What does Google Ads management include?
Strategy, keyword and competitor research, campaign builds across Search, Performance Max, YouTube, and Local Services Ads, landing pages, conversion and call tracking, weekly optimization, and monthly reporting tied to revenue. Your retainer covers the work. Ad spend is separate, billed directly to Google with no markup, and you own the account.
Does Google Ads work for small local businesses?
Yes, when three things are true: your budget can buy enough clicks to produce real data, your landing page and booking flow can convert the click, and someone follows up with leads fast. When one of those is missing, Google Ads burns money, which is why we audit all three before launch. If your category math does not work, we will tell you instead of taking the retainer.
How much does Google Ads management cost?
Our retainers start at $3,500 a month. Ad spend is on top of that and goes straight to Google with zero markup, so you always know exactly what the media costs versus what the management costs. Start with a free Growth Check on a call. For a specific number built from your own accounts, the Audit and Game Plan is $1,500.
What ad budget do I need?
It depends on what a lead costs in your category. LocaliQ's 2026 benchmarks put the cross industry average at $66.69 per lead, and healthcare specialties range from about $19 for dermatology to $141 for mental health. As working guidance, most local service businesses need $2,000 to $5,000 a month in spend for a real signal, and competitive healthcare categories often need $5,000 to $15,000. Costs vary by market, so a dense metro runs higher than a smaller one. We show you the exact math in the audit.
Can I just run Google Ads myself?
You can, and at very small budgets you probably should start simple, for example with Local Services Ads. Where DIY accounts go wrong is predictable: broad match defaults, auto applied recommendations, no negative keywords, and no conversion tracking, all of which quietly increase spend. Google's interface is built by the party that profits from your budget. If you are spending more than a couple thousand a month, professional management usually pays for itself in waste removed.
How long until I see results?
Search ads can produce leads in the first week because you are capturing people already looking. But one good week is not a trend. Expect about 90 days for a signal you can trust and around six months for compounding results as conversion data accumulates and Google's bidding gets smarter about who becomes a customer. Anyone promising a reliable read in two weeks is selling you a guess.
Can you advertise addiction treatment or behavioral health on Google?
Yes. Google requires LegitScript certification for addiction treatment advertisers, and the application takes real preparation, so start weeks before you want to launch. We have operated treatment centers ourselves, including Fresh Start Detox and SoCal Mental Health, so we know the certification process, the ad policy limits, and the HIPAA side of tracking from the inside. Leads in this category are expensive, so the account has to be tight.
Should my home services or construction company use Local Services Ads?
Usually yes, and often before regular search ads. LSAs put the Google Guaranteed badge at the very top of results and you pay per lead, not per click, which caps your downside. Rank depends heavily on reviews and how fast you answer calls, so we manage both. LSA volume has a ceiling, though, so once it is maxed out we layer search campaigns on top to capture the rest of the demand.
Who owns the Google Ads account, me or the agency?
You do. The account is created in your name with your billing on it, and we are linked to it as a manager, which you can remove at any time. That matters more than it sounds: your spend history, conversion data and everything the algorithm has learned stay with you if we part ways. Agencies that build the account inside their own manager keep all of it, and the next agency starts from zero.
What happens in the first 30 days?
Week one is access, tracking and an audit of what already exists, including whether your conversions are even recording correctly, which is one of the first things we check because it is so often wrong. Week two is the build: campaigns, keywords, negatives and the landing page. Week three the ads go live small and we read the data rather than guess. Week four is the first real optimisation pass and your first report. It is deliberately unglamorous. Spending hard before you know what converts is how budgets disappear.
What happens if Google disapproves my ads?
We expect it in regulated categories and plan for it. Disapprovals are usually per keyword or per ad rather than account-wide, so the fix is targeted. We published our own research on this: in one clinic account, inside a single ad group with the landing page and ad copy held identical, Google refused 2 keywords and passed the rest. A second, unrelated account returned the same policy refusal with no audience segments set on either. That means the page is often not the cause at all. We submit early, read each verdict, and work the list rather than guessing.
Do I need a new website before running Google Ads?
Usually no, and we will tell you when the answer is yes rather than sell you a rebuild. A single focused landing page is faster and cheaper than a full site, and often converts better because it has one job. You genuinely need a rebuild when the site is not usable on a phone, there is no way to book or call, or tracking cannot be installed. Short of that, the site is rarely the thing holding the account back.
What do you need from me to get started?
Admin access to your Google Ads account or permission to create one in your name, access to your website or whoever manages it, your phone system or booking tool, and an honest answer about what a customer is worth to you. That last one is the only hard part, and without it nobody can tell whether the account is working.
Can you run Google Ads nationwide, or only in one city?
Nationwide. We are based in California and Google Ads places no geographic limit on where an account can run. What changes with scale is structure: national campaigns need tighter segmentation, more negative keywords and usually separate budgets by region, because a click costs very different amounts in different markets. One hard limit in regulated health: ads are targeted only where the business is actually licensed to treat, because advertising a clinical service into a state it is not licensed for is a serious risk to the account. We will ask about your licensing before we widen targeting.
What is a realistic cost per lead?
It depends entirely on category and competition, so be suspicious of anyone quoting a number before seeing your account. The honest frame is to work backwards: what is a customer worth, what share of leads do you close, and therefore what can you afford to pay for one. We would rather tell you the maths does not work for your category than take a retainer and spend six months proving it.
What happens if I want to leave?
Standard terms are a three month minimum, then month to month with 30 days notice, and no early termination fee. The three months exist because paid search genuinely needs that long to produce a readable result, not to trap you. When you do leave you remove our manager access and the account, its history and its data stay with you, because they were always yours. Where we set up analytics or Search Console on your behalf, those transfer to you too. No holding anything hostage and no rebuilding from scratch with the next agency. We would ask for an honest reason, because that is worth more to us than the retainer.
