Meta Ads for local businesses, measured in enquiries, not likes.
SEO compounds, but it takes months. Sometimes a business needs the phone ringing this week, a new opening, a quiet season, a service you want to test demand for. That's what Facebook and Instagram ads are for, and done properly for a local business they're one of the cheapest ways to buy attention in your exact postcode.
I manage Meta Ads the same way I do SEO: personally, transparently, and measured on the number that matters, what an enquiry costs you. Not reach, not impressions, not “engagement”. Every campaign gets proper tracking wired in first, so we both know exactly what your ad spend is buying.
What managed Meta Ads includes
Tracking before spending
Pixel, conversions API, and event setup done first, before a pound of ad budget moves. If we can't measure an enquiry, we don't buy one. Most wasted ad spend I've seen traces back to skipping this step.
Audience & offer research
Who we're targeting, in which postcodes, with what offer. For local businesses the geography and the offer matter far more than clever targeting tricks, so that's where the thinking goes.
Creative & copy testing
Ad copy written for your customer, images and formats tested against each other, and losers switched off quickly. Small budgets can't afford sentimental attachment to an ad that isn't working.
Landing pages that convert
Sending paid traffic to a slow homepage wastes most of it. Where it helps, I build a dedicated landing page for the campaign, fast, focused, and matched to the ad.
Weekly optimisation
Budgets shifted to what's working, bids and audiences adjusted, fatigue caught early. Set-and-forget is how ad accounts quietly burn money, yours gets looked at every week, by me.
One honest monthly report
Spend, enquiries, cost per enquiry, and what changes next month. If the ads aren't paying for themselves, the report says so, and if they're the wrong tool for your business, I'll recommend stopping.
Management fee, plus your ad spend
Ad spend is separate and paid by you directly to Meta from your own ad account, so you always own the account, the data and the audiences. The figures below are the management fee only. No contracts. Cancel any time.
Minimum ad spend applies
Each tier carries a minimum monthly ad spend, because below a certain budget there is not enough data to optimise against and you are paying a management fee to watch noise. The minimums are on the cards. If your budget sits under £400 a month, say so and I will tell you honestly that ads are not the right spend yet.
A first campaign with tracking built properly from the start.
Ad spend is separate and paid directly to Meta.
Book a callRetargeting and real testing, once there is enough budget to learn from.
Ad spend is separate and paid directly to Meta.
Book a callFull funnel, cold through to retargeting, with a page built for the campaign.
Ad spend is separate and paid directly to Meta.
Book a callPaid by you directly to Meta from your own account. It never passes through me, and it is never included in the fee above.
Above £5,000 monthly ad spend, management moves to 15% of spend. At that level a flat fee stops reflecting the work involved.
Included creatives are static unless quoted otherwise. You supply photography and video footage, and I will tell you exactly what to shoot.
Ads and SEO work best together
Ads buy attention now. SEO earns it permanently. Clients often run ads while the SEO compounds, then dial spend down as organic enquiries take over. Because one person runs both, the keyword data, ad results and landing pages all feed each other, something split vendors never quite manage.
Falak Almurjan
A 50 page website, built and launched by me. Since then I have run the whole channel mix for them: SEO, Google Business Profile, social media across Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, and the Meta Ads. Every part of it sits with one person, which is why the ad creative, the landing pages and the search work all say the same thing.
This is the account the cost per enquiry framing above comes from. It is one client, not a portfolio of ad accounts, and I would rather say that plainly than imply a roster I do not have.
See the portfolioMeta Ads, asked honestly
How much should a local business spend on Meta Ads?
The minimum on the Launch tier is £400 a month of ad spend, and for most London local businesses starting out that is roughly the right number: enough to gather real data without betting the marketing budget. Growth assumes £1,000 and Scale £2,500. I will recommend a figure based on your margins and what an enquiry is worth to you, and I would rather start small and scale what works.
How quickly do Meta Ads produce enquiries?
Days, not months, that's their advantage over SEO. Expect the first two to three weeks to be a learning period while we test audiences and creative, with cost per enquiry improving from there. If nothing is working after a fair test, I'll say so plainly rather than ask for 'more time to optimise'.
Do I need a big following or fancy videos?
No. Local response campaigns run to people who've never heard of you, and simple, honest creative, a real photo, a clear offer, a plain sentence, routinely beats polished agency ads for local businesses. Good photos of your actual work help; I'll tell you exactly what to take on your phone.
Who owns the ad account and the data?
You do. Campaigns run from your own Meta ad account with your payment method, and I work in it with partner access. If we stop working together, every audience, pixel and result stays yours, no hostage situations.
Ads or SEO: which should I do first?
If you need enquiries this month, ads. If you're building something durable, SEO. If you can afford both, they compound: ads generate immediate data on which offers convert, and that feeds directly into what we optimise the website for. The free audit will tell you honestly where your money goes furthest first.