Trades and home services
Plumbers, electricians, HVAC, renovation, garage doors, cleaning and landscaping: work that starts with a phone call.
For owner-led and growing businesses
A growth plan for small businesses: more calls, bookings and customers
Free guides, a budget calculator and a free growth check for trades, clinics, shops and local services that want more customers from Google, ChatGPT and ads, without wasting money.
To grow a small business online, work in this order: fix your Google Business Profile and service pages so you get found on Google and Maps, make your details and reviews consistent so ChatGPT and AI answers can recommend you, run Google Ads only to your most profitable services with calls and forms tracked, answer every lead within minutes with automated follow-up, and count customers by source every month so the budget goes to what works.
- Trades and home services
- Clinics, dental and health practices
- Shops, studios and personal services
- Growing companies without a marketing team
A senior specialist replies within one business day. No mailing lists.
Get your free growth check
Tell us your business and website. A senior specialist replies within one business day with the three fixes that matter most. Free, no logins, any email address.
Local businesses we have worked with
Current and past clients in Montreal, Toronto and Los Angeles. Also: Goldex, SeptEx, Seven Cash for Gold, YULiv, HB Builder and Académie Marie-Claire.
Who this is for
Built for owners who do the marketing between everything else
This section of our site is for small and growing businesses. Our work for mid-market and enterprise B2B companies is on the rest of the site.
Clinics and practices
Dental, veterinary, physiotherapy and medical clinics that fill the calendar from Google and Maps.
Shops and local services
Stores, studios, salons and service counters where customers search, call, then walk in.
Owner-led growing companies
Businesses with 1 to 50 people, no marketing department, and an owner who wants clear numbers.
The problems we hear most
Four reasons good businesses get fewer customers than they should
Customers cannot find you on Google or in ChatGPT
Competitors show in the map results and AI answers; you do not, often because of an incomplete profile, inconsistent details or too few recent reviews.
Google Ads that cost money but bring few calls
Clicks from job seekers, do-it-yourselfers and other cities, ads sent to the homepage, and calls nobody is tracking.
Local SEO left to chance
One page for every service, a profile set up years ago and listings with an old phone number.
Leads lost after they arrive
Missed calls, forms answered the next day and quotes nobody follows up. You paid for those leads already.
The growth plan
Five steps, in the order that pays back fastest
Each step links to the free guide or tool for that step. Work top to bottom; skip a step only when it is already done.
- Step 1 of 5
Get found on Google and Maps
Why do competitors show up in the map results and we do not? Your Google Business Profile and a few service pages decide most local searches. Fix them before you pay for clicks.
- Step 2 of 5
Show up when customers ask ChatGPT
How do we get recommended in ChatGPT and AI answers? AI assistants repeat what the web already says about you. Make your site, profile and reviews easy to find and agree with each other.
- Step 3 of 5
Run Google Ads that bring calls, not just clicks
How much should we spend on Google Ads, and why is the phone not ringing? Set a budget from your own numbers, track every call and form, and stop paying for searches that never become customers.
- Step 4 of 5
Answer every lead fast, with AI doing the follow-up
How do we stop losing leads we already paid for? Most lost leads are slow replies and missed calls. Automate the first reply and the reminders, and keep a person on the conversation.
- Step 5 of 5
Track what brings customers, then set the budget
Which marketing actually works, and how much should we spend? Count calls, forms and booked jobs by source every month, then move money to what produces customers, with or without an agency.
Every guide and tool
Free guides for small business owners
Practical, answer-first guides with worked examples and sources, plus a calculator and a free guide you can take away.
- Google Business Profile optimization: what actually moves your map rankingGuide: How to optimize a Google Business Profile for more calls: categories, name, service area, services, photos, reviews and replies, what Google’s own guidelines allow, and a monthly routine.
- Local SEO checklist for service businesses: 25 checks that decide who gets the callGuide: A local SEO checklist for trades, clinics and service businesses: Google Business Profile, service and area pages, consistent listings, reviews, technical basics and tracking, in priority order.
- How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT: a plan for small and local businessesGuide: Why ChatGPT suggests some local businesses and not others, and the six fixes a small business can make this month: profile, reviews, service pages, crawler access and consistent details.
- leads and customers from your monthly budgetFree calculator.
- Google Ads for small business: a realistic monthly budget, worked out from your own numbersGuide: How much a small business should spend on Google Ads each month, worked out from cost per click, conversion rate, close rate and the value of a customer, with 2025 benchmarks by industry.
- Why your Google Ads get clicks but no calls or leads, and how to fix itGuide: The eight reasons a small business gets Google Ads clicks but no calls or quote requests, how to check each one in under an hour, and the fix, from tracking to search terms and landing pages.
- 5 Google Ads mistakes small businesses makeFree PDF guide.
- SEO or Google Ads first? How a small business should decideGuide: Should a small business invest in SEO or Google Ads first? A decision guide by cash, timeline and competition, with a worked example and why AI answers change the math.
- Automating lead follow-up with AI: a small business setup that does not lose the human touchGuide: How a small business can automate lead follow-up with AI: instant replies to forms and missed calls, reminders, quote follow-ups and review requests, what to keep human, and the consent rules.
- How to track which marketing actually brings customers: a simple setup for small businessesGuide: A simple way for a small business to see which marketing brings customers: call and form tracking, UTM tags, a “how did you hear about us” question and a one-page monthly sheet by source.
- How much should a small business spend on marketing? Work it out from customers, not a percentageGuide: How to set a small business marketing budget: why percent-of-revenue rules are only a check, how to work back from the customers you need, and a worked example for a local service business.
- How to choose a marketing agency as a small business: 12 questions to ask before you signGuide: How a small business should choose a marketing or Google Ads agency: the 12 questions to ask, red flags in contracts and reports, who should own the accounts, and what a fair first 90 days looks like.
Results
What Google Ads brought our local clients
Tracked phone calls, direction requests and leads from the Google Ads accounts we manage for local businesses.
- 45,000+phone calls from Google Ads
- 17,000+requests for directions to a storefront
- 11local businesses with tracked campaigns
Veterinary hospital, Los Angeles
39,500+ phone calls
About US$4 per call, plus 2,600+ direction requests.
“Google Ads became our main source of new patients. PlanConversion kept the calls coming at a cost per call we could plan around.”
SeptEx
Currency exchange, Montreal
2,600+ phone calls
About CA$16 per call, plus 2,100+ contact requests.
“Most of our customers call before they come in. PlanConversion built our Google Ads around those calls, and the phone has kept ringing ever since.”
Goldex BDC
Currency exchange, Montreal
5,100+ calls and direction requests
About CA$2 per call or visit request.
“We see people walk in and say they found us on Google. Every dollar is tracked to a call or a visit, so we know the ads pay for themselves.”
Commercial electrician, Toronto
400+ calls and quote requests
Commercial electrical work across the Greater Toronto Area, about CA$76 per lead.
“We wanted commercial jobs, not tire kickers. PlanConversion tightened our keywords and tracking, and the calls we get now are the work we want.”
What our clients say
“PlanConversion built our Google Ads around repair calls, with every call tracked. We finally know where our customers come from.”
“We have worked with PlanConversion since 2019. They are the team we call for anything that brings us new projects online.”
“PlanConversion has been part of our marketing since 2019. Senior people, straight answers, and results we can see.”
Source: Google Ads conversion tracking, account lifetime to November 2026. Results vary by market, budget and season.
If you want help
What our team does for small businesses
Get recommended by ChatGPT and AI
We check what ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews say when customers ask for a business like yours, then fix the pages, listings and sources they rely on.
SEO that brings customers
Technical fixes, local SEO, your Google Business Profile and pages that answer what buyers search, measured in calls and leads.
Google Ads that bring leads
Campaigns rebuilt around calls and quote requests, with conversion tracking, search term cleanup and budget control.
Meta and other ad platforms
Facebook and Instagram ads, Microsoft Bing, YouTube and more, run alongside Google with the same call and lead tracking, so budget goes where customers come from.
AI that saves you time
Follow-ups, quote drafts, inbox sorting and customer replies handled by AI agents, set up and checked by our team.
Questions
About growing a small business online
What is the first thing a small business should do to get more customers online?
Fix your Google Business Profile: the right primary category, accurate hours and service area, real photos and a steady flow of recent reviews. It decides most local searches and costs nothing but time.
How do I get my business recommended by ChatGPT?
Make sure OpenAI’s search crawler can read your site, keep your name, address, phone and hours identical everywhere, publish one clear page per service, and earn recent reviews. BrightLocal found 45% of US consumers now use AI tools for local recommendations.
How much should a small business spend on Google Ads?
Enough for about 15 to 30 leads a month at your cost per lead, which for most local service businesses is roughly $1,000 to $3,000 a month in ad spend. Work it out from your own numbers with the free calculator.
Is the growth check really free?
Yes. We review your public website, Google listing and AI answers without any logins, and your ad spend too if you share read-only access. There is no obligation.
Who is behind these guides?
PlanConversion’s strategy team, based in Montreal. We run Google Ads and local search for small businesses in Canada and the US, alongside our B2B demand generation work. Third-party figures link to their sources; worked examples are labelled as examples.
Next step
Want to know what to fix first?
Ask for the free growth check. We review your website, Google presence, AI answers and ads, and tell you the three fixes that matter most.
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