Google captures people searching. Meta ads put you in front of local people before they even search. Here's how to use them well.
Google Ads catch people who are already looking. Meta ads — across Facebook and Instagram — do something different: they put your business in front of local people based on who they are and where they live, often before they've thought to search. For the right local business, that's a powerful way to create demand.
Building awareness in your area, promoting an offer or event, retargeting people who've visited your website, and showing off visual businesses — cafés, salons, trades with great before-and-afters, real estate, fitness. If it looks good in a photo or video, Meta rewards you.
The strength of Meta for a local business is precise geographic targeting — a radius around your shopfront, or specific suburbs across Bayside, Kingston, the South East and Inner South of Melbourne. Combine that with age, interests and behaviours and you can put a Brighton café in front of exactly the locals most likely to walk in.
On Meta, the ad itself does the heavy lifting. Real photos and short video of your actual business outperform stock imagery every time. A clear offer and an obvious next step ("book now", "call us", "get directions") turn scrolls into customers.
Most people don't buy on the first visit. A simple retargeting campaign that gently follows up website visitors and social engagers is often the highest-return Meta spend a local business can make.
We use Meta ads alongside search: Google to capture active demand, Meta to create it and stay front-of-mind. Together they cover both halves of how locals find and choose you.
ClickLocal is a local agency for Bayside, Kingston, the South East and Inner South. We'll review where you stand and show you exactly how to get found — and we're happy to meet locally over a coffee.