How to Advertise Your Business: Free and Paid Ways, Costs, and a First-Month Plan

Advertise where people already look for what you sell before paying to reach people who are not looking. For most small businesses that means a free Google Business Profile and reviews first, then search ads or Google Local Services Ads, then social ads, with every dollar judged against what a new customer is worth to you. Ads inside AI assistants are the newest place on that list, and they sit with search: they reach people at the moment they describe what they need.

First, know what a customer is worth

Before you choose a channel, know one number: what a new customer is worth to you after costs. Every advertising decision below is a comparison against it. It comes from two things you already know, your margin on a typical sale and how many inquiries turn into sales.

Take a hypothetical plumber. A typical job brings in $400 and leaves $200 after parts and labor, and one in three leads becomes a job. That plumber can pay up to about $66 per lead and break even on the first job. WordStream's 2026 median cost per lead for Google search ads is $66.69, so the median search lead is break-even for this business, a loss for one with thinner margins, and a bargain for one whose customers come back every year.

Write your number down. A channel that costs more per customer than a customer is worth is not working, however many clicks it reports.

Free ways to advertise your business

• Google Business Profile. Google says "creating a Business Profile and listing your business on Google is free", and the profile is what appears when people search for your type of business on Search and Maps. Fill in every field: hours, services, service area, photos.
• Reviews. In BrightLocal's 2026 survey of 1,002 US consumers, 97 percent read reviews for local businesses, and 47 percent said they won't use a business with fewer than 20. Ask every satisfied customer, and reply to every review.
• Your existing customers. An email list or text list of past customers costs almost nothing to keep and reaches people who already trust you. A referral offer turns them into advertising.
• Local partners and press. Businesses that serve the same customers, such as a realtor and a mover, can refer to each other. Local news and community groups cover openings, milestones and events.
• Social media pages. Post where your customers already spend time, and link the page from your profile and receipts.

Free channels take time, and they mostly reach people who already know you or are already looking. Paid channels reach more people, faster.

Paid ways to advertise your business

Google Local Services Ads

For plumbers, electricians, cleaners, lawyers and other local services, Local Services Ads appear on Google Search for people looking for that service. Google's pitch is to "pay only for leads related to your business and the services you offer", where leads arrive as phone calls and messages through the ad, and the ads carry a "Google Verified" badge. Paying per lead rather than per click makes the cost-per-customer math simple.

Search ads

Search ads on Google and Microsoft Bing show when someone types a query you bid on. You set an average daily budget for each campaign, and Google's budget rules allow it to spend up to twice that on a busy day while capping the month at 30.4 times the daily amount. WordStream's 2026 medians for US search campaigns are $5.42 per click and an 8.18 percent conversion rate. Bid on the words customers use when ready to buy ("emergency plumber near me"), not the words they use when researching.

Social media ads

Facebook and Instagram ads reach people who are not searching, chosen by location, interests and behavior. Meta's own guidance is that "the recommended practice is to start with at least $5 for your budget and to choose a duration over six days", and it notes it may spend up to 75 percent over your daily budget on some days. For lead campaigns, WordStream puts the median at $1.80 per click and $27.39 per lead. Social leads cost less than search leads, but those people were not looking when they saw the ad, so compare cost per customer, not cost per lead.

Ads in AI conversations

Many people now ask AI assistants for recommendations they used to search for: a dentist who takes their insurance, a gift under $50, software for a five-person team. Ads in AI conversations are sponsored placements shown beside the answer, matched to what the person asked and labeled as ads. OpenAI said ads in ChatGPT reached a $1 billion annualized run rate in under 200 days, a company-stated figure, and that "CPC and outcome-optimized bidding now account for the majority of campaigns."

Thrad is a DSP for ads inside AI conversations: advertisers bid on conversational intent in real time, with delivery in under 500 milliseconds, across 20+ countries, with one budget and one report across every AI app. Campaigns launch from the self-serve platform with CPC or CPM pricing, full control, and no minimum spend. Launch a campaign from self-serve.

Traditional advertising

Direct mail, local radio, billboards and local print still reach people in one area at once. Put a unique phone number, code or web address on each so you can count the responses. Our guide to the types of advertising covers each one.

How much to spend on advertising

There is no single right amount, but there is a useful floor: enough to get a few customers in a month, so you can see whether the channel works. Using the plumber's numbers, three customers from search ads means nine leads, or about $600 at the median cost. A budget that buys one lead a week tells you almost nothing.

• Start with one paid channel, the one closest to existing demand.
• Set a monthly test budget you can afford to lose, sized to produce a handful of customers.
• Hold it steady for four weeks before changing much; daily results are noisy.
• Scale what beats your number, and cut what does not, before adding a second channel.

Our paid media guide covers pricing models and budget shares in more depth, and our comparison of digital advertising platforms lists each platform's minimums.

How to tell whether your advertising works

Platforms report clicks and conversions they can see, which is a starting point, not a verdict. Track what reaches you: calls, form fills, bookings and sales. Use a call-tracking number or a separate landing page per channel, and ask every new customer how they heard about you. Divide each channel's spend by the customers it brought, and compare that with what a customer is worth. Our performance marketing guide goes deeper on measurement.

A first-month advertising plan

1. Week 1. Work out what a customer is worth. Claim and complete your Google Business Profile, and ask your last 20 customers for reviews.
2. Week 2. Choose one paid channel closest to demand: Local Services Ads for local services, search ads for most others, retail media if you sell on a marketplace. Set up tracking before the first dollar.
3. Week 3. Launch with a test budget sized for a few customers. Check daily for broken tracking or wasted spend, not for results.
4. Week 4. Count customers and cost per customer. If it beats your number, raise the budget; if not, fix the offer, the keywords or the landing page before trying a new channel.