Solved: Improve Cleaning Company Ads on Meta (Facebook)

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out. It's a really common and frustrating problem for local service businesses to spend money on ads only to get tyre-kickers. I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance on how you might be able to improve things. It really boils down to being on the right platform to catch people at the exact moment they need you.

We'll need to look at your audience's intent...

Right, let's get straight to it. The single biggest issue I see here isn't your ad copy or your budget (though we'll get to that), it's your choice of platform. You're trying to sell an emergency service on a discovery platform. Think about it: when does someone decide they need their carpet cleaned? It’s usually when their kid spills juice, the dog has an accident, or they're having guests over and suddenly notice a massive stain. It's a specific, urgent, and often unplanned need. It's a problem that needs solving, now.

Your ideal customer isn't defined by their age, their hobbies, or what pages they've liked on Facebook. Their defining characteristic is that they have a dirty carpet, a stained sofa, or a mucky car interior *right now*. This is what I call a "problem state," and it’s far more powerful for targeting than any demographic.

What you're doing on Meta is what's called 'push' advertising. You're pushing your message in front of people who are scrolling through photos of their friends' holidays or watching funny videos. They're in entertainment mode, not problem-solving mode. So, even if your ad is perfect, you’re interrupting them. This is why you get people who are "just curious." They might think, "Oh, that's interesting, maybe I'll need that one day," and they send a message with no real intention of booking. You're paying to talk to people who don't have the problem you solve. It's an uphill battle.

What you need is 'pull' advertising. You need to be there at the exact moment someone is actively looking for a solution to their problem. They pull out their phone, open Google, and type "carpet cleaner near me" or "emergency upholstery cleaning." They have what we call 'high commercial intent.' They aren't just curious; they have a wallet in their hand, ready to pay someone to make their problem go away. This is where you want your business to show up. It’s the difference between shouting in a crowded park and having a quiet conversation with someone who's asked to speak to you.

I'd say you need to change your ad platform...

So, the first and most impactful change you can make is to pause your Meta ads and move that budget over to Google Search Ads. This platform is built from the ground up to capture the 'pull' demand we just talked about. Instead of guessing who might need your services, you're placing your business directly in the path of people who are telling you they need you.

The core of a Google Ads campaign is keywords. You bid on the phrases you think potential customers will search for. Your job is to get inside their head. What would you type into Google if you had a red wine stain on your beige carpet? It probably wouldn't be "local domestic cleaning solutions." It would be something direct and simple.

You'll want to target keywords like:

• "carpet cleaning [your town/city]"
• "upholstery cleaners near me"
• "professional car interior cleaning"
• "emergency stain removal"
• "sofa cleaning service [your area]"

Notice how specific these are. We're not targeting "cleaning tips" or "how to clean a carpet." Those are informational queries from people who want to do it themselves. We want transactional queries from people who want to pay someone to do it for them. This focus on intent is what separates a profitable campaign from a money pit. You are essentially pre-qualifying your audience before you even pay for the click.

Another thing to consider is Google Local Service Ads (LSAs). These appear right at the very top of the search results, even above the normal ads. They show your business name, reviews, and a phone number. The best part is you only pay when someone actually calls you or sends a message through the ad – you pay per lead, not per click. It's a fantastic system for local service businesses, but you do need to go through a verification process to become 'Google Guaranteed', which builds a huge amount of trust with potential customers.

And when you set up your standard Google Search ads, make sure you use call extensions. This puts a clickable phone number right in your ad. Many people searching on their mobile for a local service don't want to browse a website; they just want to call someone and get it sorted. Making it as easy as possible for them to contact you is absolutely critical.

You probably should rethink your budget and what to expect...

Now, let's talk about the money. A budget of €35 per week is a very difficult starting point. While it's understandable to be cautious, especially when you're not seeing results, that amount is barely enough to gather any meaningful data. On Google, where clicks can be more expensive than on Meta (because they are so much more valuable), €5 a day might only get you one or two clicks in a competitive area. If neither of those people calls you, it looks like the campaign has failed, but in reality, it never had a chance to get going.

Instead of picking a number out of the air, you need to work backwards from what a new customer is worth to you. This is how you stop thinking about advertising as an expense and start seeing it as an investment. The key metric here is your affordable Cost Per Lead (CPL).

Let's do some rough maths. Say an average carpet cleaning job brings you €150 in revenue. And let's say you're good at what you do, so you close 1 out of every 3 qualified leads you get into a paying customer. That's a 33% closing rate. If you want to make at least a 3x return on your ad spend (a common benchmark), the calculation would be:

(Average Job Value / Target Return) * Closing Rate = Maximum Affordable CPL

(€150 / 3) * 0.33 = €16.50

In this scenario, you could afford to pay up to €16.50 for a single qualified lead and still be profitable. Now you have a real number to aim for. If you want 10 new leads a month, your starting ad spend should be around €165 per month, not €140 (€35 x 4). This is a much more strategic way to set a budget.

Costs can vary hugely by location and service. I've seen it myself in the campaigns we've run. One of our best performing consumer service campaigns was for a home cleaning company, and we got them leads for around £5 each, which was fantastic. But we also run a campaign for an HVAC company in a very competitive city, and their CPL is closer to $60. The key is that both are profitable because they know their numbers. They know what a customer is worth and what they can afford to spend to acquire one.

You'll need an offer that works...

Finally, let's talk about your campaign objective on Meta. You said you were optimising for "interactions." This is another critical mistake, but a very common one. When you tell an ad platform like Meta that you want "interactions," its powerful algorithm goes out and does exactly what you asked for: it finds the people within your audience who are most likely to like, comment, share, or send a message. It doesn't look for people who are likely to buy. These are often two very different groups of people. You are actively telling Meta to find you non-customers, because their attention is cheap.

You've seen the result of this yourself: "people not interested or just curious." That's the interaction-seeking audience. They love to engage, but they rarely convert.

When you switch to Google Ads, your objective needs to be crystal clear. You want leads. That means you should be tracking phone calls from your ads and form submissions on your website as conversions. The campaign objective should be set to 'Leads,' and you should tell the algorithm to maximise conversions. This way, Google's machine learning will focus all its power on finding you people who are not just clicking, but who are actually taking the valuable action of contacting you.

Your "offer" also needs to be simple and low-friction. On your website or landing page, the call to action should be unmissable. Don't make people hunt for your phone number or contact form. Big, bold buttons that say "Get a Free Quote Now" or "Call For an Instant Quote" work well. Your website doesn't need to be fancy, but it does need to load quickly, look professional and trustworthy, and make it incredibly easy for a potential customer to give you their details or pick up the phone.

Here is the main advice I have for you:

Switching from a familiar platform and rethinking your whole approach can feel daunting. To make it clearer, I've broken down the main recommendations into a simple table for you to follow.

Getting paid advertising right, especially in a competitive local market, involves more than just setting up a campaign. It's about deep strategic thinking, constant testing, and understanding the psychology of your customer. It can be a lot to manage on top of running your actual business.

Working with someone who does this day-in, day-out can make a huge difference. We can help you avoid common pitfalls, set up campaigns correctly from the start, and optimise them to drive down your costs and bring in profitable work, much faster than you could on your own.

If you'd like to chat through your specific situation in more detail, we offer a completely free, no-obligation consultation. We could have a look at your local area's competition and map out a more detailed plan for you.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh