Internet Marketing Services
5.0 Rating on GoogleThe crowded lanes
| Kind of work | Employer locations | Locations per 10,000 people | Density next to a typical county | Small shops, under 10 staff | Larger, 20 or more staff | Count against 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Real estate agents and brokers | 2,280 | 10 | 3.6 times | 96 of 100 | 43 | +41.9 percent |
| Law offices | 1,607 | 7.1 | 2.4 times | 85 of 100 | 128 | -5.8 percent |
| Residential remodelers | 1,632 | 7.2 | 2.3 times | 91 of 100 | 47 | +12.5 percent |
| Dentists | 1,459 | 6.4 | 2.2 times | 71 of 100 | 63 | +0.6 percent |
| Beauty salons | 844 | 3.7 | 1.9 times | 88 of 100 | 36 | +8.9 percent |
Source: Census County Business Patterns, 2022 against 2017. Only employer businesses are counted, so owners working alone do not appear. A typical county is the median among counties of 20,000 or more people.
The rule we use
King County PPC is easiest to justify in three situations, and the same test applies to pay-per-click advertising anywhere in King County, Washington. First, the lane is crowded and the organic results are held by older, stronger sites: the table above shows five trades like that. Second, the work is urgent or seasonal, so waiting six months for rankings means missing the season. Third, you are opening a new zone or a new location and need data on what people want before you build pages for it.
Organic work should lead when the lane is thin, when a customer researches for weeks (like a roof replacement or a remodel) or when your reviews and profile are already strong. Real estate shows both sides. The count of agents and brokers is up 41.9 percent since 2017 against the 2022 County Business Patterns count, so competition for the same listings and leads is rising, and pay-per-click for King County real estate has to work harder to stand out. Plumbing and heating contractors, by contrast, are down 14.3 percent over the same period, and the lane is the least crowded of the 15 trades, so organic and map results may be easier to win.
Across King County the best plans mix the two, whether the business is in Seattle or in a King County, Washington suburb. Paid search holds the position while organic pages and reviews build; later, the paid budget narrows to the searches that organic does not cover and the cost per call can fall. That is a method, not a promise.
Channels
| Channel | Best for | Limits to respect |
|---|---|---|
| Google Ads | People searching now for a service, with a phone number in the ad | Competitive auctions in crowded trades, and results that stop when spend stops |
| Microsoft Advertising (Bing) | People searching from work computers and Microsoft products, a smaller and quieter audience than Google | Lower volume, so it is a second platform and rarely a first |
| Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram) | People who were not searching: offers, events, openings and reminders | Weaker intent than search, so we judge it on qualified leads and not on clicks |
| ChatGPT ads | An early channel and a small measured test for a few advertisers | Too new to promise anything. We test with a small budget and report plainly |
The audience
| Measure | King County | Typical Washington county | Typical U.S. county |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $116,340 | $68,172 | $60,522 |
| Median home value | $761,500 | $332,200 | $159,500 |
| Adults with a bachelor's degree | 54.8 percent | 27 percent | 21.1 percent |
| Workers who work from home | 22.6 percent | 10.9 percent | 7 percent |
Source: Census ACS 5-year survey, 2018 to 2022; the typical county is the median one.
Three situations
Lead with Google Ads during the wet months and storm weeks, run organic pages for each city served and add reviews all year. Roofing is not an especially crowded lane in this county, and the count is up 27.8 percent since 2017, so more companies are arriving.
Use Google Ads for specific services and neighborhoods while organic pages and the Business Profile mature, use Bing for a smaller extra audience and keep Meta Ads for announcements and new-patient offers.
Start with organic pages for each industry and a Business Profile, add a small Google Ads test for commercial cleaning terms and use retargeting to remind visitors who looked but did not call.
Reporting
Every conversion is tied to the zone, the campaign and the search that produced it, so you can see whether Kent, Bellevue or Burien is carrying the budget.
We compare each month with the wet season, the dry summer and the event weeks, so a quiet month is read for what it is and not mistaken for a failure.
We name the next change: a zone to open, a keyword group to pause, a page to rebuild. Where organic work is already strong, the SEO page explains how it fits with the paid plan.
What it costs
Questions
Management runs $895 a month with one platform, then $1,595 with two and $2,295 with three. There is no setup fee and no contract. Ad spend is separate and goes to Google, Bing or Meta directly. We do not publish click costs or promise lead numbers, because they depend on the trade, the zone and the season.
Pay-per-click is the buying model: you pay when someone clicks. PPC is the short name for it. Google Ads is the biggest platform that sells it, and Bing and Meta sell it too. When people type Seattle PPC or pay-per-click agency, they usually mean paid search on Google. We manage all of them and choose by how your customers decide.
Because paid results stop when the budget stops, while pages, reviews and map listings keep working. PPC can stand in for organic work for a season, never for good. In crowded trades PPC often goes first, and SEO builds underneath so that the paid budget can shrink later. We would not advise relying on paid search alone for a business you plan to keep running.
They are an early channel, so we handle them as a small measured test and nothing more. If an advertiser wants to try one, we set a small budget, a clear question and a stop date, and report what happened. We do not promise results, and they are a different thing from GEO and AI search work, which aims at being a clear source for answers.
If people are searching for what you sell, start with Google Ads. If they have not thought about it yet, such as a new opening, an event or a seasonal offer, Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram) can reach them. For many trades a small Google test comes first and Meta follows once the offer and the tracking are sorted.
We split campaigns by zone and track calls and forms for each. After the first month or two we see which zones convert, which only click and which cost too much for what they bring. Then the money moves. In a county as wide as King County, that zone-by-zone read matters more than any single keyword.
We do not set a minimum for management, but a budget too small to produce enough clicks to read is not a fair test, and we will say so. In a county this wide the usual fix is fewer zones, not more money: concentrate the budget where your crews or staff already are and let the first results show you where to expand next.
You can stop at any time because there is no contract. Your ad accounts are yours, and we give you access and a summary of what we learned. Keeping the account and the history means a later restart, or a move to another provider, does not lose the data about which zones and terms worked.
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Get in Touch
Tell us your trade and the zones you serve, and we will say whether PPC should come before search work, alongside it or after it. Call 610-825-4363 or email hello@getphound.com.