Good At Marketing does home services marketing for contractors from Boynton Beach, Florida. We manage your Business Profile, Local Services Ads, Google Ads and SEO, and we add an AI reply for form leads you miss. Local Services Ads and the map pack are the first listings a homeowner sees, so we start there.
Who we work with in home services
I have done SEO since 2008. Good At Marketing was founded in July 2017, and we work with contractors and home service companies that sell to homeowners in their own metro area. Two of them are below. Both are AI search visibility results and say nothing about jobs booked.
- An Orange County, CA gate and fence company was named first by ChatGPT on October 15, 2026 for an automated driveway gate installer in Costa Mesa; AI engines were close to 1% of its traffic in the six months to October 14, 2026.
- A Denver-area garage and ADU builder was second on ChatGPT on October 15, 2026 for both detached garage builders in Denver metro and ADU builders in Lakewood; 7 key events from 32 AI-engine sessions.
We do not name these two companies on this page. Ask on a call whether we have worked in your trade.
The Denver garage and ADU builder case study and the Orange County gate and fence company case study cover the two results above, and a Dallas outdoor kitchen maker case study adds a third client.
What is different about home-services buyers
A person who needs a gate repaired or a garage built is usually in a hurry and usually local. Three things shape our plan for that person: where Local Services Ads sit, how much the map pack decides, and, for Florida contractors, the calendar.
Local Services Ads appear above the listings you rank in
Google’s own Ads resource page, dated August 2025, says Local Services Ads appear “above both organic and pay-per-click (PPC) listings”. The same page describes a pay-per-lead model, where you pay when a customer gets in touch. Google’s Local Services Ads product page, read October 15, 2026, places the listings “at the top of the page.”
Google’s help pages do not use the words “map pack” for this placement, so we describe it the way Google does: at the top, ahead of organic and paid results. A contractor with a strong organic ranking can still sit below a competitor’s Local Services Ad.
Three details from Google’s Local Services Help pages (read October 15, 2026, no page date shown) change how you run these ads:
- Ranking. Google says the ranking takes “bid and overall profile quality” into account, and lists rating, number of reviews, average response time and high-quality images.
- Missed calls. The same page says “Missed calls may negatively affect your responsiveness.” A contractor who does not answer the phone can hurt the responsiveness Google measures.
- Screening. Google says screening varies by type of service, with license checks, insurance requirements and background checks depending on the category and location.
Google’s help page says the Google Verified badge displays on the Local Services Ads profile. Advertisers who completed verification received it automatically, and new advertisers must finish screening and verification first. The same page says Google is discontinuing the Money Back Guarantee tied to the older Google Guarantee badge.
Our Local Services Ads management is a monthly fee for running the account. The per-lead charge goes to Google and sits on top of our fee.
What decides the map pack
Whitespark’s 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors report, published November 6, 2025 from a survey of 47 local SEO experts, ranks the primary Google Business Profile category first and proximity second for local pack and Maps rankings. Review signals follow: a high Google rating ranks sixth, the number of Google reviews with text ninth and review recency eleventh. Whitespark notes that these scores are expert opinion, since nobody outside Google has access to its algorithm.
The top two factors in that survey are the profile’s category and distance, and neither is a website setting. For a contractor, the Business Profile and its reviews carry much of the work, and proximity is the one factor you cannot change without moving.
The same dependence now shows up in AI answers. A BrightLocal study published August 26, 2026, covering 1,355 business locations in the US, UK and Australia across Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode and ChatGPT, found that Google Business Profile made up about 28.6% of the citations. The same report calls Yelp the most common source for ChatGPT in local search. Keeping the profile complete and the reviews current helps in the map pack and in AI answers.
Our Google Business Profile management covers your profile and your map listing, with the reviews that go with them. Because proximity is outside your control, we also build service and city pages so you can be found for the cities you serve outside the one your address sits in.
Florida contractors work around hurricane season
The National Hurricane Center states that hurricane season in the Atlantic begins June 1st and ends November 30th, a statement we read on October 15, 2026. That is six of twelve months.
Decide before June 1 who answers the phone and the form during a storm week. Decide too how you will raise or pause ad budgets when a forecast changes demand. Check that your Business Profile hours and any special hours are current before a storm arrives.
The home-services playbook
Here are the five services we offer contractors and what each costs. Each price is a monthly management fee from our pricing page, reviewed October 2026.
| Piece | What we do | Our price |
|---|---|---|
| Business Profile | Manage your profile and the reviews that feed the map pack. | $450 to $650 a month |
| Local Services Ads | Manage the Local Services Ads account. Google bills each lead separately. | $200 to $1,000 a month, plus Google’s per-lead charge |
| Google Ads | Run search campaigns for the services and cities you want to cover. | $600 to $1,000 a month, plus ad spend paid to Google |
| SEO | Build service and city pages, fix technical problems and earn local citations. | $1,000 to $1,600 a month, up to about $3,500 in highly competitive markets |
| AI form reply | Answer a new form lead right away, including the ones that arrive when you are on a job. | Listed on the pricing page |
We quote the same prices to a contractor that we quote to any other business, and we do not set an industry range. You can add pieces one at a time.
For what each service costs, see our guides to what Local Services Ads cost, what Google Business Profile management costs and what Google Ads management costs.
Two of these services have their own pages for contractors: SEO for home services and Local Services Ads for home services.
How we would start with a contractor
I begin with the Business Profile, because it feeds the map pack and the AI citations above. Next come Local Services Ads, where your category is eligible, since they sit at the top. Google Ads follows when you have capacity for more jobs than the first two bring in. SEO runs alongside all of it, since service pages and city pages build up over time.
This order is my recommendation, and your market can change it. In a city where competitors already run Local Services Ads, I would look at the Ads placement first. In a small town with no ads running, the profile may be enough for the first quarter.
The AI form reply handles one narrow job: a form fill that nobody has answered yet. Test it against the form on your own website and see who reaches the lead first. A form lead that sits unanswered while your crew is on a job is a lead a faster competitor can take. The reply does not answer calls, so the phone still needs a person.
For contractors in Palm Beach County, see our digital marketing agency in Boynton Beach page and the Palm Beach County page. All the business types we work with are on the industries we serve page.
For the paid search side of that work, see Google Ads management in Boynton Beach.
Who home services marketing is not for
If nobody can answer calls or return a form within the day, we would fix that before spending on ads. Local Services Ads count missed calls against your responsiveness, and a Google Ads click that reaches voicemail is money gone. A contractor who is booked out for months may not need more leads yet, and I would rather say so than sell the work.
FAQ
How much does marketing cost for a home services company?
A contractor pays a monthly management fee for each service used. Business Profile management runs $450 to $650 a month, and SEO begins at $1,000. Google’s per-lead charges and ad spend are billed by Google on top. Every service and its price is listed on our pricing page.
Do I need Local Services Ads if I already run Google Ads?
They are separate products with separate management fees: $200 to $1,000 a month for Local Services Ads and $600 to $1,000 for Google Ads. Local Services Ads are pay-per-lead listings, and Google Ads is a keyword campaign. Whether you need both depends on your category, your service area and who answers your phone.
How does Google decide who appears in the map pack?
Nobody outside Google can confirm the weights. The best public evidence is an expert survey, which puts the profile’s main category and the searcher’s distance on top, with review signals next. We use that list to audit a profile, and we cannot move your address, so proximity stays fixed.
How should a Florida contractor plan for hurricane season?
The season runs half the year, so treat it as a standing line on your calendar instead of a one-off scramble. Agree in advance who takes inbound leads when crews are tied up, and keep your Business Profile current. We can build that checklist with you on a short call.
What does the AI form reply do?
It is a reply tool for website form submissions. A homeowner who writes in hears back without waiting for your crew to finish a job. Calls are outside its scope. You can read how it works on the AI form reply page, and its fee is on our pricing page.
Related
- How much does SEO cost for a small business in 2026?
- Local Services Ads vs Google Ads for a service business
- How to get Google Verified on Local Services Ads
- Google Business Profile for a service-area business
- Glossary: Local Services Ads
Next step
Request the free audit to see where your business appears in AI answers today, or book a 15-minute call to go over your trade, your cities and which pieces fit.
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