PlumbingSarkinen Plumbing
2Xleads
on the same budget
- search visibility
- 3.75X
- search visibility
- ads conversion rate
- 27.37%
- ads conversion rate
The full plan for Charleston businesses
Charleston marketing that grows service businesses: one plan for search, ads and phones.
One plan covers the website, search, ads and phones for Charleston service businesses, with prices published before the work starts.
- Site, search and ads from one team
- One report on calls and booked jobs
- You own the website and domain
Google searches each month
What Charleston searches for, by service
4,840
searches a month
- SEO2,520
- Digital marketing1,310
- Web design990
- PPC management20
Source: Google Ads keyword data, average monthly U.S. searches. "Under 10" = below Google’s reporting floor.
Google PartnerView our Partners listing
5.0on Google · read our reviews
2010Lithium Marketing, established in 2010
$10M+Over $10 million in Google ad spend managed
Businesses
we’ve worked with
Businesses we’ve worked with
- Willard Power Vac
- Sarkinen Plumbing
- Robinson Restoration
- Town & Country Glass
- Dixie Glass
- Byers Septic Service
- F&W Fence Co.
- Drake’s 7 Dees
- Rickabaugh Construction
- Hillsview Building
- Dozer Dave
- Mt. Hood Pro Painting
- On-Target Landscape
- Atiyeh Bros Carpet
- Lovett
- Westmore Construction
- Northwest New Homes
- Porter Sealcoating & Paving
- RescueHero Restoration
- Panda Plumbing
- Biermann Plumbing & Heating
- Ballistic Junk Removal
- Smart Doors LLC
- Peak Performance Roofing
- Deluxe Heating & Cooling
- Lifetime Exteriors
- Bruce Johnson Construction
- Madrone Painting
- Smart Tree Service
- Premier Gutter Cover
- NW Pacific Electric
- Universal HVAC
- Lenny Martin Painting
- Next Level Decks & Exteriors
- Prodan Construction
- Smooth Rollin’ Sealcoating and Paving
- Lovett Restoration
- Greenlight Titles
- G.W. Hartley IV
- Advanced Coatings
- Thomson Equipment
- MyADU
The plan in one place
What a Charleston marketing plan covers
Charleston service businesses hire Lithium Marketing for four jobs: a website a phone visitor can use, local search pages for the services they sell, Google Ads when the next quarter needs filling, and an AI receptionist that answers every call. Those four work from one list of the cities you serve, and that list covers a metro of 889,263 people across Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties.
The city proper spreads across six districts, from the peninsula out to West Ashley, James Island, Johns Island, Daniel Island and the Cainhoy Peninsula. A contractor who takes work in three of them needs pages, ad targets and call rules for three, and that is how the plan gets built.
The four services
The four services, and which one comes first
Choose the service that costs you the most jobs first; the other three can follow once the calls justify them. Each card opens a Charleston page for that service, so a business can start with one and add the others.
Pages for the work you sellOne page for every service you want more of, a Google Business Profile that lists them all, and links from Charleston sites Google already trusts.Learn more A website that earns the callYour finished jobs in photos, the phone a single tap away, and a page for each district and service you cover.Learn more Ads that answer to the phoneA campaign per service, every call tagged to its search term, and next month's budget set by the jobs that came in.Learn more A receptionist that never closesCalls answered around the clock, the caller qualified and booked, a text sent after, and a hand-off to a person when the call needs one.Learn more
Search in Charleston
Where marketing searches sit next to trade searches
Marketing searches naming Charleston add up to 1,310 a month, and the largest is “marketing agency charleston” at 880. Those numbers describe other owners shopping for help, so we treat them as a sign that Charleston businesses compare agencies, not as the demand your website has to win.
Your customers search for the trade instead: “pest control charleston” runs 1,600 searches a month. The plan starts with searches like that one, and the trade table shows what each click costs.
| Search | Searches a month | Cost per click |
|---|---|---|
| marketing agency charleston | 880 | $8.02 |
| digital marketing charleston | 260 | not reported |
| digital marketing agency charleston | 170 | not reported |
Source: Google Ads keyword data, average monthly U.S. searches. "Under 10" = below Google’s reporting floor.
| Search | Searches a month | Cost per click |
|---|---|---|
| hvac repair charleston | 480 | $45.21 |
| garage door repair charleston | 480 | $41.81 |
| roofing company charleston | 590 | $22.99 |
| plumber charleston | 1,300 | $22.47 |
| pest control charleston | 1,600 | $17.52 |
| electrician charleston | 590 | $17.41 |
| landscaping charleston | 390 | $11.23 |
| water damage restoration charleston | 320 | $2.34 |
Source: Google Ads keyword data, average monthly U.S. searches. "Under 10" = below Google’s reporting floor.
- Map Pack
- The first thing on the page
- Search ads
- None recorded
- Local listing reviews
- 128 to 7,200 Google reviews each
- Directories in the top 10
- Facebook, Thumbtack, Yelp
- AI Overview
- Not shown
- People also ask
- Shown
Source: one Google results page for “plumber charleston”, as Google showed it to a searcher located in Charleston. Search ad counts exclude sponsored local listings. Results shift by searcher and day.
The Charleston market
Owners, renters and a county that keeps building
In Charleston County, 63.9% of occupied homes are owner-occupied, and the city holds 77,417 housing units. A service business sells to owners and to the property managers who hire for rentals, and both call the same number, so the site should answer for both.
Charleston County homes have a median construction year of 1991, so a plumber or a roofer can spend one morning in a newer subdivision and the next in an older peninsula house. Pages that separate repair from new construction let a customer pick the one that matches the house in front of them.
- residents (2025 estimate)
- 159,423
- residents (2025 estimate)
- population change, 2020 to 2025
- +5.8%
- population change, 2020 to 2025
- housing units
- 77,417
- housing units
- of occupied homes owner-occupied
- 55.6%
- of occupied homes owner-occupied
- of homes built before 1980
- 34.4%
- of homes built before 1980
- median home value
- $509,700
- median home value
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau 2025 population estimates, ACS 2020–2024 and 2023 County Business Patterns.
Trades in Charleston County
The trades a Charleston plan has to cover
Charleston County has 184 landscaping companies and 181 new home builders, and both sell work a customer has to picture before buying it. A page that shows finished projects and puts the phone number at the top does more for those trades than a paragraph about the company.
Charleston County also has 59 excavation and site preparation contractors and 53 pest control companies. A smaller group still needs its searches answered, and the plan gives those trades the same call tracking as the largest ones.
County Business Patterns
Trade and home service businesses in Charleston County
Establishments by industry, 2023
- Residential remodelers267
- Landscaping services184
- New home builders181
- Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors151
- Electrical contractors93
- Painting contractors60
- Excavation and site preparation contractors59
- Pest control companies53
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 County Business Patterns (NAICS establishment counts).
The first 90 days
How the Charleston plan gets built
Tracking comes first, then the page and profile work, then the ads and the phone line once the calls are counted.
1
Put a number on every call
We put a source on every call and form: the website, the Google Business Profile or a running ad. By the end of the first month, you can see which searches produced calls and which produced clicks.
2
Rebuild the page customers land on
A slow phone page gets rebuilt first, with the district and service pages a customer needs before they call.
3
Target the trades you sell
Search work goes to the services you sell most, and paid ads go to the jobs you want on the calendar next. Both point at the same list of cities you serve.
4
Staff the phone with AI
Calls reach the AI receptionist, which answers under the rules you set. Custom automation takes the follow-up text or the review request from there.
Client work
What a plumbing company's marketing looked like together
Sarkinen Plumbing, a Portland-area plumbing company, hired Lithium for its website, SEO and Google Ads, and the card's numbers come from that combined work. Marc Rickabaugh, who runs Rickabaugh Construction, is quoted beside it.
Plumbing“We used the team at Lithium Marketing to update our website and increase our SEO. We couldn't have been happier with the results! We receive compliments about our updated website on a regular basis!”
Marc RickabaughRickabaugh ConstructionAround Charleston
Cities around Charleston with their own pages
Mount Pleasant, North Charleston and Columbia each have a page of their own, and the two Georgia cities in the list, Savannah and Augusta, use Georgia figures. The link at the end gathers every South Carolina city Lithium works in.
Pricing
Published prices for a Charleston business
Lithium publishes a typical price for four of its five services, and AI automation is quoted after a free discovery call. Your proposal depends on scope, competition and ad spend.
Conversion web design
$5,000
typical project
Larger sites with more pages or integrations get a fixed proposal after a 30-minute discovery call. Six to nine weeks from kickoff to launch.
SEO
$1,300–$3,000
per month
Typical local SEO retainer, scoped against your revenue per lead.
Google Ads management
From $500
per month
Plus ad spend. Typical: $500–$1,500 a month in management, plus ad spend of $2,000–$5,000 a month.
AI receptionist
$179
per month
Fully managed. No contracts, cancel anytime. Live in days.
AI automation
Scoped
after discovery
Clear, upfront pricing after a free discovery call. Custom builds typically take 1–2 weeks.
Optional hosting and maintenance: $99/month. Secure private hosting on a dedicated high-speed server, daily backups, software and security updates, and basic website changes are all included. Most clients choose this option to keep their new website updated and running smoothly; it is not required.
Our usual service agreement starts with six months, then continues month to month with 30 days’ cancellation notice. Your written agreement sets the final terms. The AI receptionist has no contract.
- You own your domain, hosting account and website
- Six-month starting term
- We guarantee the work, not a ranking
FAQ
Charleston marketing questions before you hire
Still curious?
Call (503) 766-5964 or email [email protected].
Where should a Charleston owner spend the first dollar?
Fix what is leaking customers. Voicemail points to the AI receptionist, a slow phone page points to a rebuild, and a site nobody finds points to SEO or Google Ads. Your first call with a co-founder covers the tracking, the website and the listings, and it ends with one service to start and a reason for it.
Can we start with one service and add the rest later?
Start with one service and add the rest when the numbers support it. A landscaper may take only a website for a season while a plumber starts with Google Ads. Anything you add later reports into the same call tracking, so the numbers stay comparable across services.
What sets the total for a plan like this?
The mix you choose and the size of your market. SEO scales with the searches you want to win, a website with the pages and photos it needs, and Google Ads with the ad spend you run. The AI receptionist runs on its own monthly price with no contract and no setup fee, and custom automation is scoped on a call.
Who does the work after the sale?
Strategy calls belong to a co-founder, and the day to day belongs to your account manager. Allison McKenney is the account manager at Lithium, and the same person answers the questions that come up between reports. Lithium is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, with a team in Portland, Bend and Seattle, and Lithium works with every client by video, so nothing gets handed to a junior team after the pitch.
What does the monthly report show?
Calls, leads and cost per lead, sorted by the service and the city that produced them. You see which pages and ads earned a call and which ones only earned clicks, and the next month's work follows that. The report is a working document, not a scorecard for the agency.
Free action plan
Map out your first 90 days in Charleston
Point us at the site, the services you sell and the Charleston neighborhoods where you want more work. In a short video call, a co-founder will read your tracking and tell you which service to start with.
What we’ll cover
- What’s working (and what isn’t) in your current marketing
- Site and funnel gaps that are costing you leads
- Local SEO and paid traffic opportunities
- Simple tracking and KPIs to measure success
(503) 766-5964
[email protected]
2000 NE 42nd Ave Ste D Unit 2370, Portland, OR 97213
Prefer to pick a time? Book a 30-minute call with DJ