A Google ad makes a promise in about 30 characters. The person who clicks it arrives on your website expecting to see that promise kept, usually within a few seconds. When the page doesn't mention the offer, the price or the claim in the ad, the visitor has two choices: dig through the site looking for it, or go back to the search results and click someone else.
We read the ads of the 12 St. Louis area businesses in this guide's sample in Google's public ad library and checked each claim against the business's own website. Nine of the 12 had at least one ad that promised something the site didn't support, or contradicted outright.
This chapter is about writing ads the other way around: from what the website already proves, in the words customers actually use. Chapter 7 set what each click is worth paying. This chapter is about what the click says.
Google's Ad Policy Bans Offers the Landing Page Can't Back Up. It Calls Them Unavailable Offers.
Google's Misrepresentation policy has a section on this exact problem. Under the heading "Unavailable offers," it rules out ads that promise a product, service or deal that is unavailable, or isn't easily found from the page the ad leads to. A separate section disallows "inaccurate claims."
The mismatches in our sample were ordinary. In 5 of the 12, the ads ran on an account under someone else's name, such as an agency, a parent company or an individual, so the ads and the site often weren't written by the same people:
- A heating and cooling company advertised a "$99 Tune-Up - New Customers." Its specials page offers a $99 tune-up only with a membership, regularly $137. An image ad from the same company also offered a "$50 Off First-Time Customer Special," while the site's first-time special is a $59 diagnostic.
- A gym advertised "Unlimited Reformer Pilates." The gym's Club Elite page does offer Reformer Pilates, but the word "unlimited" appears nowhere on the pages we checked.
- A lawn care company advertised "Over 1000 Five-Star Reviews." Its Google listing shows 1,766 reviews averaging 4.5 stars, but none of the website pages we checked shows a review or rating.
- A kitchen and bath remodeler promised the dream kitchen from "Missouris' top kitchen remodelers" (the typo is in the ad), with nothing on the pages we checked to back the ranking.
We don't know whether Google ever flagged any of these ads; all four were still running in October 2026. The bigger cost is quieter. A customer who clicks for a $99 tune-up and finds a membership requirement probably doesn't call to ask. Chapter 4 covered how Google rates the landing page against the ad. The customer runs the same check, faster, with a phone in one hand.
A Local Business's Best Ad Copy Is Already Written on Its Own Service Pages.
The fix is to write the ad last, from the page it points to. Open the service or town page an ad group sends people to, from Chapters 4 and 5, and pull the ad's lines from what is already there:
- The service, named the way the page names it. If the page says "drain cleaning," the headline says "drain cleaning," not "sewer solutions."
- Proof the page shows: the license, insurance, the real number of years in business, a warranty or guarantee, financing terms.
- The offer, with its conditions. If a coupon needs a membership or expires, the page says so, and the ad doesn't pretend otherwise.
- The way to act: call, book online or request a quote, whichever the page actually makes easy.
Every headline should pass one test before it goes live: could someone who clicked find this line, or its proof, on the page within a few seconds? If not, change the ad or change the page.
Here is what that looks like for the heating and cooling ad above. The original promised a "$99 Tune-Up - New Customers," and the page couldn't back it. Rebuilt from the specials page, the same offers read:
- "$99 Tune-Up With Membership" (the specials page: $99 with a membership, regularly $137)
- "New Customers: $59 Diagnostic" (the page: "First Time Customer Special $59 Diagnostic Fee")
- "Same Day Service Available" (the home page says that, so the line can stay)
Nothing in the rebuilt version is less appealing. A $99 tune-up is still a good price, and a $59 diagnostic is a real reason to call. The difference is that the person who clicks finds exactly that, and the first phone call starts with an appointment, not an argument about a coupon.
This also keeps the ad groups honest. With one service per ad group, as Chapter 5 set up, each ad only has to make promises about one service and one page.
"Price" Showed Up in Almost Three Times as Many Local Reviews as "Cost." Ads Should Use the Customer's Word.
The website tells you what you can promise. Reviews tell you how customers say it. We read all 394 Google reviews with text across the 12 businesses and counted the words people used:
- "Price" or "pricing": 48 reviews. "Cost": 17.
- "Call": 48 reviews. "Phone": 15.
- "Quote": 15 reviews. "Estimate": 13.
Those are small differences in wording, and ads have only a few words to work with. A headline that says "Fair Pricing" or "Call for a Quote" sounds like the customer. "Cost Transparency" doesn't. One caution from the same reviews: "call" and "quote" turned up mostly in complaints about getting through, which is a reason to make the call easy once the ad has promised it.
The reviews also show what customers notice. Speed was the most common praise, mentioned in 68 reviews, and "on time" came up in 19. Price was the biggest theme overall, in 123 reviews, with complaints outnumbering praise almost two to one. At all three emergency businesses in the sample, customers complained about a fee just to come out, and one said nobody mentioned it when booking.
That points to two kinds of lines worth testing. If you show up fast, say so in the ad, and make sure the page backs it. If you charge a service call fee, put it in the ad or on the page before the customer calls, so it isn't the first thing they hear on the phone.
Every Competitor's Local Ad Is Public in Google's Ads Transparency Center, Dates Included.
Before writing a single headline, look at what the other businesses in your area are running. Google's Ads Transparency Center is free and public. Type in a rival plumber's company name or web address and you see the ads Google has shown for them, with the dates each was first and last shown. It's the same library we used for the St. Louis sample.
Reading your local competitors' ads shows two useful things. First, the claims that repeat. In our sample, ads from 6 of the 12 businesses called themselves "best," "top" or "#1," and ads from 3 said "family owned." A line several competitors already use doesn't set anyone apart.
Second, the claims nobody can make. If no other plumber in town shows a written warranty, same-day appointments or a posted service fee, and you have one, that's the headline. The aim is the true thing that only your business can say, backed by the page the ad points to.
Our roofers guide shows the same research for one trade, with roofing ads read against homeowner reviews.
Google Mixes Up to 15 Headlines and 4 Descriptions. Pinning Belongs Only on a Line That Must Always Show.
Google's standard text ad is the responsive search ad. For a plumber or a dentist, that means writing as many as 15 headlines and four descriptions, each short enough to fit Google's character limits, and letting Google pick which ones to pair for each search. Its own guidance is the key rule for writing them: "Assets can be shown in any order, so make sure they make sense individually or in combinations."
That rules out headlines that depend on each other. "Same-Day Service" and "In St. Charles" might show apart. Each line has to stand on its own.
Google also lets you pin a line to a fixed position, and says plainly when to do it: "If you have text that should appear in every ad, you must pin" it to one of the first positions. For most local businesses, that's rare. A license number, if your state requires one in ads, or the terms attached to an offer, are good reasons. Pinning a favorite headline just because it's a favorite is not, because it limits the combinations Google can test. Google recommends at least two responsive search ads per ad group with an Ad Strength of Good or Excellent.
One Electrician's Ad Has Claimed 33 Years in Business for Three and a Half Years. Ad Copy Goes Stale Like Any Sign.
An ad keeps running long after the facts in it change. One electrician in our sample has an ad that the Transparency Center shows was first displayed in March 2023 and was still running in October 2026. It says the company has been "in business for 33 years." The company's website now says 37, and one of its newer ads says both 37 and 35 in the same description.
It isn't rare. Six of the 12 businesses showed different years in business across their ads, Google listings and websites, and nine showed hours that didn't agree. Prices and coupon amounts drift the same way.
The paths in ads go stale too. The short web address shown under the headline, the display path, is text you type. Clicks go to a different address, the final URL. But a path that names a page you no longer have still tells the searcher something wrong. We typed 23 of them into a browser across 11 businesses, and 9 returned a 404 error, an empty search page, a bare image file or an unfinished template page.
The fix is a calendar reminder. Read every live ad once a year, and again whenever a price, an offer, the hours or the years in business change. Click every link while you're there.
Next: Geo Targeting Defaults to Anyone Curious About Your Town.
An honest ad shown to someone three states away is still a wasted click. Chapter 9 is the pre-launch checklist for a local campaign. First on it is Google's default location option, which counts people searching about your town from anywhere alongside the people who live there.
Every chapter is on the guide's home page. If you'd rather have someone write the ads, our Google Ads management builds every local ad from the client's own pages and reviews, and checks them against the site before launch.
