Advertising campaigns
Advertising costs money. No advertising costs jobs.
Google Ads and Meta Ads, for years – with campaigns that ran and with ones I had to switch off. What both cost, I tell you beforehand.
- Google Ads and Meta Ads, not a bit of everything
- Your advertising account belongs to you
- No revenue promises – no honest person makes them
- 3 months minimum term, then 3 months at a time
One to look at
What a search looks like today
Somebody with a broken window types this in. Pay less attention to the results than to where the screen ends.
Nachgestellte Trefferliste als Beispiel. Die genannten Betriebe gibt es nicht.
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Sponsored
Broken window? Emergency service Graz – on site today
glaserei-sofort.at/emergency
Reachable around the clock. Fixed price in advance, call-out within the city included.
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Sponsored
Window repair Graz – book an appointment online
fensterprofi-steiermark.at
Slots free this week. Free inspection before the quote.
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Glaziers in Graz – trade directory
branchenbuch.example/graz/glaserei
38 entries in and around Graz, sorted by rating.
- This is as far as you see on a phone without scrolling
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Repairing windows yourself – a guide
heimwerkerforum.example/thema/fenster
Discussion with 47 posts. What you can do yourself and what you cannot.
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Window construction & repair – Tischlerei Mayr
tischlerei-mayr.example
In Graz since 1974. Windows, doors, repairs.
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Position 6 – that would be you
Your business – windows, glass and repairs
your-business.at
Your site is good. It just sits where it sits – and nobody sees that any more today.
Nachgestelltes Beispiel. Die genannten Betriebe gibt es nicht – es geht um die Reihenfolge, nicht um eine Empfehlung.
The first two places are bought
Not earned, not gamed – paid for. Whoever sits there pays for every click, whether it turns into a job or not. It is a marketplace, not a ranking.
And then the screen ends
On a phone you see two ads and half a result without scrolling. Whoever is in sixth place is not “a bit further down” – for most people they are simply not there.
This is the point where “it does nothing” tips over
The phrase comes from a time when there was nothing above the results. Today the first three centimetres of screen decide – and two of them are for rent.
Advertising does not replace your ranking
It comes on top. Whoever has an ad at the top and sits organically further down gets seen twice. Which is why SEO is not the opposite of advertising but the foundation that makes it cheaper.
The honest comparison
What a website manages without advertising – and what with
Both work, and both have a limit. Anyone showing you only one of the two columns is selling you something right now.
Without advertising
You get found – by the people already searching.
- Anyone who types your exact service and scrolls far enough finds you. That costs you nothing per visitor.
- It keeps running around the clock, on holiday too, and when there is no money about.
- It gets better over time instead of more expensive. A page in third place is there next Tuesday as well.
- Existing customers and referrals find you immediately – your name is enough for that.
Honestly: the volume is capped. As many people search for your service each month as happen to search – you cannot get more out of it than that. You cannot turn it up when a job falls through. And people who do not yet know they need you, you do not reach at all.
With advertising
You are at the top – from the day you decide.
- You are above the results, above competitors who have been better placed for years.
- You can turn it up and turn it down. Order book full? Off. Quiet February? On.
- On Meta you reach people who were not searching at all – by place, age, interest. No SEO can do that.
- You see figures after two weeks. Not after two months, as otherwise.
Honestly: you pay per click, including for the ones that come to nothing. The day you stop, you are gone. The first weeks cost money and mainly deliver insight. And if your website does not convince people, advertising burns your budget faster – it only sends more people to a page that does not work.
The other prejudice
“Anyone can run ads”
True. Setting up an account and spending money takes twenty minutes – Google and Meta make it deliberately easy. What comes after that is the hard part.
Which words you bid on
Bid on “window” and you pay for everyone looking for a window cleaner, buying a window sticker or writing a school essay. The craft is in the exclusions, not in the keywords.
What the default settings do
New accounts run by default with settings that are good for the platform, not for you. That is not fraud, it is their business model – you just have to know it.
How you measure success
Clicks are not customers. Without measurement set up you only see that money is gone – not which ad brought you the job and which one ate the budget.
When to step in and when not to
Changing things after three days is the most common mistake. The systems need data before they learn. Fiddle daily and you keep them permanently at the start.
What happens when the account is suspended
It happens more often than you would think, often for no visible reason and usually automatically. Without experience of the appeals process you stand still for days.
And the time
Two hours a month is little for a campaign and a lot for somebody running a business alongside. Usually it does not fail on ability but on nobody looking.
What I work with
Two platforms, not a bit of everything.
Google Ads and Meta Ads – so Facebook and Instagram. Both for years, both regularly. Everything else I pass on rather than doing it on the side.
- Google Ads for anyone who has a problem and searches for it. A broken window, a blocked drain, an employment lawyer. The intent is already there – you only have to be at the top.
- Meta Ads for everything nobody searches for. Courses, studios, shops, new offers. Here the intent is created first, and in return you can select by place, age and interest.
- Both together where it fits – but never because it sounds bigger. One channel that works beats two half ones.
If your business is local, the Google Business Profile usually belongs with it – that costs no click fees and still gets overlooked.
How it runs
From the first conversation to the first review
The most important step is the second – and it can mean we do not start at all.
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We talk about your business, not about ads
What is a job worth to you, how many more could you handle, and where do your customers come from today? Without those three answers you cannot set a budget, only guess at one.
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I look at your website
Advertising sends people to your site. If that does not convince them, you pay for visits that come to nothing. If something is in the way, I tell you beforehand – even when that means no campaign comes of it for now.
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Measurement, before an ad runs
Calls, forms, appointment requests – everything gets counted before the first euro flows. Start without measurement and all you can do later is assert.
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Start small
Few ads, a tight area, a clear budget. The first weeks are tuition fees – that is normal, and it should be a small amount.
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Let it run for four weeks
Without fiddling daily. Everyone finds that hard, me too. But before then nobody knows whether a campaign is bad or still learning.
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Review – and decide honestly
What did it cost, what did it bring? If it pays off, we turn it up. If not, I say so and we stop. I earn from the management, not from your advertising budget – which is why I can say that.
What it costs
Two amounts, and only one of them comes to me
This is the point at which most offers get vague. Here both pots are shown separately.
Goes to Google and Meta
your budget / month
You pay that directly to the platform, with your own card, in your own account. It never goes through my invoice, and I add nothing to it. How high it should be we decide together – better to start small and turn it up if it holds.
Goes to me
from € 590
Setup, measurement, ongoing management and a report you can understand. Three months minimum term, then three months at a time. The amount does not depend on your budget – otherwise I would have a reason to advise you to spend more. If there is no advertising account yet, the setup is added once at € 390.
Why there is no worked example here
Because it would be made up. “500 euros becomes 5,000” can be written down for any sector and kept for none. What a click costs depends on your trade, your area and how many competitors are bidding at the time – for some trades it is cents, for lawyers and insurers double-digit amounts.
What I do instead: in the first conversation we do the sums with your figures. What is a job worth to you, and how many would you need for it to pay off? If something comes out of that which does not add up, I tell you there – and not after three months of management.
Frequent questions
What I get asked most often about advertising
It brings visibility in a place you cannot otherwise reach: above the results, including ahead of competitors better placed for years. Whether that turns into jobs is decided by your website – not by the ad.
The phrase “it does nothing” usually comes from an attempt without measurement. If you do not count how many calls came from an ad, all you notice is that money is gone. Which is why with me measurement comes first and ads second.
Setting it up and spending money: yes, in twenty minutes. Google and Meta make that deliberately easy.
The rest is the hard part – which words you do NOT want to bid on, which default settings serve the platform rather than you, and when to keep your hands still. If you want to do it yourself, talk to me once anyway: an hour of setup often saves more than it costs. That is expressly an offer, not a sales trick.
The honest answer: that depends on your trade and your area. For some trades a click costs cents, for lawyers and insurers double-digit amounts – so the same sum lasts for a hundred visitors in one case and fifteen in the other.
Which is why in the first conversation we do the sums with your figures rather than my examples. As a rule: better to start small, let it run four weeks and then decide whether to turn it up.
That depends on whether your customers are looking for you or do not know you exist.
Google fits when somebody has a problem and types it: a broken window, a blocked drain, an accountant. The intent is already there. Meta fits for everything nobody searches for: new courses, a studio, a shop, an offer you have to see first. There the intent gets created, and in return you can select by place, age and interest.
You do. I work with a permission in your account that you can revoke at any time – as with Search Console and with your domain.
That matters more than it sounds: your account holds the learning history of your campaigns. Leave the account with an agency and switch later, and you start from zero and pay the tuition fees a second time.
Then I tell you. After four weeks there are enough figures to see whether it pays off – and if it does not, we stop.
I earn from the management, not from your advertising budget. So it costs me nothing to tell you that, and that is why you can believe me. The other way round: if your management fee were a percentage of the budget, I would have a reason to advise you to spend more. Which is exactly why it is not.
Yes, more than ever. Advertising and ranking are not alternatives, they sit on the same page one below the other.
There is a solid reason too: Google rates how well your landing page matches the ad, and makes the click cheaper when it is good. A properly built page therefore lowers your advertising costs. More on that under SEO visibility.
Let us run the numbers with your figures.
Half an hour, free: what is a job worth to you, how many would you need, and what could one be allowed to cost? At the end you know whether advertising pays off for you. And if it does not, I will say so just as plainly.