching, and aggressive the moment a storm or a hard freeze changes the picture overnight.
Where this applies
Bismarck, Mandan and Lincoln search differently and rank differently. Each gets its own page and its own plan.
Straight answers
Common questions
How much should I budget?
It depends entirely on your trade and your average job value, an emergency plumbing lead and a $30,000 exterior job justify very different numbers. I will give you a real figure on the call after looking at what your actual competitors are paying. What I will not do is quote a number before I have looked.
Why a flat fee instead of a percentage?
Because a percentage means I get paid more when I spend more of your money, and you would be right to distrust every recommendation I made after that. A flat fee means when I tell you to cut spend, you can believe me.
Do you mark up my ad spend?
No. You pay Google directly, on your own card, in your own account. I never touch it. If an agency is billing you a single combined number for spend plus management, ask them to break it out.
LSAs or regular search ads?
For emergency trades — HVAC, plumbing, electrical, LSAs are usually the first priority, because the Google Guaranteed badge sits above everything and homeowners in a panic tap it. For considered purchases like exteriors or remodeling, search ads with a proper landing page usually do better. Most contractors end up running both.
Who owns the ad account?
You do. It is created under your business, with your billing, and you keep full admin access the entire time. If we stop working together you keep the account and all of its history, which has real value, because a Google Ads account with performance history performs better than a fresh one.
The rest of the stack
Everything works together, or none of it works.
A great site with an unoptimized Google profile is a great site nobody finds. These are sold as one system for a reason.
Find out where you stand.
Apply for a free market audit and I’ll record a walkthrough of your Google presence against your top three competitors in Bismarck-Mandan. Ten minutes, yours to keep, no obligation.