Garden centerDrake’s 7 Dees
380%more organic traffic
in one year
- Google Ads conversion rate
- 26.4%
- Google Ads conversion rate
- leads in 60 days
- 744
- leads in 60 days
Marketing for Chicago service businesses
A digital marketing agency that turns Chicago searches into calls.
One team runs the website, SEO, Google Ads and AI phone answering for your Chicago business, and a co-founder leads the first call.
- Every call traced to its channel
- Suburb pages that match your ads
- Budgets split by what clicks cost
Google searches each month
What Chicago searches for, by service
8,830
searches a month
- SEO3,650
- Digital marketing2,690
- Web design2,380
- PPC management110
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 short answer
One marketing plan for a Chicago service business
For Chicago service businesses, Lithium Marketing handles the website, SEO, Google Ads and AI phone answering as one plan, with call tracking that shows which of the four booked each job. Plan all four around the same map: the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metro area is home to 9,434,123 people, so settle which suburbs you want work from before any page or ad goes live.
Chicago went from 2,748,333 residents in 2020 to 2,731,585 in 2025. In a city that isn’t adding residents, growth means winning customers who already have a company they call, so your website, search rankings and ads have to give people a reason to switch, and your phones have to catch every call that follows.
What you can hire us for
Pick the Chicago service that fixes your weakest link
Hire one service or all four, in whatever order fits your business. The cards lead to the Chicago page for each, with its own search figures.
Search rankings across ChicagoService pages and Google Business Profile work aimed at the North, South and West Side neighborhoods where your crews take jobs.Learn more A website for every kind of Chicago homeProject galleries for the houses, townhouses, condominiums and apartment buildings you work on, on a WordPress site that stays in your name.Learn more Google Ads priced trade by tradeClicks on “garage door repair chicago” average $19.37 and “landscaping chicago” $7.79, so your bids and budget start from what your own trade costs.Learn more Every Chicago call answeredRoughly 480 searches a month name Chicago for water damage restoration, and when those callers ring, the AI receptionist answers 24/7, books the job or transfers it to your team.Learn more
What Chicago customers search
Which Chicago trade searches deserve your money
“Plumber chicago” is the biggest trade search in the table, at about 5,400 a month, and “landscaping chicago” draws about 2,400. Demand that size can carry SEO pages and paid ads at once, so the real decision is how to divide the budget between them.
Click prices settle that split. Where clicks run high, as they do for plumbing and pest control, we put more weight on SEO and your Google profile for steady calls; where they run low, Google Ads can carry more of the load while your rankings build.
| Search | Searches a month | Cost per click |
|---|---|---|
| marketing agency chicago | 1,600 | $10.79 |
| digital marketing agency chicago | 880 | $14.23 |
| digital marketing chicago | 210 | $8.31 |
Source: Google Ads keyword data, average monthly U.S. searches. "Under 10" = below Google’s reporting floor.
| Search | Searches a month | Cost per click |
|---|---|---|
| pest control chicago | 2,400 | $29.60 |
| plumber chicago | 5,400 | $27.52 |
| water damage restoration chicago | 480 | $22.39 |
| garage door repair chicago | 2,400 | $19.37 |
| roofing company chicago | 1,900 | $19.33 |
| hvac repair chicago | 480 | $17.34 |
| electrician chicago | 1,900 | $13.77 |
| landscaping chicago | 2,400 | $7.79 |
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
- 1 recorded
- Local listing reviews
- 290 to 2,700 Google reviews each
- Directories in the top 10
- Better Business Bureau, Yelp
- AI Overview
- Not shown
- People also ask
- Shown
Source: one Google results page for “plumber chicago”, as Google showed it to a searcher located in Chicago. Search ad counts exclude sponsored local listings. Results shift by searcher and day.
Chicago homes and owners
What Chicago’s housing tells your marketing
Renters and landlords are a big part of the Chicago market: the city’s owner-occupied rate is 46.0%. That calls for a page on your site about rental properties, ads that reach property managers as well as homeowners, and a phone script that asks every caller whether they own the place.
Only 6.3% of Chicago homes were built in 2010 or later, so most of the work here happens in existing houses: repairs, replacements and remodels. Those services belong at the top of your website, first in line for SEO pages and first to get ad budget.
- residents (2025 estimate)
- 2,731,585
- residents (2025 estimate)
- population change, 2020 to 2025
- -0.6%
- population change, 2020 to 2025
- housing units
- 1,277,054
- housing units
- of occupied homes owner-occupied
- 46%
- of occupied homes owner-occupied
- of homes built before 1980
- 75.2%
- of homes built before 1980
- median home value
- $334,100
- median home value
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau 2025 population estimates, ACS 2020–2024 and 2023 County Business Patterns.
The trade mix
Big fields and smaller ones in Cook County
Cook County counts 2,888 residential remodelers and 1,241 landscaping businesses. With that many companies, the one with the clearest proof stands out: finished-project galleries on the website, a steady habit of asking for reviews and ads that send people straight to the matching gallery.
Painting contractors (539) and new home builders (565) are smaller groups on the same chart. For them we usually start Google Ads on a short list of exact project searches, build a gallery page for each type of job and widen the campaign once calls come in.
County Business Patterns
Trade and home service businesses in Cook County
Establishments by industry, 2023
- Residential remodelers2,888
- Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors1,377
- Landscaping services1,241
- Electrical contractors1,007
- New home builders565
- Painting contractors539
- Roofing contractors354
- Excavation and site preparation contractors167
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 County Business Patterns (NAICS establishment counts).
How we start
What happens first for a Chicago business
The order matters: we count calls, fix the site, then add search, ads and phone answering as your numbers call for them.
1
Find your weakest channel
A co-founder reviews your website, Google Business Profile, ads and phone handling, and we add tracking so each gap shows up in real numbers.
2
Choose suburbs and trades
We agree which parts of Chicago and which suburbs you want work from and which jobs pay best, and every service aims at that same list.
3
Build what’s missing
That could be a new website, SEO pages for each side of the city or Google Ads on the trades with the best margins.
4
Put the AI receptionist on the line
It picks up around the clock and books jobs into your calendar, and each month you see calls and booked jobs by source.
A full-program example
One garden center, three Lithium services
We have no Chicago case study to show you, so the closest full-program example is a garden center. Drake’s 7 Dees hired Lithium for its website, SEO and Google Ads, and the card shows what the three did together. Beside it, Kevin Atiyeh credits Lithium with understanding what his carpet and rug company, Atiyeh Bros, specializes in.
Garden center“Lithium Marketing has done a good job with understanding our Company and what we specialize in and applying that to our digital marketing.”
Kevin AtiyehAtiyeh Bros CarpetSuburbs and nearby cities
Marketing beyond the Chicago city limits
Suburban jobs belong in the same plan as city ones. The links below open our marketing pages for Naperville, Aurora, Joliet and Elgin, plus two Wisconsin cities, Kenosha and Racine, each built on searches naming that city, and the last link covers all of Illinois.
Pricing
Published prices for Chicago service businesses
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
Questions about running all your Chicago marketing in one place
Still curious?
Call (503) 766-5964 or email [email protected].
How does a Portland-based agency work with a Chicago business?
Remotely, which is how Lithium works with every client. Your strategy calls happen on video with a co-founder, your account manager, Allison McKenney, answers questions by phone and email between them, and a monthly report counts the calls and booked jobs your Chicago marketing produced.
How do I budget for website, SEO, ads and phones together?
Add up the pieces you choose, since each is priced on its own. A typical website is a one-time project, SEO and Google Ads management are monthly fees, ad spend goes to Google separately, and the AI receptionist is $179 a month. On the first call we can suggest an order that spreads the cost over several months.
Do I need a new website before starting SEO or ads?
Not always. If your site loads fast, works on a phone and shows your work, we build SEO and ads on top of it. If it is slow, hard to use or missing service pages, fixing it first keeps you from paying for visitors who arrive and leave without calling.
What contract comes with a Chicago marketing plan?
Most services start with a six-month agreement and then run month to month on 30 days’ notice. The AI receptionist has no contract at all. Whatever you decide later, your website and domain stay in your name, so changing plans never means starting over.
What will the monthly report show me?
Calls, form leads and cost per lead, broken out by the service and source behind them. If your office marks which leads turned into jobs, the report can follow each one back to the website, search ranking, ad or answered call that started it, so you can see where the next dollar should go.
Free action plan
Book more Chicago jobs from every channel: ask for a free marketing plan
Tell us which jobs you want more of and which parts of Chicago and its suburbs you serve, and share your current website and any ad account. A co-founder will walk through the numbers with you on a short video call and name the first service worth paying for.
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