What SEO and PPC each mean for a contractor
SEO is the work that gets you into the unpaid results: the map pack and the regular listings under it. It's pages, profile work, reviews and links, and it's what our organic SEO services and local SEO work cover.
PPC (pay per click) is paid placement. For contractors, Google offers two main kinds:
- Google Search Ads: you pay for each click on your ad. You set a maximum, and Google says the actual cost is usually below it (Google Ads Help).
- Local Services Ads: you pay per valid lead, meaning a call, message or booking request, not per click (Local Services Ads Help).
The two don't mix the way some owners hope. Google says you can't request or pay for a better local ranking (Google Business Profile Help).
Search Ads vs Local Services Ads
- What you pay for: Search Ads charge for the click whether or not the person calls. Local Services Ads charge for the lead. Google says repeat contacts from the same number or email within 15 days of a charged lead aren't charged again, and invalid leads can be credited.
- How you rank: for Local Services Ads, Google lists your bid, your reviews and rating, your profile quality and how responsive you are. It warns that "Missed calls may negatively affect your responsiveness" (About ad rankings).
- Where people land: a Search Ads click goes to your website, so the landing page decides whether you get the call. A Local Services Ads lead contacts you directly.
- When it stops: Local Services Ads stop showing for the rest of the month once you hit your budget cap, unless you change it.
Both reward the business that answers first. Our guide to speed to lead covers how to reply in under a minute.
SEO vs PPC side by side
- Speed: ads can bring calls within days of launch. SEO usually takes weeks to months. See how long SEO takes.
- Cost model: ads cost money for every click or lead, for as long as they run. SEO is mostly a fixed monthly cost for the work, whatever the number of calls.
- When you stop paying: ads disappear. Pages, reviews and rankings stay, though they need upkeep.
- What you own: with SEO, the pages and profile are yours. With ads, you rent the position.
- Where it's strongest: ads for urgent, high-value jobs and for towns where you don't rank yet. SEO for the steady flow of searches you want every month.
What our numbers show
Ads and SEO share the same website, and a broken page hurts both. A Minneapolis and Chicago mover had a broken ads landing page. After fixing it, building proper schema and cleaning up reporting, organic search became its top converting channel, and the organic conversion rate went from 15.66% to 20.1%. Sessions fell from 65,798 to 34,525 over the same six months, so this isn't a traffic story. Conversions are GA4 key events; no revenue is claimed.
For a St. Paul moving company, six months of technical fixes and new service and suburb pages took non-branded clicks from 431 to 675. Those clicks keep coming without a per-click charge, which is the long-term case for SEO.
When SEO takes longer than you'd like
SEO speed depends on the market. In a quiet town, profile and page fixes can move rankings in weeks. In a crowded one, it's slower, and that's when ads earn their place.
A Woodbridge, Virginia HVAC company went from 7% to 18% Maps top 3 coverage over about ten months, and halved the share of its grid ranked 11th or worse, from 24% to 12%. That's real progress, but in a busy market it still left most of the map outside the top 3. The west side toward Dale City still ranks 9th to 12th. For a business in that position, ads covering the weak areas while location content is built is a sensible split.
The opposite also happens. A Vancouver, Washington roofer went from missing the Maps top 20 on 59% of its grid to ranking on every point in about 15 weeks of Business Profile work. In a market like that, ad spend can shrink sooner.
How to decide: a worked example
This is an example of the thinking, not a client case, and it uses no made-up prices. Take two businesses:
- A roofer after a hailstorm. Demand is sudden and urgent. Homeowners call whoever shows first. Ads, especially Local Services Ads with someone answering the phone, fit this well. SEO won't catch the spike in time.
- A remodeler planning next year. Homeowners research for weeks and compare. Strong service pages, project photos and reviews win this job, so SEO is the better long-term spend.
To check ads with your own numbers: work out what an average job is worth, how many leads you close, and therefore the most you can pay for a lead. Then compare that with what your ad account actually charges. Google says to allow about two weeks for Local Services Ads bidding to settle (How bidding works), so judge it after that, not on day three.
Our usual recommendation: run ads where you need calls now, and use our free audit to find where SEO can take over, with a fixed monthly quote so the cost is known.