Meta Ads
Facebook and Instagram campaigns that create demand, bring visitors back, and turn attention into enquiries - run by the same two people who build your site.
Overview
Where Meta fits for a small business
Google reaches people who are already searching. Meta reaches people who aren't - yet. For a small or medium business, that makes Facebook and Instagram useful for three specific jobs: creating demand in a local area where nobody is typing your service into a search bar, bringing back the people who visited your website and left without enquiring, and keeping your business in front of an audience so you're the name they remember when the need arrives.
It's interruption, not intent. Nobody opens Instagram looking for a plumber or a physio. That changes what matters: on Meta, the offer and the creative do most of the work, and targeting does far less than people assume. An average ad with precise targeting loses to a strong ad with broad targeting almost every time.
Most of the Meta accounts we review have the same problems. Posts boosted from the page instead of proper campaigns. No Pixel or Conversions API, so Meta can't see what happened after the click and can't optimise toward it. No real offer, just "contact us". And a single ad left running until the audience stops noticing it. None of that is a platform problem. It's a setup problem, and it's fixable.
Key Areas
What we work on
Before any ad is built we work out what you're actually asking people to do, and why they'd do it now. A clear offer - a consultation, a quote, a first visit, a specific product - is the difference between a campaign that generates enquiries and one that generates likes. We'll tell you if the offer isn't strong enough yet.
Cold audiences built around your service area and the people most likely to need you, and warm audiences built from your website visitors, enquiry forms, customer lists and people who've engaged with your ads. Retargeting is usually the highest-returning part of a small business account, and it only works if the tracking is in place first.
Static images, short video, carousels and the formats that suit each placement across Facebook, Instagram feed, Stories and Reels. We direct the creative and produce it with you - the footage of your team doing the work usually outperforms anything polished. Several variations go live at once so we learn what your audience responds to rather than guessing.
An ad is only as good as the page it sends people to. Because we build the website as well as run the ads, the landing page, the form and the follow-up are designed together rather than handed between agencies. Fast, focused on one action, and built around how people actually use it on a phone.
The Meta Pixel and Conversions API installed properly on your site, with the events that matter - enquiries, calls, purchases - defined and verified. This is what lets Meta optimise toward customers instead of clicks, and what lets us report on what the spend actually produced. More on tracking & reporting.
Structured tests of offer, creative and audience, one variable at a time, with budget moved toward what's working. Creative wears out faster on Meta than anywhere else, so refreshing it on a schedule is part of the job, not a reaction to falling results.
Comparison
Meta Ads or Google Ads?
They look similar on an invoice and do completely different jobs.
Google Ads
Captures demand that already exists. Someone types "emergency electrician near me" and you appear. The intent is high, the volume is capped by how many people are searching, and the cost per click climbs as competitors bid on the same terms. More on Google Ads.
Meta Ads
Creates demand, and recaptures it. You reach people who weren't searching, put an offer in front of them, and then follow up with the ones who showed interest. The reach is far larger and the cost per thousand people is lower, but each of those people is less ready to buy, so creative and offer carry the result.
For most small and medium businesses the order is simple. If people already search for what you do, start with Google and take the demand that's there. Add Meta when you want to retarget the visitors who didn't convert and reach the people who don't know they need you yet. If nobody searches for your category, or you're launching something new, Meta comes first. We run both, so the recommendation is about your business rather than which channel we'd prefer to sell.
How we work
What a Meta campaign
looks like
01
Account and audience review
We look at what you've run before, how the account and Business Manager are set up, whether the Pixel and Conversions API are firing, and who you're actually reaching. This is the free review, and you keep the findings whether or not you work with us.
02
Offer and creative plan
We agree on what we're asking people to do and what we'll show them to get there. That produces a short creative brief: the angles we'll test, the formats, and what we need from you - usually photos and video from the business itself.
03
Build and tracking
Campaign structure, audiences, the ads themselves, and the landing page they point to. Tracking is installed and verified before anything goes live, so from day one Meta is learning from enquiries, not clicks.
04
Launch and test
The first thirty days are a learning period for Meta's system and for us. Several creative and audience combinations run at once, and we hold the structure steady long enough to get a clear read rather than reacting to every daily swing.
05
Optimise and scale
Budget moves to what's producing enquiries at a cost you can live with. Losing ads are cut, winning angles get new variations, and spend scales only when the cost per result holds. You see all of it in plain monthly reporting.
Timeline
What to expect, and when
Meta moves faster than SEO, but it isn't instant. Anyone promising a flood of leads in week one is skipping the part where the account learns who your customers are.
Business Manager and ad account tidied up or created in your name, Pixel and Conversions API installed and verified, audiences built, creative produced, landing page ready. Nothing is live yet. This is where most accounts we inherit went wrong by skipping ahead.
Campaigns launch with multiple creative and audience combinations. Early enquiries usually arrive in this window, but the cost per result is noisy while Meta's delivery system learns. We're reading for signal, not drawing conclusions from a single week.
Winning angles are clear. Budget consolidates behind them, retargeting audiences are large enough to work properly, and the cost per enquiry settles into a range we can plan around. This is where the account starts to look like a predictable channel.
Spend increases in steps while the cost per result holds, new creative goes in before the old creative fatigues, and new offers or services get their own tests. The work never fully stops, because the audience's attention doesn't stand still.
How quickly this settles depends on your budget, how strong the offer is, and how much traffic your website already has to retarget. A business with an established site and a clear offer gets to a stable cost per enquiry much faster than one starting from nothing. We'll tell you which you look like at the review stage.
What's included
What you actually get
Every engagement is scoped to the business in front of us, but the core of a Meta Ads engagement includes:
- A review of your existing account, audiences and creative
- Offer and campaign strategy with a written creative brief
- Meta Business and ad account setup, owned by you
- Pixel and Conversions API installation, with events verified
- Audience build: cold, warm and retargeting
- Ad creative direction and production, refreshed on a schedule
- Landing page build or optimisation for each campaign
- Catalogue and dynamic product ads for Shopify stores
- Ongoing testing, budget management and optimisation
- Monthly reporting on enquiries and cost per result, plus personalised video analysis
Common questions
Meta Ads, answered
Enough to generate a meaningful number of enquiries each week, so the account has data to learn from. Below that threshold Meta's system can't find a pattern and you'll be judging the channel on noise. The right figure depends on your area, your offer and what an enquiry is worth to you, so we recommend a starting budget as part of the free review rather than quoting a number cold.
A fixed monthly management fee, quoted after the free review once we know the scope. You pay Meta directly for the media, so our fee is never buried in the ad spend. There are no lock-in contracts - if the results don't justify the fee, you can stop.
Yes, with a caveat. It works well for services people plan for - renovations, dental, allied health, legal, education, anything with a considered decision - because you can create demand and stay in front of people until they're ready. It works less well for urgent, search-driven services on its own; there, Meta is better used for retargeting and local awareness alongside Google Ads.
Not to start. Static images and carousels still perform well, especially for retargeting. Video helps - Reels and Stories placements favour it - but it doesn't need to be polished. A phone-shot clip of your team at work typically outperforms a produced commercial. We direct what to film and handle the editing.
Yes. The Meta Business portfolio, the ad account, the Pixel and all the data sit under your business, and we work inside them as a partner. If we part ways, everything stays with you, including the history Meta uses to optimise.
If people already search for what you do, usually Google first, because it captures demand that exists today. Meta is the better first choice when nobody is searching for your category yet, or when you need to reach a local audience before they need you. Most of our clients end up running both, with Meta retargeting the traffic Google and SEO bring in.
By enquiries and sales, not reach or engagement. The Pixel and Conversions API record form submissions, calls and purchases, and we reconcile those against what actually arrived in your inbox or your store. Monthly reporting shows spend, cost per enquiry and the trend, in plain language. More on tracking & reporting.
No. We run paid campaigns. Day-to-day posting on your Facebook and Instagram pages stays with you - you know your business and your customers better than any agency, and it keeps the cost down. We'll happily advise on what's working in the ads so you can use it organically.
Get started
Ready to reach people
before they search?
A free account review shows you what your Meta campaigns are actually doing, what's missing, and what we'd change. No cost, no obligation - just a clear picture of what we'd do and why.
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