These are the questions we hear most from Guelph owners. The answers above are short on purpose; the notes below add the context that matters when you're deciding whether to hire anyone at all, us included.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Guelph.Marketing cost?
Plans run from $1,999 a month on month-to-month terms, or $1,499 a month on annual billing, plus 13% HST for Ontario clients. Elite and Enterprise plans cost more and cover more. Ad spend is separate and goes to the ad platforms.
Do I have to sign a long contract?
No. You pay one month at a time and can stop by giving us 30 days' notice. Paying annually is optional; it just brings the monthly rate down.
How soon will I see more calls?
Ads can produce calls within days of launch. Profile fixes often show within weeks. Organic search and review growth build over several months. We'll give you a realistic timeline for your situation in the first conversation.
We tried an agency before and got nothing. Why would this be different?
We can't promise it will be. What we can do is show you the plan, the spending caps and the measurements in writing before you start, report calls and jobs rather than impressions, and let you leave with 30 days' notice if it isn't working.
Who owns the website, domain and ad accounts?
You do. Your domain, website content, Google Business Profile, ad accounts and analytics stay in your name, and you keep full access. If we stop working together, nothing has to be handed back.
Will you promise us rankings or a set number of leads?
No, and you should be wary of anyone who does. Google decides rankings, and customers decide whether to call. We commit to doing the work properly, reporting honestly and changing course when something isn't working.
What will I see in your reports?
A short monthly summary covering calls, texts and emails, where they came from, what we spent your ad money on, review growth and what we plan to change next. Jobs booked are included if you share that number with us.
Are you a contractor or a lead-selling service?
Neither. We don't install, repair or service anything, and we never sell your leads to other businesses. We plan and run marketing for your business and give honest advice on growth.
Do you only work with trades?
Mostly trades and home-service businesses, plus other local service firms that customers call before booking. Our published case studies are results from our HVAC work, but the method applies more widely.
Do you work with businesses outside Guelph city limits?
Yes. Many clients are based in or also serve Puslinch, Guelph/Eramosa and the rest of Wellington County. We set service areas around the drive times you can genuinely keep.
How much of my time will this take?
An hour or two at the start, then a few minutes a week sending job photos and making sure your team asks for reviews. We handle the rest and check in monthly.
Can we start small and add services later?
Yes. Many Guelph businesses start with local search and reviews, then add ads or commercial outreach once those are working. Month-to-month terms make it easy to adjust.
Cost and contracts
The plan fee is the predictable part. What varies is ad spend, which is paid to Google directly, and whether your website needs work. Our pricing page sets out all three plans in a table, including annual billing prices, and walks through a simple break-even test you can run on your own numbers.
A rule of thumb for a Guelph trade: if you can't see a realistic path to enough extra jobs each month to cover the total cost, wait. We'd rather you start later with a plan that pays than start now with one that doesn't.
Results, timelines and honesty
Marketing works on different clocks. Ads respond in days. Profile corrections in weeks. Organic rankings and reviews in months. Any honest plan uses the faster channels to bring in calls while the slower ones build.
We never promise rankings or lead counts. We show you real, published results from our HVAC work, explain which parts transfer to your trade, and tell you plainly what we expect for your situation. If, after a fair period, the numbers aren't moving, we say so.
Ownership and access
This comes up more than any other worry, usually because an owner has been burned before. The rule here is simple: everything is in your name. Your domain, your hosting account, your Google Business Profile, your ad accounts and your analytics. We work inside them with access you grant, and you can remove that access whenever you choose.
If a previous agency still controls your accounts, we'll help you work through recovering them as part of getting started.
"We tried an agency before"
This is the most common story we hear from Guelph owners, and it usually has the same shape. The agency signed them to a long contract, reported impressions and clicks instead of calls, ran ads on terms that brought in job seekers and out-of-town searches, and built a website the owner couldn't edit. When the owner left, the ad account or the domain stayed behind.
We can't undo that history, but we can make the next attempt easier to judge:
- Everything in writing first. The plan, the monthly cap and what we'll measure, agreed before work begins.
- Calls and jobs in every report. If a channel isn't producing enquiries, you'll see it in the numbers and hear it from us.
- No long lock-in. Month-to-month terms with 30 days' notice mean you can walk away if we don't earn our place.
- Accounts in your name from day one. Nothing to hand back if you leave.
If you'd like, bring your old reports to the first conversation. We'll tell you plainly what went wrong and whether it's worth trying again.
Things we won't do
A few lines we don't cross, whatever the request: we don't write or buy reviews, we don't create pages that swap one neighbourhood name for another, we don't bid on keywords outside your real service area to inflate numbers, and we don't promise a ranking position or a fixed lead count. We also never take on the trade work itself.
Working with us day to day
You'll speak to a senior strategist, not a call centre. We'll ask for your job list, your average invoice and a sense of which work you want more of. After that, the main things we need from you are photos of real jobs, quick answers to the occasional question, and a crew that asks happy customers for reviews.
For more about who we are, see the about page. To understand the different services and where to start, see the services overview. When you're ready, the contact page explains how to reach us and what to include.