Why "fixed" isn't the same as "found"
Search engines and AI tools pick from businesses they can read and that people already talk about. Your fixes take care of the first part. The second part comes from things a website can't do on its own:
- People searching your name. When people already know you, Google and AI tools see it.
- Reviews and mentions on Google, Facebook, Yelp and local sites.
- Fresh posts and videos that remind people you exist.
- Ads, when you want results faster than free posts can bring them.
An honest note. No one can promise you the top spot on Google, Maps or in AI answers, and anyone who does is guessing. Free marketing usually takes a few months to build up. Ads can bring calls within days, but only while you pay for them. Most small businesses do best with a mix of both.
The plan at a glance
Do these in order. Each step builds on the one before it. Steps 1 to 5 cost nothing but time.
- Write your message. One sentence that says who you help, with what, and where. Step 1
- Set up your free profiles. Google Business Profile first, then one or two social pages. Step 2
- Film short videos on your phone. Simple, real, 15 to 60 seconds. Step 3
- Post on a schedule you can keep. Two or three times a week beats ten times one week and then nothing. Step 4
- Ask every happy customer for a review. Step 5
- Keep in touch by email, with permission. Step 6
- Add paid ads with a small test budget once the basics are done. Step 7
- Check your numbers once a month and keep what works. Step 8
Write your message
Before you post anything, know what you want people to remember. Fill in this sentence:
"We help [who] with [what problem] in [your town or area], so they [the result they want]."
Example: "We help busy families in St. Albert keep their furnace running all winter, so they never wake up to a cold house."
Then write down:
- The 5 questions customers ask you most. Each one is a video, a post and a line on your website. These are also the questions people type into Google and ask AI tools.
- Why people pick you over the next business. Be specific: "same-day quotes", "20 years in Leduc", "we text you when we're on the way". Avoid empty words like "quality" and "best service".
- One simple next step you want people to take: call, book online, or send a message. Use the same one everywhere.
Use the same business name, phone number and area everywhere you post. Our audit checks this on your website; keep it the same on every profile too.
Set up your free profiles
You don't need to be everywhere. Pick the places your customers already are, and do them well. For most local businesses, start here:
| Platform | Best for | Start with |
|---|---|---|
| Google Business Profile Must have | Showing up on Google Maps and in "near me" searches. Calls and direction requests come straight from it. | Claim it at google.com/business, add your hours, services, photos and service area. |
| Facebook Page | Local word of mouth, community groups, reviews and Meta ads. Many adults over 35 still look businesses up here. | A business Page (not a personal profile) with the same name, phone and hours. |
| Anything visual: food, beauty, renovations, fitness, events, before-and-after. | A professional account linked to your Facebook Page so one ad account covers both. | |
| YouTube | How-to and "what to expect" videos. They keep showing up in Google for years. | Short videos (Shorts) first; longer how-tos later. |
| TikTok | Reaching younger customers and people who don't follow you yet. | Repost the same vertical videos you make for Reels and Shorts. |
| Selling to other businesses (B2B), hiring, and showing who runs the company. | A company page plus the owner's own profile. | |
| Yelp, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect | Being listed where other apps and AI tools look things up. | Claim each listing once and keep your details the same. |
Rule of thumb: Google Business Profile plus two other platforms is plenty for a small team. A profile you post on every week beats five you forgot about.
Not sure your Google Business Profile is set up right? See how Google Maps ranking works and the Google Business Profile fix guide.
Make short videos on your phone
Short vertical videos are what Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok show the most to people who don't follow you yet. You don't need a camera crew. Your phone and 15 minutes are enough.
Videos that work for local businesses
Each idea below has an example of what to say. Swap in your own trade and town.
Answer a question
Take one of the 5 questions from Step 1 and answer it in under a minute.
"How much does it cost to replace a water heater in Edmonton? Here's what changes the price..."
Before and after
Show the problem, then the result. Works for cleaning, repairs, hair, landscaping, renos.
"This deck was grey and splintered. Two days later..."
Meet the team
People buy from people. Show who will show up at the door or answer the phone.
"Hi, I'm Sam. I've been fixing furnaces in Sherwood Park for 12 years..."
A day on the job
Ten seconds each from five moments of a real job. No talking needed, just captions.
Caption: "6:45 am, first call of the day in Spruce Grove."
One quick tip
Something useful people can do themselves. It builds trust, and they call you for the big jobs.
"Do this one thing before winter and your pipes won't freeze."
A common mistake
What people get wrong and what it costs them.
"Three mistakes people make when they hire a painter."
A customer's words
With their permission, film a happy customer or read their review out loud.
"Here's what Maria said after we redid her kitchen..."
What to expect
Walk through what happens when someone books you. It takes away the worry.
"First, we come out for a free quote. Here's what we check..."
A simple script for any video
- Hook (first 2 to 3 seconds): say the problem or the question. Skip "Hi everyone, welcome back".
- The useful part (10 to 40 seconds): the answer, the tip, or the before-and-after.
- One next step: "Call us at...", "Book on our website", or "Send us a message". Just one.
How to film it on your phone
- Hold the phone upright (vertical, 9:16). One vertical video works on Reels, Shorts, TikTok and Facebook.
- Face a window for soft, even light. Don't stand with a bright window behind you.
- Sound matters more than picture. Film somewhere quiet, stand close to the phone, or use a cheap clip-on mic (about $20 to $40 USD).
- Wipe the lens and use the back camera when you can. It's sharper.
- Add captions. Many people watch with the sound off. Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and free editing apps such as CapCut can add them for you. Check the spelling before you post.
- Keep it short. 15 to 60 seconds is a good target for most videos.
- Film a batch. Set aside one hour a week to film 4 or 5 videos, then post them over the next two weeks.
- Get permission before you film customers, their homes, their kids or their car plates.
Don't wait for perfect. Real, a bit rough and helpful usually does better for a local business than polished and salesy. Your tenth video will be much better than your first, so make the first one this week.
Stuck on what to write under the video? Our Social Post Writer drafts captions for you.
Where to post and how often
Make each video once and share it in several places. Here's a simple weekly rhythm a busy owner can keep:
| When | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | A short video (tip or question answered) | Instagram Reels and Facebook, YouTube Shorts, TikTok |
| Wednesday | Photos of a recent job, or an update or offer | Google Business Profile, Facebook |
| Friday | Another short video (before-and-after, team, or customer) | Same as Monday |
| Every day, 10 minutes | Reply to comments, messages and reviews | Everywhere you posted |
| Once a month | Turn your best video into a page or post on your website | Your website |
Tips for each place
- Google Business Profile: add new photos and a post every week or two. Pick the right main category and list each service. Answer every review.
- Facebook: share helpful posts in local community groups when the group rules allow it. Be a neighbour first. Don't just drop ads.
- Instagram and TikTok: name your town in the caption and use a few local hashtags (#yeg, #stalbert) plus your trade.
- YouTube: write the title the way people search: "How much does a new roof cost in Edmonton?"
- Your website: add your best videos to the page they help most, for example the "how much does it cost" video on your pricing page.
Platforms change what they show often. If one place gets you nothing after two or three months of steady posting, put that time into another.
Ask for reviews and referrals
Reviews are one of the few things that help with Google Maps, AI tools and customers making up their minds, all at once.
- Ask every customer, right after a job goes well. Send your Google review link by text or email the same day.
- Make it easy: "Would you mind leaving us a quick Google review? It really helps a small business like ours. Here's the link."
- Reply to every review, good or bad, politely and within a few days.
- Ask for referrals: "If you know anyone else who needs this, we'd be grateful if you passed our name along."
Never buy reviews, pay or give discounts for them, write them yourself, or ask only the happy customers to review you on Google. These break Google's rules and can get reviews removed or your profile restricted. Yelp asks businesses not to request reviews at all.
Keep in touch by email
Social media can change overnight. Your email list is yours. A short email every month or two brings back past customers, who are often the easiest people to sell to.
- Collect emails with a simple sign-up on your website and at checkout.
- Send something useful: a seasonal reminder, a tip, a new service, or your newest video.
- Free plans from email tools are usually enough to start.
In Canada, email marketing must follow the anti-spam law (CASL). You need permission, your business details, and an easy way to unsubscribe in every email. Check your forms and emails with our free CASL checker.
Paid ads and budgets
Ads put you in front of people now, instead of waiting months. Start them after Steps 1 to 5. Ads send people to your website and profiles, so those need to be ready to turn visitors into calls.
Google ads or Facebook and Instagram ads?
| Google Search ads | Meta ads (Facebook and Instagram) | |
|---|---|---|
| Who sees them | People already searching for what you do ("plumber near me"). | People who match the area and interests you pick, while they scroll. |
| Best for | Urgent needs and ready-to-buy customers: repairs, emergencies, appointments. | Getting known, offers, events, anything that looks good in a photo or video. |
| How you pay | Mostly per click. | Mostly per 1,000 times your ad is shown, or per result you choose. |
| Cost per click | Usually higher. The average across all industries was about $5.42 USD per click, and more for trades like home services.1 | Usually lower. The median for traffic ads was about $0.70 USD per click.2 |
Those are averages from large ad agencies' customer data, mostly in the US. Your costs depend on your trade, your town and your competition, so use them to sense-check your results, not as a promise.
Starting budgets
There's no minimum to start. Think of the first month as a test you can afford to lose, not as an investment that must pay back right away. A sensible starting point for a small local business:
Google Search
$10 to $20 USD a day (about $300 to $600 a month) for 30 days. A handful of keywords for your main service and your town only.
Facebook and Instagram
$5 to $15 USD a day (about $150 to $450 a month) for 2 to 4 weeks. Start by boosting a post or video that already did well without ads.
Check the budget with simple math
Work backwards from how many new customers you want. Here's an example using the averages above:
$15 a day × 30 days = $450 a month
$450 ÷ $5.42 per click ≈ 83 clicks
If about 8 in 100 visitors call or fill in a form,1 that's about 6 or 7 leads
If you win 1 in 3 leads, that's about 2 new customers.
Is one new customer worth more than $225 to you? Then the test is worth running. If a customer is only worth $50, Search ads may not pay, and free posts or Meta ads may be a better start.
Rules that save you money
- Set your area tightly. Only the towns or the radius you actually serve.
- Track calls and forms before you spend. Otherwise you can't tell if the ads work. Google Ads and Meta both have free ways to do this, and a developer can set it up in an hour or two.
- Google can spend up to twice your daily budget on a busy day, but over a month it won't charge more than about 30.4 times your daily budget.3 Plan for the monthly number.
- Give Meta time to learn. Meta says an ad set usually needs about 50 results in a week before its delivery settles. On a small budget it may stay "learning limited". That's fine for a local business; judge it by cost per result instead.4
- Don't change ads every day. Big edits restart the learning. Wait at least a week between changes.
- Send people to the right page: the page for that service, not your homepage.
- Stop or change what doesn't work after 30 days. Move the money to what does.
- Housing, jobs or loans? Meta limits targeting for these ad types (Special Ad Categories). Read the rules before you start.
Home service business? Google's Local Services Ads (the "Google Screened" and "Google Guaranteed" listings) charge per lead, not per click. They're only open to some trades in some cities, so check whether yours qualifies at ads.google.com/local-services-ads.
When to spend more: once the test brings customers at a cost you're happy with, raise the budget by about 20% at a time, a week or two apart, and keep watching your cost per lead.
Read your numbers once a month
Marketing gets better when you keep what works and drop what doesn't. Set a reminder for the first Monday of each month and spend 20 minutes on these:
- Google Business Profile: calls, website clicks and direction requests.
- Google Search Console: what people searched to find your website.
- Google Analytics (GA4): where your visitors came from and whether they got in touch.
- Google Ads and Meta Ads: what each new lead or customer cost.
Our second guide explains each number in plain words and what to do when it's high or low.
Rather have someone do it for you?
Running a business leaves little time for videos and ad dashboards. We run local marketing for small businesses in Edmonton and nearby towns: your Google profile, posts, short videos, reviews and ads, with a plain-English report every month.
| Package | Price (USD) | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Local Starter | $399 a month | Staying active on Google and social, no ads yet |
| Growth | $899 a month | Adding ads on one platform and short videos |
| Full Service | $1,599 a month | Google and Meta ads, local SEO, video and social, all handled |
Ad budget is separate and paid straight to Google or Meta.
Sources
Checked November 2026. Ad costs and platform rules change, so check them again before you plan a big spend.
- LocaliQ and WordStream, Search advertising benchmarks, 2026 edition (all-industry average cost per click $5.42, conversion rate 8.18%, cost per lead $66.69). localiq.com
- WordStream, Facebook ads benchmarks 2025 (median cost per click $0.70 for traffic campaigns; $27.66 cost per lead for lead campaigns; US campaigns, April 2024 to June 2025). wordstream.com
- Google Ads Help, "Why daily costs might exceed your average daily budget". support.google.com
- Meta Business Help Center, "About the learning phase". facebook.com/business/help
- Google Business Profile Help, review policy (no incentives, no selective asking). support.google.com
Fix first, then market
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