Solved: Cheapest Traffic in Exeter? (The Real Reason)

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out!

I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts on your situation. Your question about finding the 'cheapest' way to get traffic in Exeter is a common one, but I'm going to be blunt - it's the wrong question to be asking. Chasing cheap clicks is probably the fastest way to burn through your budget with nothing to show for it. What you should be asking is, "How can I get the most profitable traffic?" That means finding actual customers, not just visitors. It's a subtle but massive difference in approach that seperates the campaigns that work from the ones that just drain your bank account.

Let's unpack this a bit.

We'll need to look at your business model first...

The "best" ad platform isn't a one-size-fits-all answer. It depends entirely on what you sell and who you sell it to. Are you a local service business like an electrician or a consultant? Are you an eCommerce store selling handmade jewellery? Are you a B2B software company? Each of these requires a completely different strategy.

Given you mentioned Exeter specifically, I'm going to assume you're a local service-based business. This is where most people go wrong straight away. They hear that Facebook ads are 'cheap' and they pile money into 'awareness' campaigns targeting everyone within a 10-mile radius of the city centre. This is a catastophic mistake. When you run an awareness campaign, you're telling the platform's algorithm to "find me the largest number of people for the lowest possible price." The algorithm does exactly that, showing your ads to people who are famous for never clicking, engaging, or buying anything. You're literally paying to reach the worst possible audience.

For a service business, people aren't scrolling through Instagram hoping to stumble upon a plumber. They look for a plumber when their toilet is overflowing. They search for an accountant when they get a letter from HMRC. They look for a cleaner when they can't stand the mess anymore. This is what we call 'intent'. They have an urgent problem, and they are actively looking for a solution right now. Your job isn't to create demand out of thin air; it's to place yourself directly in the path of existing demand.

That means, for most local services, the conversation begins and ends with Google Ads. Specifically, Google Search Ads and Local Service Ads. This is where people go when they have a problem. You're not interrupting their social feed; you're providing the solution they are actively searching for. It's a completely different dynamic and a much more efficient use of your money. Social media can work for some services, but usually only after you've maxed out the potential on Google.

I'd say you need to forget 'cheap' and focus on intent...

Let's dig into this idea of 'intent'. Most marketing advice tells you to build a detailed demographic profile of your ideal customer. "Male, 35-55, lives in Exeter, earns £50k+". This is almost useless. It tells you nothing of value.

You need to stop thinking about demographics and start thinking about nightmares. Your ideal customer isn't a person; it's a person in a specific problem-state. The person who needs an emergency electrician isn't defined by their age or income, but by the fact their lights have gone out and they're terrified of a house fire. The business owner who needs a Fractional CFO isn't defined by their company size, but by the fact they're staring at their cash flow forecast and feel a knot of pure panic in their stomach.

Your entire advertising strategy should be built around identifying that nightmare and targeting the moment it happens. On Google, this is done through keywords. You aren't targeting 'people in Exeter'. You are targeting the search query "emergency electrician exeter" typed at 11pm on a Saturday. The intent couldn't be clearer. They don't want to read a blog post or watch a video; they want to call someone who can fix their problem, now.

This is how you get pre-qualified traffic. The user has qualified themselves by typing their urgent need into a search box. Here’s how that might look for a few different types of Exeter-based businesses:

See the difference? One side is people looking for free information. The other is people looking to spend money to solve a problem. Focusing your budget exclusively on the second column is the single biggest step you can take towards acheiving a positive return on your ad spend.

You probably should calculate what a customer is actually worth...

Before you spend a single pound on ads, you have to know your numbers. Specifically, you need to know your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). Without this, you're flying blind. You have no idea if a £30 lead is a bargain or a disaster. The goal isn't to get the lowest Cost Per Lead (CPL); it's to acquire customers for a fraction of what they are ultimately worth to you.

Let's run through a hypothetical calculation for a local service business, like a window cleaner in Exeter who offers a monthly service.

1. Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA): What does the average customer pay you each month? Let's say it's £40.

2. Gross Margin %: What's your profit after materials and direct labour? For a service, this is often high. Let's say it's 80%.

3. Monthly Churn Rate: What percentage of your customers cancel their service each month? Let's say you're good at what you do and only lose 5% of your customers per month.

Now, we do the maths:

LTV = (ARPA * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate

LTV = (£40 * 0.80) / 0.05

LTV = £32 / 0.05 = £640

In this example, every new customer you sign up is worth £640 in gross margin to your business over their lifetime. This number changes everything. A healthy business model aims for at least a 3:1 LTV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio. This means you can afford to spend up to £213 (£640 / 3) to acquire a single new customer and still have a very profitable business.

If you know that you convert 1 in 4 qualified leads into a paying customer, you can now afford to pay up to £53.25 per lead (£213 / 4). Suddenly that £40 lead from a high-intent Google search doesn't look expensive at all. It looks like a money-making machine. This is the maths that lets you scale confidently. You're no longer guessing; you're investing based on proven value.

You'll need an offer they can't ignore...

Getting someone to your website is only half the battle. Your offer and your website are where most ad campaigns fail. You can have the best targeting in the world, but if you send that perfect, high-intent traffic to a landing page that is slow, confusing, and untrustworthy, you've just wasted your money.

The first thing to fix is your offer. I'm not just talking about your price. I'm talking about the entire message. You need to use a framework like Problem-Agitate-Solve in your ad copy. You don't sell "gardening services"; you sell the relief from a weekend chore and the pride of having the best garden on the street.

Let's write some ad copy for a fictional 'Exeter Garden Care' business targeting people with no time.

This copy speaks directly to the customer's pain point. Once they click, your website has one job: to make it incredibly easy and safe for them to take the next step. For a local service, that's usually filling out a form or calling you.

Some hard truths about your website, based on hundreds I've seen:

• -> Your homepage is probably too cluttered. It needs a single, clear headline that mirrors the ad's message and a very obvious button like "Get a Free Quote" or "Call Us Now".
• -> It needs to load fast. If it takes more than 3 seconds, you're losing people.
• -> It needs trust signals. Real photos of you and your work (not stock photos), testimonials from other Exeter customers, your business address, and your phone number all make you look like a legitimate, trustworthy operation.
• -> If you can't take calls during the day, schedule your ads to only run when you are available, or have a prominent "Request a Callback" widget. A missed call from a high-intent lead is money down the drain.

Your website should be a simple, persuasive tool designed to convert a visitor into a lead. Nothing else matters.

We'll need to look at what to expect cost-wise...

So, let's get back to your original question about cost. For local service ads on Google, you can expect to pay anywhere from $10 to $50 per lead. Yes, it can be a wide range. We're currently running a campaign for an HVAC company in a competitive city, and their leads are costing around $60 each. But they are high-value jobs, so the ROI is there. On the other hand, one of our best consumer services campaigns was for a home cleaning company, and we got their cost per lead down to just £5. The exact cost for you in Exeter will depend on the service you offer and how many other businesses are bidding on the same keywords.

I would usually recommend a starting ad spend of at least £1,000-£2,000 per month. This gives you enough data to see what's working and to optimise. Your budget is simply a calculation: (Number of leads you want per month) x (Your estimated Cost Per Lead). If you want 30 leads and they cost £40 each, you need a budget of £1200.

It's important to be realistic. You likely won't get huge, multi-thousand-pound contracts from Google Ads initially. These are often people looking for a specific, immediate job. But it's a fantastic way to build a customer base that can then lead to larger jobs and referrals down the line.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

To wrap this up, the path forward isn't about finding the 'cheapest' platform. It's about a systematic approach to finding profitable customers. It involves understanding your numbers, targeting real intent, and presenting a compelling offer. It takes work, but it's a repeatable process.

As you can see, there's a lot more to running effective paid ads than just turning them on and hoping for the best. It's a process of strategy, calculation, and relentless optimisation. It can be a lot to handle when you're also trying to run your business.

Getting it right from the start can save you thousands in wasted ad spend and months of frustration. This is where professional help can make a huge difference. We do this all day, every day, and we've seen what works and what definately doesn't across dozens of industries.

If you'd like to have a chat and walk through your specific business goals, we offer a completely free, no-obligation initial consultation. We can review your website and put together a tailored strategy that makes sense for you. Feel free to get in touch if that's something you'd be interested in.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh