Free ad credits? 12 checks before you run ads.
Check the offer, page, tracking, and follow-up before a free ad credit becomes a reason to spend.
Read the noteAI illustration. Ad credit shown is illustrative.
By Stan Consulting
Notes
Observations from the work.
Ads, websites, search, and the decisions behind them.
5 notes
Ads & audiences
Who to reach, what to spend, and what the platform should be allowed to change.
The platform can build the campaign. It cannot own the consequence
Set the approval boundary before an automated campaign goes live.
The target you typed is about to become the result you asked for.
Check what your cost and return targets ask the bidding system to do.
A customer list is not an audience strategy.
Decide who belongs in the campaign, who does not, and why.
More Google Ads inventory does not mean more customer demand.
Separate more places to show ads from more people ready to buy.
Channel before proof is expensive.
Test one offer and destination before adding more channels.
3 notes
Websites & messaging
Help the buyer understand the offer and know what to do next.
The timer is not the urgency. The leak is.
Name the buyer's real problem instead of adding a countdown.
Website story is the conversion spine.
Carry the ad's promise through the page to the next action.
Design will not save a weak message.
A polished page still needs to explain what the buyer gets.
7 notes
Search & local demand
Being found is one step. Serving the inquiry is another.
Sacramento service-area demand can outrun booked-job capacity.
Match the area you advertise to the jobs your crew can serve.
Austin contractor leads are not profitable just because they are local.
Follow the inquiry through the estimate, completed job, and margin.
AI citations vs. AI referral traffic: the numbers are not supposed to match.
A citation, a website visit, and a sale measure different things.
The flat-roof website still ranked because it was structured.
How service pages, local context, and a quote path fit together.
The founder with 87 reviews still outranked.
Look beyond review totals when checking a local business profile.
Why Wisconsin AI search lags California by a quarter.
A dated field observation about differences between local search markets.
The contractor after the dispute button died.
Check service areas and lead settings when the account's controls change.
8 notes
Marketing decisions
Notes on budgets, reporting, priorities, and who owns the work.
Happy 250, America. Build the opportunity.
A Fourth of July note on building a business people can find and understand.
More effort is not a strategy.
Give each activity a buyer, a result to check, and a decision date.
Fixing the wrong marketing layer.
Find where the sale stops before changing the visible tactic.
The stop-doing list made the plan work.
Ask each part of the plan what job it is supposed to do.
The summary counted work, not return.
A report should help decide what happens next.
The agency call with three-month-stale metrics.
Reporting dates need to match the decisions the business is making.
The marketing leader who lasted nine months.
Check the workload and authority before blaming the person in the role.
The SaaS board deck that said the quiet part.
Compare the strategy described in the deck with the spending it reports.
Put it to work
Related guides
Step-by-step help for the page you are working on.
How to choose landing page colors
A practical guide to contrast, emphasis, and readable pages.
How to write a landing page story
Put the offer, explanation, and next step in a useful order.
Earlier engagement note
This April 2026 article describes an earlier approach to starting an engagement. See how we work for the current process.