Local Facebook ads
Local Facebook ads reach the people who can actually walk in, call you or book a visit: neighbors, commuters, families in the next suburb. I set up campaigns around your real service area, with ads that look and sound local.
Free: a 30-minute call, an action plan and a price range in writing.
What makes a local
campaign its own thing
A radius around your address, a list of zip codes or towns, or a drive-time area you can serve profitably.
Ads that mention the neighborhood, the main street or the school district people know.
Call buttons, map links and booking pages rather than long website visits.
Real photos of your team and premises, and genuine reviews you're allowed to quote.
Campaigns tied to local weather, school calendars and holidays.
One account with separate areas, budgets and ads per location.
Local ads
in four steps
Map the area
Where your customers come from, how far you travel, which areas pay best.
Pick the action
Call, message, booking or directions, depending on how people buy from you.
Local creative
Ads with your face, your place and a reason to come this month. You approve each one.
Run and adjust
Weekly checks of frequency and cost per call or booking; offers refreshed with the season.
Local ads
pricing
In US dollars. Ad spend is paid by you directly to Meta.
Area mapping, tracking and first campaign.
- Radius, zip code or city targeting
- Call, message or booking goal
- Local ads written for you
Weekly care of your local campaigns.
- Frequency control
- Seasonal offers
- Report every 2 weeks
Local businesses
I've worked with
Ads, website, CRM, chatbot and booking per location. Top 1 to 3 in Google and Maps for 'barber' plus the city name.
See the case study →A new website for a local cleaning company. The project has just launched; I'll share results once there are hard numbers.
See the case study →Why local Facebook ads work
A local business doesn't need the whole country. It needs a few hundred people within 10 or 20 minutes' drive to know it exists and have a reason to come in. Local Facebook ads are good at exactly that: Meta knows roughly where people live and spend time, and it shows your ad to the ones nearby while they scroll. For a cafe, salon, gym, dentist, auto shop, cleaning or landscaping company, that is often the cheapest way to reach new neighbors who wouldn't have searched for you yet.
The trick is that local ads behave differently from national ones. Audiences are small, so the same people see your ads again and again. People recognize the street in the photo, and they may know the owner. That changes how I plan creative, budget and frequency.
Drawing the right map
The service area is the first decision, and it's worth more thought than a default 25-mile circle. A few questions I ask:
- Where do your current customers actually live? Your booking system or invoices usually show it.
- How far will you travel, and where does a job stop paying for the drive?
- Are there areas you'd rather avoid, or a richer suburb where a higher-ticket service sells better?
In the US, service-area businesses often cover a metro area or several counties, so I sometimes split targeting into zones with different offers. If your ads fall into a Special Ad Category (housing, employment, credit), zip code targeting isn't allowed and the radius has to be wider, so a real estate or hiring campaign looks different from a pizza promotion.
Local creative that feels local
The ads that work locally look like they came from a neighbor, not a national chain: your storefront, your team, your truck on a recognizable street, the name of the neighborhood in the headline. A short phone video of you explaining this month's offer often beats any template. Real reviews help, quoted with permission; the FTC's rule against fake reviews applies to ads as well as websites.
Seasons and the calendar
Local demand follows weather and the calendar. HVAC companies in Texas and Arizona get busy as summer heat arrives; in the Midwest and Northeast, furnace checks and snow removal sell in the fall. On the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, hurricane season shapes demand for roofing, generators and cleanup. Restaurants plan around Thanksgiving, the December holidays and graduation season, and nearly everyone has a July 4 or Labor Day angle. I build a simple seasonal plan with you so the ads change before the demand does. The US seasonal marketing calendar covers more dates.
Local ads with other channels
Facebook ads bring awareness and impulse visits; Google catches people when the need is urgent. For most local businesses the strongest base is a solid Google Business Profile and local SEO, with Facebook ads on top for offers and new audiences, and local Google Ads where searches are frequent. I also have city pages, such as Facebook ads in Miami and Facebook ads in Seattle, on how campaigns play out in specific metros.
Working remotely with a local business
I don't live in the US and won't pretend to know your street. I learn the area from you, your customer data and the map, and I ask the questions a local agency might skip. You get calls on Zoom at a time that suits your time zone, a report every two weeks and an ad account that stays in your name. Setup is $600 and management starts from $600 a month; all fees are on the advertising pricing page. If you're unsure whether local ads are the right first step, the free 30-minute consultation is the easiest way to find out.
Local marketing, more ways
Local Facebook ads
FAQ
How small can my targeting area be?
Meta lets you target a radius of about a mile around an address, though in practice very small areas leave too few people for the algorithm to work with. For most local businesses I start at 5 to 15 miles, or a list of zip codes, and narrow it if leads come from too far away.
Does this work in a small town?
Often very well. Fewer businesses advertise, ads cost less and people recognize names. The catch is that the same few thousand people see your ads repeatedly, so creative needs to change more often and budget stays modest. Reputation travels fast too, so the offer has to be one you're proud of.
Can you run ads for several locations?
Yes. Each location gets its own area, budget and ads with the right address and phone number, inside one ad account. Locations don't compete for the same people, and you can see which branch brings in what. Franchise rules about brand use and approvals are built into the process.
Should I start with Facebook ads or Google Maps?
If people search for what you do (dentist, plumber, auto repair), your Google Business Profile and local SEO come first, because they bring free calls for years. Local Facebook ads add customers who weren't searching yet, which suits restaurants, salons, gyms and seasonal offers.
Let's put your business
in your neighbors' feeds
Send me your address or service area and what you'd like more of. I'll reply within one business day with a suggested area and starting budget.