Where to start when you want more customers
You don't need every channel at once. For a trade, a restaurant or a local shop, the order matters more than the number of channels. Here's the sequence we recommend most often:
- Be easy to find: a complete Google Business Profile and a fast website that says clearly what you do, where, and how to get in touch.
- Measure: GA4, Search Console and call and form tracking, so you know where customers really come from.
- Speed things up with ads: Google Ads to reach people already searching for what you offer, Meta ads to get known in your area.
- Stay top of mind: social media, short-form video and reviews, so people think of you at the right moment.
A few starting points by type of business
- Trades and contractors: a polished Google profile, project photos and simple quote requests, then Google Ads on urgent searches such as “emergency plumber”.
- Restaurants and food shops: an up-to-date Google profile (hours, menu, photos), reviews, reels and local Instagram and Facebook ads.
- Shops and independents: a Google profile, regular posts and Meta ads targeted around your area.
- Startups and B2B companies: content that answers your prospects' questions, SEO and Google Ads on very specific searches.
If your website doesn't turn visits into enquiries, every paid click costs more. In that case we often start there, with our website design for small businesses.
Prefer to do it yourself? Our guide on how to grow your business online walks through nine practical steps, from Google Maps to keeping the customers you win.
Google Ads and Meta ads, measured
They are two different tools. Google Ads reaches people who are searching right now, for “electrician near me” or “pizza takeaway”. Meta ads, on Facebook and Instagram, create demand among people in your area who don't know you yet.
In practice: if customers look for you when a need comes up (a repair, a quote, a booking), start with Google Ads. If your offer is discovered by seeing it, like a restaurant, a shop or a product, Meta ads are often a better fit. And if you sell to other businesses, very specific Google searches usually pay off more than a broad audience.
Ad spend and management fees are two separate lines
Ad spend is paid directly to Google or Meta. The management fee pays for the work: strategy, ad creation, targeting, monitoring and adjustments. Typical market figures:
| Cost | Paid to | Typical range |
|---|---|---|
| Ad spend | Google or Meta, directly | A few hundred euros a month for a first test (small local business) |
| Management fee | The agency | Often 10 to 20% of spend, or a flat monthly fee |
| Ad creative | The agency or you | Depends on the number of visuals and videos |
Measured, adjusted or switched off
- Conversion tracking before launch: calls, forms, bookings, direction requests.
- Geographic targeting limited to the area you actually serve.
- Negative keywords so you don't pay for clicks on “free”, “jobs” or “course” searches.
- Ads tested side by side: keep the ones that bring in enquiries, cut the rest.
- A clear monthly report: what each euro brought in, what we stop, what we scale up.
Local SEO and Google Business Profile
When someone searches for “barber near me” or “restaurant in Montpellier”, Google shows a map with three businesses above the regular results. Google says local ranking depends on relevance, distance and prominence. You can't choose your distance, but relevance and prominence can be improved.
- Profile set-up or clean-up: exact business name, the right categories, services, service area, hours and photos.
- Consistent details everywhere: website, Google, Apple Maps, Bing and directories.
- Useful local pages on your website, with structured data.
- A review routine: a direct link sent to every happy customer, a reply to every review, and never paid or incentivised reviews, which Google prohibits.
- Regular posts on your profile: finished projects, seasonal dishes, offers.
Work at your customers' premises rather than receiving them? Your profile can be set up as a service-area business: the address stays hidden and you list the areas you cover, within about two hours' drive of your base, as Google's rules require.
That's the groundwork we laid for Kalao Pizza, an artisan pizzeria near Montpellier: structured pages and data, reviews front and centre, and GA4 tracking. On local searches, first effects usually show within 3 to 6 months.
Social media and short-form video
People choose a restaurant, a barber or a renovation company after seeing them. A twenty-second video shows your craft better than a long text, and it's the format Facebook, Instagram and TikTok push hardest.
- Reels shot on location around Montpellier, or edited from your own footage if you're further away.
- 3D and AI video made with Blender and Higgsfield, to show a project before it exists: a renovated room, a new product.
- A monthly content calendar with captions, hooks and scheduling.
- Simple approval: you review and approve every post before it goes out.
- A monthly review based on Meta data: views, reach, engagement and messages, so we keep the formats that work.
That's what we've done every month since April 2026 for the Montpellier agency of La Maison des Travaux, a renovation network: Facebook reels and posts, 3D and AI sequences, and a private portal where the whole month is reviewed and approved on a single page, with calendar export. More examples are in our projects.
Analytics: know what actually pays
Without measurement, there's no way to tell whether your budget is working. We set up Google Analytics 4 properly, with a consent banner that follows EU privacy rules, and track the actions that matter to your business as key events:
- Quote requests and form submissions.
- Taps to call, email or send a WhatsApp message.
- Bookings and orders, when your site takes them.
- Clicks on your buttons, such as “Get a quote” or “Book now”.
Together with Search Console, Google Ads and Meta data, these feed a simple dashboard: where visits come from, which campaigns produce enquiries and what each enquiry costs. Tagged links (UTM) separate your Google profile, ads and social traffic. One page, readable numbers and a regular check-in to decide what's next.
Need something else, like branding, a web app or AI automation? See all our services.