Straight answers
The questions owners actually ask, answered in the first two sentences. Then the detail if you want it. 187 and growing.
Paid Ads
- How much should a small business spend on Google Ads?
- Why are my Google Ads not showing?
- What is a good cost per lead?
- Should I bid on my own brand name?
- Google Ads or Facebook ads for a local business?
- What is Quality Score and does it actually matter?
- How long before Google Ads starts working?
- What are negative keywords and why do I need them?
- Should I use Performance Max?
- Why is my cost per click so high?
- What is Smart Bidding and should I use it?
- How do I make my ads show only in my service area?
- Why am I getting clicks but no calls or leads?
- Why was my Google Ads account suspended?
- Should I hire a Google Ads specialist or do it myself?
- What is a good click-through rate for search ads?
- What is a good conversion rate for Google Ads?
- Should I let Google's AI write my ad copy?
- Why did my ads suddenly stop showing?
- How do I pause Google Ads without losing progress (vacations, holidays)?
- Can I run Google Ads without a website?
- How many keywords should a campaign have?
- Should I run ads on Bing (Microsoft Ads)?
- What budget do I need to compete with big companies on Google Ads?
- Should I use audience targeting in search campaigns?
- Should I run search and display in the same campaign?
- Why am I getting spam form fills from my ads?
- Do Google Ads help my SEO?
- Why is my ad position so low?
- What is ad fatigue. And does it apply to search ads?
- How do I target multiple cities without wasting budget?
- What are drafts and experiments in Google Ads?
- How do I write ads for emergency services?
- Do call-only ads still exist?
- When should I add a second campaign?
- Why are my Facebook leads low quality?
- What is a good cost per lead on Facebook. And what budget do the ads need?
- Do Instagram ads work for service businesses?
- Is a display or banner ad worth paying for. Including YouTube?
Email & Deliverability
- Why are my emails going to spam?
- How many cold emails can I send per day?
- What is email warmup and do I really need it?
- Do I really need SPF, DKIM, and DMARC?
- Is cold email legal?
- What is a good cold email reply rate?
- How do I check if my domain is blacklisted?
- Should I buy an email list?
- Why did my open rates suddenly drop?
- How often should I email my list?
- What is double opt-in and should I use it?
- What is a good email open rate. And click rate?
- Does email marketing still work. And what ROI should I expect?
- How do I build an email list from scratch (without paid ads)?
- Can I email past customers, networking contacts, and add customers automatically?
- How long should a cold email, or a marketing email, be?
- How many cold email follow-ups should I send. And how do I keep them from being annoying?
- Should cold emails have images or attachments?
- What is spintax and should I use it?
- Should I use emojis in subject lines?
- What day and time should I send marketing emails?
- How do I stop my emails going to Gmail's promotions tab?
- Does GDPR apply to my cold email if I only email US companies?
- How much does email marketing cost?
- Why do my emails look broken in Outlook?
- Why do executives reply to cold email less than owners?
Website & Conversion
- Why is my website not getting leads?
- What's the difference between a landing page and my homepage?
- How fast does my website need to be?
- Do I need a new website or just better marketing?
- How many fields should my contact form have?
- Should I put pricing on my website?
- What pages does a small business website actually need?
- Do I need SSL / HTTPS on my website?
- How much does SEO cost per month?
- How long does SEO take to work?
- How much does a small business website cost. Really?
- WordPress, Squarespace, or custom. And should I build it myself?
- Is SEO worth it for a small local business. And can I do it myself?
- What does an SEO agency actually do each month. And how do I know it's working?
- What are backlinks. And should I buy them?
- Does my business need a blog. And how many posts does it take to rank?
- Why did my rankings drop suddenly. Does changing my website hurt SEO?
- Do meta keywords still matter?
- What should be on my homepage. And should I show my face?
- What is responsive design. And do I need a separate mobile website?
- What is Search Console and do I need it?
- Why does my site show up for my name but not my services?
- Do chat widgets and AI chatbots actually help?
- How do I add customer reviews to my website?
- How many images should a page have. And what images should service pages use?
- Should my phone number be at the top of every page?
- How do I make my website show a map of my location?
Local & Reviews
- How do I get more Google reviews?
- Why did my Google Business Profile ranking drop?
- Do local citations still matter?
- How do I get into the Google map pack?
- Should I respond to negative reviews?
- Is Yelp worth it for a small business?
- How do I claim my Google Business Profile?
- How do I remove a fake Google review?
- How do I recover a suspended Google Business Profile?
- Why are my Google reviews not showing up?
- How do I verify my Google Business Profile?
- Why is my business not showing up on Google Maps?
- Can I have two profiles for one business. Or separate profiles per service or location?
- How do I remove an old owner (ex-employee, old agency) from my Business Profile?
- How quickly should I respond to reviews. And how many do I need?
- Is it legal for a competitor to leave me a bad review. And what can I do?
- How do I change my business name on Google without a suspension?
- What's the difference between Google Screened and Google Guaranteed?
- How do I track calls from Google Maps. And see how many people found me?
- How do I mark my business temporarily closed. And why does Google show wrong hours?
- What are the GBP services and products sections. And should I fill them?
- How do I handle duplicate Google listings?
- Does Nextdoor matter for a local business?
- What are local search ads on Google Maps?
Agencies & Ownership
- What should a marketing agency give me access to?
- How do I switch agencies without losing everything?
- Who should own my Google Ads account. Me or my agency?
- What does a marketing agency actually cost?
- Should I do my own marketing or hire someone?
- What does 'owning your marketing' actually mean?
- How do I know if my marketing agency is doing a good job?
- Who should own my domain name?
- What should a $1,000/month marketing retainer include?
- What are the red flags when hiring a marketing agency?
- How fast should a marketing agency show results?
- What should a $5,000/month marketing retainer include?
- Who owns the creative an agency makes. And should I sign their non-compete?
- What questions should I ask an agency. And what will a good one ask me?
- How long should an agency contract be. And can I negotiate?
- Should my agency have access to my bank or billing?
- What's the freelancer vs agency tradeoff. And how technical do I need to be?
- Why did my agency's results drop after the first few months?
- Should my agency specialize in my industry?
- What is a fractional CMO and do I need one?
- How do I audit what my agency actually did?
Measurement
- What exactly is a 'conversion'?
- How do I know if my marketing is actually working?
- What is UTM tracking and do I need it?
- Why don't my GA4 numbers match my Google Ads numbers?
- What marketing numbers should I actually look at monthly?
- What is first-touch attribution and when does it matter?
- How do I track phone calls from my ads?
- How do I calculate marketing ROI?
- What should be on my monthly marketing report?
- How do I measure SEO progress?
- How do I track customers who call instead of filling forms. Without breaking my listings?
- How do I connect my forms and marketing data to my CRM?
- Why is my conversion data delayed?
- How do I measure offline sales, billboards, and radio ads?
- How do i measure brand awareness for a small business?
- What is a marketing dashboard. And is one worth having?
- What is cohort analysis in simple terms?
- How do I measure social media ROI?
- What percentage of revenue should marketing generate. And how do I audit where the budget went?
Strategy & Budget
- What percent of revenue should go to marketing?
- What's the best marketing for $500 a month?
- Should I invest in SEO or paid ads first?
- How do I get my first 10 customers?
- Is social media worth it for a small business?
- Which social media platform is best for my business?
- How often should I post on social media?
- Does direct mail still work for small businesses?
- What is the fastest way to get customers this month?
- Do hashtags still work?
- How do I find my target customer?
- How do I price my services. And compete against cheaper competitors?
- Should I offer discounts to new customers?
- When should I rebrand. And how do I do it without losing customers?
- What marketing works in a recession?
- How do I market a boring business?
- Should I sponsor local events or teams. Is it worth it?
- How do I turn one-time customers into repeat customers?
- What should a marketing plan contain. And how do I build one for the year?
- How many hours a week should I spend on marketing?
- Is LinkedIn worth it for a local service business?
- What should a service business post on social media. And where do ideas come from?
- Should I respond to every comment and DM. And how do I handle negative ones?
- Will Google penalize AI-written content. And how do I make it sound like my business?
- What marketing tasks should I automate first?
- How do I market with no budget at all?
- When should I hire my first marketing person?
- Are newspaper ads dead? What about EDDM, radio, TV, and vehicle wraps?
- Should my small business make YouTube videos. And is my phone good enough?
- Will ads inside ChatGPT matter for small businesses?
- What are QR codes good for in marketing?
This is the work. Want it done?
Everything here is free to use yourself. That’s the point. If you’d rather a senior marketer just handle it, in your accounts and your name: 20-minute call, no pitch deck.