Solved: 10 Ads at £10 or 1 Ad at £100 for Christmas?

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! Happy to give you some of my initial thoughts on your question. It's a classic one, whether to concentrate your budget or spread it out.

The short answer is, it depends. But the real answer is a bit more involved than that. Your question isn't just about budget allocation; it's about the entire strategy behind that budget. Getting that right is the difference between a profitable Christmas push and just throwing money away. I'll walk you through how I'd approach this, from the ground up.

We'll need to look at the real question: Testing vs. Scaling...

Right, let's get your immediate question out of the way. 1 ad at £100 or 10 ads at £10? This isn't about which is "better" in a vacuum; it's about what you're trying to acheive.

Scenario 1: You have a proven winner.
If you've been running ads and you have one ad creative and one audience that consistently brings in leads at a good price, then you should absolutely put the full £100/day behind that single ad (or ad set). This is called 'scaling'. You've found what works, now you're just turning up the volume. Spreading your budget across 10 different ads here would be a waste, as you'd just be taking money away from the thing that's actually working.

Scenario 2: You're still figuring things out.
If you don't have a clear winner, or you're just starting out, then you're in the 'testing' phase. This is where you'd use the 10 ads at £10/day approach. But, and this is a big but, you need to be strategic about it. You're not just running 10 random ads. You're testing specific things. For example:

• -> Audience Testing: You run the *same ad* to 5 different audiences to see which one responds best.
• -> Creative Testing: You run 5 different *ads* to the same audience to see which message or image gets the most clicks and leads.

The goal of testing is to *find* the winning combination so you can switch to Scenario 1 and scale it. Too many people stay in a perpetual testing mode, never giving a single ad enough budget to properly get going. The algorithms on platforms like Meta and Google need data and budget to optimise effectively. £10 a day isn't much, so it'll take a while to get clear results. You've got to be patient.

Here's a simple way to think about it:

I'd say you need to define your customer's nightmare...

This is where most businesses get it completely wrong, and it's probably the single biggest reason their ads fail. They define their customers by vague demographics. "Men aged 30-55, interested in DIY, nationwide." It's useless. It tells you nothing of value and leads to generic ads that nobody clicks on.

You need to stop thinking about *who* your customer is and start obsessing over their *problem*. What is the specific, urgent, expensive, career-threatening nightmare that keeps them up at night? Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) isn't a person; it's a problem state.

Let's make this real. Imagine you're an electrician. Your demographic target might be "homeowners". Rubbish. Your *real* customer is in one of these nightmare scenarios:

• -> The 'Flickering Lights' Nightmare: "The lights keep flickering and I'm genuinely worried about an electrical fire. I have a young family and I can't risk it. I need someone trustworthy, and I need them now."
• -> The 'Christmas Lights Disaster' Nightmare: "I've got the whole family coming over for Christmas in two weeks, and I've just discovered the outdoor socket I need for all the lights is dead. My wife will kill me if the house isn't decorated. I need this fixed, like, yesterday."
• -> The 'New Build Snagging' Nightmare: "We just moved into our dream home and half the sockets in the kitchen don't work. The builder is messing us around and we can't even use our new coffee machine. We need a professional report to force their hand."

See the difference? Each one is a specific, emotionally charged problem. The person in the 'Christmas Lights Disaster' is a completely different buyer to the one in the 'New Build' scenario. They will respond to different messages, search for different terms on Google, and have different levels of urgency.

Your first job, before you spend a single pound on ads, is to identify your top 1-3 customer nightmares. What is the precise language they use to describe this problem? What's the real consequence of not solving it? Once you know this, your targeting and your ad copy practically write themselves. You're not selling "electrical services"; you're selling a "safe home for your family" or "saving Christmas". It's a much more powerful proposition.

You probably should rethink your offer...

Now we get to the second-biggest campaign killer: the offer. I can almost guarantee your website's main call to action is something like "Contact Us for a Quote" or "Book a Consultation". Am I right?

Tbh, this is one of the weakest offers you can make. It's high-friction for the customer (they have to do work) and low-value (they don't get anything immediately). It instantly puts you in the position of being a commodity that they need to shop around for.

For your Christmas push, you need a powerful, low-friction offer that gets your foot in the door. You have to give some value upfront to earn their trust. We call this "bottling your expertise". You need to solve a small, real problem for free (or for a fixed, low price) to earn the right to solve the whole thing.

Here are some examples for a service business:

• -> For an Electrician: "Free 15-Point Home Electrical Safety Check" or a fixed-price "Christmas Light Socket Installation for £99".
• -> For a Marketing Agency: "Free Automated Website Audit that reveals your top 3 SEO opportunities." I remember one client, we implemented something similiar and it really helped them get more leads.
• -> For a Plumber: "Winter-Ready Boiler Health Check for £75".
• -> For an Accountant: "Download our free '10 Common Tax Mistakes Small Businesses Make Before Year-End' checklist."

These offers are specific, tangible, and provide immediate value. They lower the risk for the customer and get you qualified leads who have already raised their hand and shown interest. An offer like this will massively outperform a generic "Contact Us" button. It's the difference between asking someone on a date and asking them to marry you on the first meeting. You've got to build up to the big commitment.

You'll need to pick the right battleground: Google vs. Social...

Since you run a service-based business, this choice is absolutly critical. Where you run your ads is just as important as the ads themselves. Your two main options are Google Ads (Search) and Social Media Ads (like Meta - Facebook/Instagram).

Google Search Ads: Capturing Intent
This is where people go when they have an urgent need. They are actively typing their 'nightmare' into the search bar: "emergency electrician near me", "how to fix a dead socket", "get my boiler serviced before winter". They are problem-aware and solution-seeking. For most service businesses, this is the number one place you should be advertising.

The beauty of Google Ads is that you are meeting the customer at their exact moment of need. You're not interrupting them; you're providing the solution they're already looking for. This means leads from Google are often higher quality and more likely to convert quickly. I remember running a campaign for an HVAC company in a competitive area; we were getting leads from Google Search for around $60 a pop, and they were closing them because the intent was so high.

Meta (Facebook/Instagram) Ads: Creating Demand
On social media, people are not looking for your service. They're scrolling through photos of their friends' holidays and watching videos of cats. You have to *interrupt* them with an ad that's so compelling it stops them in their tracks. This is much harder to do.

Meta ads are better for services that are more visual, less urgent, or have a strong emotional hook. It can also work if you have a really compelling, low-friction offer like the ones I mentioned earlier (e.g., a free guide or a cheap, fixed-price introductory service). But you have to accept that you're playing a different game. You're trying to create demand, not capture existing intent. For many tradies and professional services, this is a much more difficult and expensive way to get leads.

For your Christmas push, I'd say 9 times out of 10, your £100/day budget will go much, much further on Google Search Ads than on Meta.

What can you expect to pay? Well, it varies wildly. But based on our experience with service businesses, you might be looking at something like this. Some of our clients, like a home cleaning company, saw leads for as little as £5. Another, a childcare service, was around $10. The HVAC company, as mentioned, was pricier at $60. It all depends on your industry and location.

You'll need a message they can't ignore...

Once you've defined the nightmare, created a compelling offer, and chosen your platform, you need to write the actual ad. Please, do not just list your services. Nobody cares that you offer "Domestic and Commercial Wiring". They care about their problem.

A powerful framework for ad copy, especially for services, is Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS).

1. Problem: State the customer's nightmare back to them, using the exact language they would use. "Are flickering lights making you nervous?"
2. Agitate: Poke the bruise. Remind them of the negative consequences and emotions associated with the problem. "Don't risk a house fire this Christmas. Faulty wiring is a silent hazard that can put your entire family in danger."
3. Solve: Present your compelling offer as the simple, easy solution to their pain. "Our £99 Electrical Safety Audit finds hidden dangers before they become disasters. Get peace of mind in under an hour. Click here to book yours."

This structure works because it taps directly into the customer's emotions. It shows you understand their problem on a deep level, which immediately builds trust. This is infinitely more effective than a boring, feature-led ad that just says "Certified Electrician - Call for a Free Quote". One is a conversation, the other is just noise.

We'll need to look at the numbers that actually matter...

Okay, let's talk money. The real question isn't "Should I spend £100 a day?" but "How high a cost per lead can I afford to pay and still be wildly profitable?". To answer that, you need to know a crucial number: your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV).

Most service business owners have no idea what their LTV is. They just think about the value of the first job. But good customers come back. The person you install Christmas lights for might call you back in the spring for a full rewire. That's the LTV.

Calculating it can be tricky for a service business, but we can make a pretty good estimate. It completely changes the game. Suddenly, paying £60 for a lead that could be worth thousands over their lifetime doesn't seem so expensive, does it? It looks like a bargain. This is the maths that allows you to grow aggressively and intelligently.

I've built a little calculator for you here. Play around with the numbers and see what your own customers might be worth.

Your action plan for the Christmas push...

Right, that's a lot of theory. Let's pull it all together into a concrete plan for you to use with your £100/day budget before Christmas.

Forget the 10 ads for now. You don't have the time or budget to test that widely before the festive period. We need to be focused. We're going to build a small, powerful campaign on Google Search, aiming to capture high-intent customers.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

This approach gives you a focused way to both test (Ad Group 1 vs. Ad Group 2) and scale (by moving budget to the winner) with your £100/day. It's a much more efficient use of your money than spreading it thin across 10 random ads on a platform that might not even be right for you.

Getting this stuff right isn't easy, it takes a lot of experience to know which levers to pull. The difference between a campaign that breaks even and one that drives significant growth often comes down to dozens of small adjustments and a deep understanding of the platform and the market. It's a full-time job.

If you'd like to have a chat and go through your specific situation in more detail, we offer a free initial consultation where we can review your strategy together. It often gives business owners a lot of clarity on the best way forward.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh