Fazley Rabbi"Facebook ads bring us lots of 'price?' messages but few real bookings. People who need an AC repair or a dentist search on Google." For local service businesses, such as repair services, clinics, diagnostic centres, salons, tutors, lawyers, event services and interior work, Google Search catches people at the moment they are looking. The work is making sure your ad appears for the right searches, in the right area, and that the call or message is handled well when it comes.
Why search intent is different
On Facebook you interrupt people while they scroll. On Google, people tell you what they want, in their own words: "ac servicing near me", "child specialist doctor Mirpur", "laptop repair Natore". The words show how ready they are. Someone searching "how to fix AC water leak" may want to fix it themselves. Someone searching "AC repair home service" wants to hire someone today. Your job is to pay for the second kind of search, not the first.
Setting it up, step by step
- List the services and areas you really serve. Only advertise where you can respond quickly. A small area served well beats a large area served badly.
- Collect buying keywords. Service plus place, service plus "near me", service plus "price" or "cost", and urgent words such as "emergency", "same day" or "home service". Include the ways people actually type: English, Bangla and Banglish spellings. Google's keyword planning tool and your customers' own words both help.
- Group them tightly. One ad group per service, so the ad text matches the search.
- Use match types and negative keywords. Start with phrase and exact match for control. Add negative keywords for searches you do not want, such as "job", "training", "course", "free", "DIY" or cities you do not cover.
- Set location and schedule. Target only the areas you serve, and run ads during hours when someone can answer the phone.
- Write ads that match the search. Name the service and the area, say why someone can trust you (trained technicians, home visits, clear prices upfront), and give one clear action: call now, book a visit, or message on WhatsApp. Add your phone number and location to the ad where Google offers those options.
- Send clicks to a page made for that service, not your homepage. It should load fast on a phone and show the service, the area, a call button and a WhatsApp button. See landing pages for ads.
- Track calls, form submissions and WhatsApp clicks as conversions. Otherwise you only know about clicks, not customers.
Mistakes that waste the budget
- Broad keywords with no negatives, so you pay for job seekers, students and people in other cities.
- Ads running at night when nobody answers.
- Sending everyone to the homepage.
- Ignoring your Google Business Profile. For local searches, your map listing and reviews often matter as much as the ad.
- Judging by clicks instead of bookings.
- Copying a competitor's keyword list without checking who you actually serve.
What you can handle, and where help is useful
You know your services, areas and customers best, and that knowledge is most of the work: the keyword list, the negative list, the offer, and how the phone is answered. Account structure, conversion tracking and the weekly review of the search terms people actually used are where an experienced hand saves money early on. I set these up as part of social media and ads management and hand over a simple weekly routine.
The smallest useful first step
Write down twenty searches you think your customers type, in the words they would use. Then ask five recent customers how they found you and what they searched for. Comparing the two lists is the start of a good campaign. If you want help turning it into one, get in touch.