Paid ads for cleaning businesses: a small Facebook boost and Google Local Services Ads

Free posts, reviews and referrals do the steady work. When you’re ready to pay for more, start small, measure what comes back, and keep only what pays for itself.

By the Sudsy Social team · October 8, 2026 · 3 min read

Your free posts, reviews and referrals do the steady work. A small paid push puts your best post in front of people in your cities who don't follow you yet. The rule: start small, measure what comes back, and keep only what pays for itself.

Before you spend anything

Get your Google profile and a few good reviews in place first. People who see an ad check you out before they call, and Google's own ads rank partly on your reviews.

A small Facebook or Instagram boost

A boost shows one of your posts to people nearby who don't follow you yet. $5–10 a day for about a week is enough to learn whether it works for you: $25–70 in all, enough for several thousand people nearby to see it.

Boost what people already liked. Before-and-afters and posts with an offer usually do best.
Tap "Boost" under the post on your Facebook Page or Instagram professional account. You pay Meta with your own card.
Set the audience yourself: your cities with a small radius (about 5–10 miles) and ages 30 and up. Skip interests: Meta finds the right people on its own.
Pick the goal that matches how people book: messages if they book by message, calls if they phone, website visits to send them to your booking page. Skip goals for likes or engagement: likes don't book cleans.
Use a tracked link so you can tell who came from the ad. On Instagram, captions can't hold a tappable link: choose your website as where people go and paste the link there.

Don't spend more until a boost has brought you a client.

Google Local Services Ads

These are the ads at the very top of Google, with a "Google Verified" check. You pay for each call or message from a possible client, not for clicks.

What Google checks: general and professional liability insurance, a business license where your state requires one, and background checks (often for the owner). It takes about 3–4 weeks.
Pick only the services and cities you really serve.
Start with a budget for about 5 leads a week. At about $30 a lead, that's around $150 a week.
Answer fast. Answering quickly helps you rank higher, and a caller you miss usually calls the next cleaner.
Mark each lead as booked or not. If a lead is spam or asks for something you don't offer, tell Google in the lead's feedback: Google credits some of these.

Know if it paid

Write down what you spent and every client who booked from the ad, with what one clean (or a year of cleans, for recurring clients) is worth. After 2 or 3 tries you'll know. If they bring no one, try a different post or stop. Ads bring questions, and people who wait usually book someone else: reply within minutes if you can, with your price range and a time you're free.