SEO vs Google Ads: Which Should a Local Service Business Choose?
Which channel a local service business should choose first, how the costs differ, when to run both, and the website problems that sink either one.
Founder & principal consultant
Mathew Brown
I run the marketing, build the technology under it, and own the numbers that say whether it worked. Ten years of that started in the trades, which is still the reason the advice is any good.
Hamilton, Ontario · (647) 405-6109 · mat@marketingtech.ca
Where the advice comes from
- A decade in the tradesPlumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing, flooring, paintingField
- Call centre and CRMBuilt the systems, not just the reportsOps
- Advertising at scaleTen-plus platforms, managed personallyMedia
- Google and HubSpot certifiedCurrent, and listed in fullFormal
Who is Mathew Brown?
Mathew Brown is the founder and principal consultant of Marketing & Technology, a Hamilton, Ontario consultancy. He builds lead generation systems for service businesses — advertising, search, website, CRM and automation — and brings over a decade of hands-on experience in construction and the trades to that work.
The short version
I started Marketing & Technology because I kept finding the same gap inside businesses I worked for. The marketing was one person's job, the CRM was another person's job, the phone system belonged to whoever set it up years ago, and nobody could tell you what a booked job cost. Every one of those is a piece of the same machine, and treating them as separate is what makes the machine leak.
The moment it became a company was watching one business triple its revenue over three years. I supported the call centre, built the CRM and the communications technology, and scaled the digital marketing at the same time. It was not three projects that happened to succeed together. It worked because it was one project.
What I actually did before this
Over a decade around plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing, flooring, renovations and painting — including behind the tools on a number of projects, and still a hands-on DIYer. That is not a credential in the usual sense, and it is worth more than one. It means I know what a homeowner asks on a site visit, why a quote goes cold, what a dispatcher is doing at 7am, and why "just send more leads" is usually the wrong answer.
Alongside that: a $400,000 per month marketing budget, campaigns across more than ten platforms, a business held at 15% cost of net sales, and 1,200+ leads a month generated consistently in small markets. Average cost per lead $146, average cost per issued appointment $423. Those are numbers from campaigns I have personally managed — not client outcomes MAT delivered under contract, and I would rather draw that line myself than have someone else draw it for me.
What I think most contractors are getting wrong
Not their advertising. Their follow-up, their measurement, and their reluctance to let technology do the boring parts. A business that answers every enquiry within ten minutes and follows up a quote four times will beat a better-marketed competitor that does neither. Most of the marketing budget in this industry is spent buying attention the business then fails to catch.
Which is why the audit comes first, why conversion and follow-up get fixed before spend goes up, and why I will tell you when the honest answer is that you do not need an agency this quarter.
Expertise
What I work on
Paid advertising
Google Search, Performance Max, Display, YouTube and Meta. Budget planning, conversion tracking, offline conversion import, and bidding against booked-job value rather than form fills.
Search and AI visibility
Technical SEO, local search and Google Business Profile, content structured for extraction by answer engines, and the structured data that lets them resolve a business to one entity.
CRM and sales operations
HubSpot and Salesforce implementation, pipeline design that matches how a trade actually sells, lead routing, call-centre process, and reporting that a sales manager will actually open.
Automation and integration
n8n, Zapier and native platform automation. APIs and webhooks between CRM, phone systems, quoting tools and accounting, so job data stops being retyped.
Websites and conversion
WordPress builds for clients, static builds where speed matters, landing-page conversion work, form and call-tracking instrumentation, and Core Web Vitals.
The technology underneath
VoIP phone systems and call routing, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 administration, endpoint security, and the infrastructure a small service business runs on.
Verified
Certifications
Twelve current certifications across Google, HubSpot and Hootsuite. All verifiable — the credential wallet is public.
- Search Ads 360
- Display & Video 360
- Google Analytics
- Google Ads Search
- Google Ads Display
- Google Ads Video
HubSpot
- Reporting
- Inbound Marketing
- Sales Software
- Marketing Software
- Social Media
Hootsuite
- Hootsuite University
Verify these on credential.net· More detail on each certification
Writing
Recent posts
Simple Marketing Automation Tasks That Save Time for Service Businesses
The everyday admin a service business can hand to software — enquiry replies, appointment reminders, quote follow-ups, reviews — and what it gives back.
5 Marketing Tasks Small Businesses Can Automate Without Losing the Human Touch
Lead acknowledgement, follow-up reminders, review requests, record keeping and reporting: five tasks worth automating, and where a person must stay.
How to reach me
Enquiries come to me, not to a shared inbox with three people's names on it. If you call during the day I will usually pick up; if you email, expect a reply the same day.
- Phone
- (647) 405-6109
- mat@marketingtech.ca
- Office
- 326 East 34th Street, Hamilton, ON L8V 3X3
- /in/mathewryanbrown
Questions about Mathew
Who is Mathew Brown?
Mathew Brown is the founder and principal consultant of Marketing & Technology, a marketing and technology consultancy in Hamilton, Ontario. He has over a decade of experience across the trades and now builds lead generation systems — advertising, search, CRM and automation — for service businesses in Ontario and across Canada.
What is Mathew's background in the trades?
More than ten years around plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing, flooring, renovations and painting, including working behind the tools on projects. That is why the marketing advice here starts from how a job is quoted and sold rather than from a channel playbook.
What size budgets has he managed?
Up to $400,000 per month in marketing spend across more than ten platforms, sustained at 15% cost of net sales, with a business generating 1,200+ leads a month in small markets. These are campaigns he has personally managed rather than agency case studies.
What certifications does he hold?
Twelve current credentials: six from Google covering search, display, video and analytics; five from HubSpot covering CRM, sales and marketing software; and Hootsuite University. Every one links to an independent verification record rather than being displayed as a badge image alone.
Does Mathew work on the accounts himself?
Yes. He runs strategy, the ad accounts and the monthly reporting on every engagement, bringing in specialists for design, development and content. The client list is kept deliberately short so that stays true rather than becoming a sales promise.
How do I get in touch with him directly?
By phone on (647) 405-6109, by email at mat@marketingtech.ca, or through the contact page. Enquiries reach him rather than a shared inbox, and a reply usually comes the same day.
Send me the thing you're stuck on.
Whether it is an ad account that stopped working, a CRM nobody uses, or a website that gets traffic and no calls — describe it and I will tell you what I would look at first. That part is free and it is not a sales call.
You talk to Mathew.Not an account manager, and not a sales team.