Facebook & Instagram Ads That Actually Sell

Yes, in the right verticals. Demand-creation services do well: remodeling, roof replacement, pool service, cheer gym enrollment, equipment rental, web design, home improvement. What these share is a customer who is not actively searching yet but can be moved by seeing the right thing at the right moment. Pure emergency services — 24/7 plumbing, locksmith — are better served by Google Ads and Local Service Ads, because someone with a burst pipe is not scrolling a feed, they are searching, and you want to be there when they do. We tell you which side of that line your business sits on before you spend a dollar, including when the answer is that Meta is not the right channel for you. It is a cheaper conversation than a wasted quarter.

$1,500/month in ad spend. Below that, Meta's algorithm can't exit learning phase on enough ad sets to find winners. Most local service clients spend $2k-$6k/month on Meta.

We script, direct, and edit. For video we either work with footage you shoot on your phone, using a shot list we provide so you are not guessing at what to capture, or we coordinate a local shoot. Phone footage works better than most owners expect — for local service audiences, a real person on a real job site outperforms polished production consistently. We do not use stock unless it is a deliberate design choice, because local-service audiences see through it instantly and it quietly signals that the business could be anywhere. Creative is also where most of the performance difference lives on Meta. Targeting matters far less than it used to; the algorithm finds the audience if the creative earns attention. So that is where the effort goes.

First leads usually arrive within two weeks of launch. Cost per lead stabilizes around day 21 to 28, once the algorithm has exited the learning phase and stopped exploring. That learning period is real and worth understanding, because the numbers during it are not representative — cost per lead often looks alarming in week one and settles substantially by week four. Judging a campaign before it stabilizes is the most common way local businesses kill something that was about to work. By 60 to 90 days there is enough data to identify which creative and which audiences are carrying the results, and budget concentrates there. That is also the point where the account starts compounding rather than just running, because every additional conversion sharpens what comes next.

It depends on the vertical, and the deciding question is whether your customer is already looking. High-intent demand fulfillment — someone with an urgent problem searching for a solution — points to Google Ads first. Demand creation, or anything with a longer consideration window like remodeling or enrollment, points to Meta first. Many clients eventually run both, because they do different jobs: Google captures active intent while Meta creates it and retargets the people who did not convert the first time. The sequencing matters more than the split. Starting with Meta in an emergency-service vertical wastes money on people who will never need you, and starting with Google in a demand-creation vertical caps you at the small number already searching. See our full breakdown of Google Ads vs. Meta Ads for local businesses.

Instagram yes — it's part of the Meta ecosystem and we run placements across Facebook, Instagram, Reels, and Stories. TikTok is a separate platform we don't currently manage, because we'd rather be excellent on one platform than mediocre on three.

You do. We build in your Business Manager, with your billing, your Pixel, your creative. If we ever part ways, the account, Pixel data, lookalikes, and creative library all stay with you.