Paid Ads: Google, Social, Video and AI Advertising
SEO builds long-term visibility. Paid advertising gets you in front of customers today, while that’s still building. For businesses that are serious about growth — not just dabbling — the two need to work together, not compete for the same budget in isolation. We run paid advertising across the platforms that actually move the needle for local and multi-location businesses: Google Ads, Local Services Ads, social media advertising, video advertising, and increasingly, advertising placements within AI-powered search experiences.
Google Ads and Local Services Ads
Google search ads put you at the very top of results for the exact searches your customers are already making — valuable, but expensive if the targeting, keywords, and landing pages aren’t tightly managed. Local Services Ads work differently: for trades and services businesses, they put you in a “Google Guaranteed” or “Google Screened” position with pay-per-lead pricing rather than pay-per-click, which for the right business type is often the more cost-effective route in. We manage both, and we’ll tell you honestly which fits your business rather than defaulting to whichever earns us more.
Social media advertising
Facebook, Instagram and increasingly TikTok advertising work well for businesses that need to build awareness or target people before they’ve started actively searching — a different job to Google Ads, which catches people already looking. We build campaigns around your actual customer base rather than broad, wasteful targeting, with creative that stops the scroll instead of blending into it.
Video advertising
Video consistently outperforms static image ads for engagement and trust — seeing a real person or a real job in progress does more to convince a prospective customer than any amount of written copy. We produce and place short, direct video ads across YouTube, social platforms, and display networks, built to work on mobile with sound off, since that’s how most people actually watch.
Advertising in AI search
As AI-powered search experiences mature, advertising placements within them are starting to emerge. We keep a close eye on this so our clients aren’t the last ones in when it becomes mainstream — in the meantime, the strongest preparation is exactly the kind of structured, citable presence we build under AI SEO (GEO).
As Geoff, our founder, says: “Our customers tell us Semlocal is the best local SEO company they’ve ever spoken to, and when they’ve compared us against other agencies, we’re often both the cheapest and the best value. With paid ads specifically, the businesses who come to us are usually the ones who’ve been burned before by an agency that just spent their budget without ever explaining where it actually went.”
Paid ads and organic SEO, working together
The businesses who get the best return treat paid ads and SEO as one strategy, not two separate budgets. Ads fill the gap while organic rankings and your Google Business Profile build up, and the data from your ad campaigns — which keywords actually convert, which locations perform best — directly informs where we focus SEO effort too.
Not sure how much budget to put where? Our marketing consulting service gives you an honest, numbers-based view before you commit any spend.
Getting your tracking right first
Before we spend a penny of ad budget, we make sure call tracking and conversion tracking are actually set up properly. It sounds basic, but it’s the single most common thing we find broken or missing when we take over an account — businesses who’ve been running ads for months with no real idea which campaigns, keywords, or even which phone number actually generated a paying customer. Fixing that first means every pound after it is spent with real evidence behind it, not guesswork.
Frequently asked questions
How much should I spend on paid ads as a small business?
It depends entirely on your market, margins, and how competitive your industry is for ad space. We build budgets around a target cost-per-lead that actually works for your business, rather than an arbitrary monthly figure, and adjust as real campaign data comes in.
Are Local Services Ads better than Google Ads for trades businesses?
Often, yes, for the right trades — the pay-per-lead model and Google Guaranteed badge tend to convert well and reduce wasted spend on clicks that never become customers. It isn’t universal though, and for some services, well-targeted Google Ads still perform better. We assess this per business rather than assuming.
Do I need video ads if I already do social media advertising?
Not necessarily, but video consistently outperforms static ads on engagement, so it’s usually worth testing alongside your existing social campaigns rather than as a replacement for them.
