A local service business does not need reach or likes from its ads. It needs a person nearby to ask for a quote. Plumbers, electricians, cleaners, gardeners, groomers, tutors and repair shops all have the same four decisions to make. Get them right and a small budget can work. Get them wrong and the money goes on people who will never hire you.
1. How should people contact you?#
Meta offers four routes. Each brings a different kind of enquiry.
| Route | What the person does | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| A form inside Facebook or Instagram | Taps the ad and sends a short form without leaving the app. Meta may fill in their name and contact details | A high number of enquiries | Some people send it without thinking. Meta keeps leads for download for up to 90 days, so collect them quickly |
| A call | Taps "Call now" and their phone opens the keypad with your number filled in | Urgent jobs, such as a leak or a lockout | Someone must answer. Call ads show on mobiles only |
| A message | Opens a chat in Messenger, Instagram or WhatsApp | Jobs that need a photo or a few questions first | You must reply fast |
| Your website | Lands on your page and enquires there | Bigger jobs, where people want to read first | Fewer enquiries, and your site must be able to count them |
Meta's forms come in types. "More volume" is quick to send. "Higher intent" adds a screen where the person reviews their details before sending, which cuts careless enquiries. If you call every lead yourself, the second type saves your time.
More on this choice is in Lead form or your website?.
2. Which photos work?#
Use your own. A real photo of a finished job, taken on a phone in daylight, does more than a polished stock picture.
- Show the result. The new bathroom, the clean oven, the trimmed hedge.
- Show the person. You or your team, in work clothes, at a real job. People hire people.
- Show the place when it helps. A van with your name outside a local landmark tells people you are nearby.
- Avoid text-heavy graphics and logos. They look like adverts and get skipped.
Take care with before-and-after pictures for cosmetic products or treatments. Meta's rules allow them only in ads aimed at people aged 18 or over.
3. Where should the ad be shown?#
Only where you work. In Ads Manager you can aim an ad at a city, at postcodes, or at a radius around a pin you drop on the map. Set it to the area you would actually drive to. Every person outside it who taps the ad costs you money.
4. What should count as a lead?#
Decide before you start, or you cannot judge the result.
- A sent form with a real phone number is a lead.
- A call that lasted long enough to describe the job is a lead.
- A message asking for a price is a lead.
- A like, a comment, a profile visit and a link click are not leads.
Then track one more number yourself: how many leads became paid jobs. That is the figure that tells you what a lead is worth.
What does a lead cost?#
Published figures vary a great deal.
- In the US, WordStream's 2026 report gives a typical cost per lead of $42.95 for home and home improvement, against $27.39 across all industries.
- In the UK, Whito's 2026 guide gives £8 to £25 as the general range, with no sample stated.
Treat these as a rough check. More figures are in What does a lead cost on Facebook, by industry?.
A worked example#
A plumber keeps about £120 from a typical boiler service and repair visit. He is willing to spend £40 of that to win the job. Four enquiries in ten turn into a booking.
- The most a lead may cost him: £40 × 4 ÷ 10 = £16.
- He wants ten new jobs a month, so he needs about 25 enquiries.
- His budget ceiling: 25 × £16 = £400 a month, about £13 a day.
If leads cost him £10, the ads pay well. If they cost £30, each job costs him £75 in ads. That is well over the £40 he set aside, though still under the £120 he keeps. Above £48 a lead he would lose money on every job. You can run your own figures in the cost per lead calculator.
How to set it up yourself in Ads Manager#
Meta's Ads Manager builds an ad in three layers, and each layer holds one of your decisions.
- The campaign holds the goal. Choose leads, so Meta looks for people likely to enquire.
- The ad set holds how people reach you, who sees it and the budget. Pick where the enquiry happens: a form, a call, a message or your website. Set the location to the area you serve, by city, by postcode or by a radius around a pin. Leave the rest broad. Set a daily budget you can keep up for a month.
- The ad holds what people see. Add your own photo and one line that says what you do and where. If you picked a form, you build the form here.
- Publish, then leave it for a week. Meta reviews the ad first, and the first days are uneven while its system learns.
The full path, with what goes wrong at each step, is in Running Facebook ads without an agency.
Where Madder fits today, and where it does not#
Madder is an AI agent that sets up and looks after Facebook and Instagram ads for a small business. You give it the link to your page. It reads what you offer, drafts a campaign, builds ads from photos you upload and approve, and creates the campaign paused in your own Meta ad account. You switch it on with a separate approval. It then counts leads only from the actions you confirmed as real enquiries.
For a local business there are two limits you should know before you join the waitlist.
- Madder aims a campaign at a whole country. It cannot yet aim at a town or a radius. For a business that serves one area, that means paying to reach people who cannot hire you. Until area targeting exists, Madder suits a service business that works country-wide or online better than one that serves a single town.
- Madder's ads send people to your page. It does not set up forms inside Facebook, call ads or message ads today, and its campaigns are set to bring visits to the page.
We would rather tell you this here than after you have connected your account. If you serve one town, Ads Manager's own location settings are the right tool today, as set out above.
Madder is in early access. If it may suit you later, join the waitlist.
Questions people ask#
Do Facebook ads work for local service businesses?
They can, when the ad is shown only in your area, asks for an enquiry and uses real photos of your work. Whether they pay depends on what a job is worth to you and how many enquiries you turn into bookings.
Do I need a website to advertise a local service on Facebook?
No. Meta's lead forms collect enquiries inside Facebook and Instagram, and call and message ads need no website either. Meta does require a link to a privacy policy for a form. A simple page still helps people trust you.
Should a plumber or electrician use a lead form or a call ad?
For urgent work, calls. For planned work such as a boiler service or a rewire, a form or your website gives you the details first. Many trades run both.
How much should a local service business spend on Facebook ads?
Start from what a job is worth and how many enquiries become jobs. The sums are in How much should you spend on Facebook ads?.