Specialist paid search for HVAC and plumbing. Hundreds of businesses audited to date, methodology published.

The shape of this practice

• Senior-level work throughout. The audit you read, the strategy proposed, the changes that get made - all at the same depth.
• One vertical at a time. Currently HVAC and plumbing on the North Shore. The taxonomy, the keyword research, the seasonal calendar, the competitive map - done at depth for one trade before opening the next.
• Deep specialization. Each vertical, town, and platform I work in makes the next one sharper. Depth begets depth.
• Direct-response accountability. The metric is revenue, not activity. If I can't show I made you more money than I cost, I've failed and you shouldn't keep paying me.
• Pricing that aligns. $500/month flat. Not % of spend. Not tiered packages. One number that both sides can defend.

Where this practice wins

Three structural differences make the economics work at $500/month. Here's how each one plays against the natural alternative a client is weighing.

Vs. national freelancers and chain agencies

Chain agencies sell scale. They staff junior analysts on a dozen accounts each, run canned reports on Friday, escalate anything weird up a chain. National freelancers sell low price but lack the local context - they don't know the towns, don't know the trades, manage accounts in 16 verticals across 40 metros at once. I beat both on depth in one specific market.

Vs. small local agencies

Some local agencies do good work across general marketing. The specialist focus here - one trade, one channel, one methodology - produces depth that generalists can't match at the same fee. Real SERP captures from inside the towns, enough audit history that patterns are visible instead of guessed at, published methodology - the depth shows up in the work, not just the pitch. I beat them on specialist depth at the same quality level.

Vs. doing it yourself

Plenty of local businesses run their own Google Ads. Some do it well. The ones who don't usually have the same three or four failure modes - broken conversion tracking, broad-match leak, ads that don't echo what the site says, brand-name encroachment from competitors. The methodology here is built specifically to catch these fast, at a price that's accessible to businesses too small for an agency to want. I beat DIY on the speed at which leaks get found.

Stance

I run ads. Specifically, I run Google Ads for local service businesses, end to end. If the math can't defend itself - meaning I can't show I made you more money than I cost - I've failed, and you shouldn't keep paying me.

Earned experience

I've been in paid media since 2009. Something like 140 individual clients over that run, north of 280 live accounts. Accounts from $300 a month up through a single account I ran end to end at $6M a year, and teams overseeing $20M. iProspect and Havas on the agency side; Microsoft, Verizon, Titleist, Babolat, Bob's Discount Furniture, Staples on the brand side. Blew past 10,000 hours on this specific thing a decade ago. Everything on this site - the methodology, the audit structure, the finding taxonomy - comes out of that run. It's not borrowed from a playbook, and it's not the best guess of someone who read a few blog posts. It's the version of the work I'd defend to a peer who's done the same years.

What I won't do

• Charge you a percentage of your ad spend. Misaligns incentives - agency wants spend up, you want efficiency up.
• Lock you into a 12-month contract. If I'm not earning the fee monthly, the relationship shouldn't continue.
• Take on accounts in verticals I haven't researched. If you're a roofer and I haven't built the roofing playbook yet, I'll tell you and refer you out.
• Add you to a marketing email list, sales sequence, or CRM nurture flow without you asking.
• Run accounts in industries that are bad-fit for what paid search can do (low-margin commodity, no tracking surface, inventory gating). I'll tell you and not take the engagement.

Why this site reads the way it reads

Most agency sites are written in marketing-language: bold claims, stock photography, social proof carousels. Two reasons I wrote this one differently.

One - the audience is sophisticated. Local-business owners who run their own ads or hire someone who does, can tell within thirty seconds whether the person they're talking to actually understands paid search. Marketing-language is a negative signal in that audience.

Two - the work is specific. The examples on the site are real, the numbers are real, the methodology is published. There's no need to dress any of it up. The work does the work.