"We'd rather run two channels really well than five channels poorly. More platforms means more budget spread thinner and more complexity to manage."
Audio and display ads while people listen to music or podcasts. Nobody pauses a playlist to fill out a form — but Spotify is a cost-effective way to build familiarity over time with an audience that spends real time on the platform. Supports geographic targeting to keep your spend local.
Best for: local brand awareness · audiences with longer decision cycles
A discovery platform where people find ideas before they're ready to buy. For the right business — home services, interior design, e-commerce, fitness, wedding-related — Pinterest can drive meaningful traffic from people who are actively planning. A strong top-of-funnel channel that feeds your pipeline over time.
Best for: home services · e-commerce · lifestyle & wellness · planning-oriented purchases
The world's second largest search engine, and one of the most underutilized platforms for small and mid-sized businesses. YouTube ads are interruptive rather than intent-based — better suited for brand awareness and consideration than immediate lead generation. For businesses with strong video creative and longer sales cycles, it can be powerful.
Best for: businesses with video creative · longer sales cycles · brand consideration
These platforms are designed to generate real leads — not just impressions. Each serves a different moment and a different audience. The right one depends entirely on who you’re trying to reach and where they are.
Google's pay-per-lead product for service businesses. You only pay when a potential customer contacts you directly through the ad — not per click. They also display a Google Guaranteed or Google Screened badge, which builds trust instantly. For home services, legal, financial, and care-based businesses, LSAs can be one of the most cost-efficient lead generation tools available.
Best for: home services · legal · financial services · care-based businesses
The strongest paid platform for reaching business decision makers. If your product or service is sold to a company, a department head, or a C-suite executive rather than a consumer, LinkedIn's targeting by job title, company size, and industry is unmatched. The cost per lead is higher — but the lead quality reflects that.
Best for: B2B services · consulting · professional services · not consumer-facing businesses
An underrated platform for hyper-local service businesses. Nextdoor is a neighborhood-based social network where people actively ask for and share recommendations for local services. Home care providers, landscapers, HVAC companies, and other home services businesses are exactly what Nextdoor users are looking for — and advertising there puts you in front of them in your specific service area.
Best for: home care · home services · hyper-local businesses
As more people turn to AI for recommendations and answers, showing up as a sponsored result in those conversations is becoming a legitimate channel. It's still early — targeting options are limited and formats are evolving quickly — but for businesses that want to be visible where search behavior is shifting, it's worth being in the conversation early.
Best for: businesses wanting early positioning as AI search evolves
We’re not dismissing these outright — but we’d want to see Google and Meta performing well before putting any budget here for most of the businesses we work with.
TikTok has a massive audience and it's impossible to ignore at this scale. That said, we approach it cautiously for most of the businesses we work with. The platform skews young, the ad formats require high-quality short-form video creative to perform, and results for service businesses and B2B clients have been inconsistent. There's also ongoing uncertainty around the platform's regulatory future in the US.
Reddit has a passionate and highly specific user base, and for certain niche products or B2B audiences, organic Reddit strategy can be genuinely valuable. Paid Reddit advertising is a different story. In our experience, Reddit Ads tend to produce higher costs per lead and lower lead quality compared to Google or Meta. The platform's audience can also be resistant to overt advertising in ways other platforms aren't.
E-commerce brands targeting consumers under 35. We'd want to see Google and Meta performing first.
Niche B2B products with a strong organic Reddit presence first. Not a starting point for most.
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Platform questions.
Straight answers about these platforms and when they make sense. If something isn’t covered, reach out directly.
Almost certainly not. More platforms means more budget spread thinner and more complexity to manage. We’d rather run two channels really well than five channels poorly. We’ll recommend what makes sense for your goals and your market, not what sounds most impressive on a proposal.
For most businesses, no. Google and Meta have larger audiences, more mature targeting tools, and a longer track record of driving leads and revenue. These platforms work best as additions to a strategy that’s already working, not replacements for it.
Sponsored placements within AI platforms are still emerging and vary by platform and region. We stay current on what’s available and what’s actually performing, and we’ll give you an honest picture of where it stands when we talk.
Spotify has a minimum spend requirement that is higher than most social platforms. It works best when paired with strong creative and a clear brand message. We’ll let you know whether the budget makes sense for what you’re trying to accomplish.
Possibly, but we’d recommend starting with an organic Reddit presence before committing paid budget. Understanding how your audience talks about your category on Reddit is valuable regardless of whether you ever run ads there.
It depends heavily on your industry and audience. If you’re selling to consumers under 35 or running an e-commerce brand, there may be a case for it. For most service businesses, the creative demands are high and the results are unpredictable. We’d want to understand your goals and your market before recommending it.
The quality of the audience. On most platforms you’re casting a wide net and hoping the right person sees your ad. On LinkedIn you can target by job title, seniority, company size, and industry with a level of precision that other platforms can’t match. For the right B2B offer, that precision is worth paying for.
