GREAT FALLS, MONTANA • PPC MANAGEMENT

Great Falls PPC Campaigns Built to Turn Clicks Into Customers

More phone calls and booked work from Google search, and now from AI search too.

Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, and Meta campaigns for Great Falls service businesses, engineered around the only metric that pays back: revenue per booked lead, not click volume.

Latest case study below: +76% Google Ads conversions on a 2.29% spend increase.

Smiling contractor in his work truck holding up his iPhone showing an incoming call from "Website Lead". Proof that the PPC campaign is generating booked work
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Google reviews
Verified 5-star rating across 30+ reviews
Google
Partner
Certified
Vetted search agency in Google's official program
20+
Years
Digital marketing experience under one roof
500+
Service businesses
Helped to grow with SEO across the U.S.
SERVICE-BUSINESS CASE STUDY

How a 78-year-old Gulf Coast glass company drove 76% more Google Ads conversions on a 2.29% spend increase.

Great Falls service businesses face a North-Central Montana auction shaped by Malmstrom Air Force Base shift cycles, ag commodity windows, and a tight regional buyer pool. The Dixie Glass campaign shows what disciplined PPC management does to that math.

Dixie Glass, a third-generation Mississippi Gulf Coast glass company in business since 1946, came to Lithium with Google Ads campaigns that were spending without producing tracked conversions. We rebuilt the campaigns around proper conversion tracking, tightened the keyword and match-type strategy, deployed dedicated landing pages, and wired CallRail through to GA4. Over twelve months, on only a 2.29 percent ad spend increase, Google Ads conversions climbed 76 percent and the campaign conversion rate landed at 15.57 percent.

DIXIE GLASS — GOOGLE ADS REBUILD

Mississippi Gulf Coast • Since 1946
Dixie Glass fleet. A Lithium Marketing service-business case study client
Dixie Glass logo
Dixie Glass Google Ads conversions growth chart: +76% more Google Ads conversions on a 2.29% ad spend increase after the Lithium rebuild
WHY LITHIUM FOR GREAT FALLS PPC

Three things Great Falls PPC programs miss that we don't.

Great Falls search demand follows ag windows and base rotations.

Malmstrom Air Force Base PCS rotations and the Golden Triangle wheat harvest swing search volume across rentals, home services, and trades. A flat budget gets caught flat-footed. We bid the Great Falls auction by season and by base-rotation window, not a one-size-fits-all monthly average.

Great Falls buyers don't click ad copy that sounds Bozeman.

Air Force families, longtime ranching households, and the regional service base read ad copy with a different filter than the Bozeman tech-resort crowd. Naming the actual service, Downtown Great Falls or the 10th Avenue South corridor, and a real local price raises Quality Score and lowers cost per click. TRICARE awareness on medical landing pages converts.

Great Falls PPC math closes on cost per booked lead.

Click reports do not pay invoices, booked jobs do. We wire CallRail and form tracking into GA4 and report leading indicators weekly, then leads and cost per booked lead and revenue monthly. The Great Falls campaigns we run are judged on the line that hits the bank account.

Strategic comparison of traditional PPC agencies vs Lithium Marketing across conversion tracking, landing pages, bid management, reporting and attribution, and strategy ownership

Ranking for queries that do not convert

In Great Falls, where Bay Area business-services CPCs run $7 to $12, every wasted click is a measurable dollar lost. Lithium’s PPC programs are built around the cost-per-lead math first, click volume second.

Technical debt blocking growth

Service-business buyers prefer to tap a phone number rather than navigate a menu to find one. A site missing a click-to-call link in the hero, and a sticky mobile bar that keeps it within thumb reach during scroll, loses the calls you paid to earn through ads.

Generic content that says nothing local

A PPC campaign without proper conversion tracking, dedicated landing pages, and negative-keyword discipline is invisible in your CRM dashboard. The clicks may be there, the impressions may be there, but the booked work is flat. That is where most of the Great Falls ad spend silently leaks.

No measurement tied to revenue

Buyers decide whether to keep scrolling in about five seconds. A site that shows no reviews, no project photos, no service-area clarity, and no trust signal in the hero loses every time to a competitor who placed a single five-star rating in the right spot.

WHAT'S INCLUDED IN EVERY GREAT FALLS PPC RETAINER

Eight things we ship inside every Great Falls PPC retainer, not as upsells.

Every Great Falls PPC retainer ships the same disciplined work: conversion tracking built right, dedicated landing pages per intent, ongoing creative testing, and reporting tied to leads and revenue rather than vanity clicks.

Conversion tracking, properly wired

GA4 events on every form and click-to-call. CallRail call tracking with call quality scoring. Server-side conversion imports for Google Ads. Offline-conversion imports from your CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce, GoHighLevel). The algorithm cannot optimize toward leads it cannot see.

Dedicated landing pages per intent

Landing pages built for the buyer behind the keyword, not the home page. Single offer above the fold, tap-to-call thumb-zone-friendly, one form, one CTA, and a load time under 2.5 seconds on a mid-tier Great Falls mobile network. Every high-intent keyword cluster gets its own page.

Keyword strategy + match-type discipline

Keywords mapped to buyer intent (research, comparison, decision) and tied to estimated revenue per lead. Match-type discipline that prevents broad-match drift from eating budget on the wrong queries. Monthly negative-keyword review from the search-terms report.

Ad copy + Responsive Search Ads

Ad copy that names the actual service, not “quality work.” Responsive Search Ads with the maximum asset count, manual headline pinning where intent demands it, sitelinks tuned to Great Falls buyer language, and structured asset extensions. Every variant tagged for A/B analysis.

Geo-targeting + audience layering

Geo-targeting at the suburb level, not the metro level. Bid modifiers tuned to your actual conversion data across the neighborhoods you serve. Audience layering with in-market segments, remarketing pools, and customer-match uploads from your CRM. The right click, the right place, the right time, at the right bid.

Bid management + remarketing

Manual control on high-intent keywords, Google’s tCPA and tROAS automation where the data supports it. Remarketing audiences segmented by funnel stage, with display, YouTube, and Discovery campaigns layered on top of search for Great Falls buyers who clicked but did not convert. The full funnel, not just the first click.

Reporting tied to revenue, not vanity

Looker Studio dashboard updating daily on impressions, clicks, conversions, conversion rate, and ROAS by campaign and ad group. Call quality scored and reviewed monthly. Monthly written report ties everything back to leads delivered, cost per lead, and revenue. The same numbers Lithium uses internally to manage your program.

Optimization cadence that pays back

Daily monitoring during the first 30 days, weekly after that. Bid adjustments, ad copy rotations, and budget reallocations happen on real data: search-terms reports, conversion data by ad group, landing-page conversion rate, device and audience performance. Every change is logged and tied to a measurable outcome.

GREAT FALLS SERVICE BUSINESSES WE RUN PPC FOR

The verticals where our Great Falls PPC playbook turns clicks into customers most reliably.

Great Falls economy runs on Malmstrom Air Force Base, Benefis Health System, the Golden Triangle wheat and barley operations, and the regional retail and trades that anchor north-central Montana. These are the verticals where our PPC programs deliver the most consistent cost-per-lead math.

Home services

Great Falls winters and an older housing stock around Downtown Great Falls and the Riverview neighborhood keep HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and roofing trades busy, with frozen-pipe and ice-dam emergencies spiking November through March. We build emergency-intent campaigns with call-only ads, geo-targeted across Great Falls and Cascade County, and tap-to-call landing pages that load fast on rural mobile networks. Cost per lead typically lands $60 to $115 once the campaign is optimized.

Dental and medical practices

Independent dental and medical practices in Great Falls operate around Benefis Health System. We run procedure-specific ad groups, insurance-friendly landing pages with explicit TRICARE messaging for the Malmstrom Air Force Base population, and conversion tracking through your booking platform. Not just form submissions. PCS-cycle landing-page timing makes a measurable difference.

Contractors and construction

Great Falls contractors handle a mix of military-family housing turnover work, ranch outbuildings across the Golden Triangle, and aging residential additions and remodels. We run project-type ad groups (metal buildings, foundations, additions, basement finishing), creative built around real Montana project photography, and quote-form landing pages with realistic price-range expectation setting for a high-wind, cold-weather build market.

Legal and professional services

Great Falls attorneys compete in a smaller bar covering family law, personal injury, ag and water law, and military-family legal needs. Montana State Bar advertising rules apply to ad copy. We run practice-area campaigns tied to actual buyer intent, consultation-booking landing pages, and conversion tracking that ties the click to a booked call. Microsoft Ads often outperforms Google here on a lower CPC.

Hospitality and restaurants

Great Falls restaurant and hospitality runs on Malmstrom Air Force Base traffic, the Montana State Fair at Montana ExpoPark, and summer Missouri River tourism. We build local-intent search campaigns, reservation-platform conversion tracking, event-driven campaign scheduling around the State Fair run, and geo-fenced ad groups around 10th Avenue South lodging routes.

Auto services

Auto repair, diesel service, and fleet maintenance shops in Great Falls compete on emergency-intent searches and ag-equipment and diesel-truck queries. We run service-emergency call-only campaigns, diesel-specific and military-base targeted ad groups, and dynamic call extensions. Geo-targeting extends along the Interstate 15 corridor and the Highway 87 ranch route.

Specialty retail

Great Falls retail clusters Downtown and along the 10th Avenue South corridor and Holiday Village Mall. We run Google Shopping with local-inventory feeds, store-visit conversion tracking, and remarketing segmented by product category. Performance Max handles awareness on a small-market budget; manual search captures the high-intent decision before the shopper drives to Helena or Billings.

B2B services

Great Falls B2B service economy supports Malmstrom Air Force Base contractors, the Golden Triangle ag supply chain, and the Benefis Health system. Long sales cycles, account-based buying. We run LinkedIn-paired Google Ads, gated lead-gen funnels, and long-cycle attribution wired through HubSpot or Salesforce. Cost per qualified opportunity matters more than cost per first-touch lead.

OUR PROCESS

From audit to optimized campaigns, with weekly check-ins through the first month.

Profitable PPC is a compounding system, not a one-time launch. The Lithium process starts with an audit and conversion-tracking rebuild, then ships campaign optimizations on a weekly cadence with monthly reporting that ties impressions to booked work.

01

Audit and strategy

Week 1

We pull your Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, GA4, CallRail, and CRM data and audit your current campaigns against impression share, conversion rate, quality score, and search-terms waste. We map your service mix, real Great Falls buyer journeys, and revenue per lead. You receive an audit deliverable in week one with priorities ranked by impact.

02

Conversion infrastructure

Week 2

Before we touch ad copy, we wire conversion tracking properly. GA4 events on every form and click-to-call, CallRail through to Google Ads, server-side conversion imports, and offline-conversion imports from your CRM. The algorithm cannot optimize toward leads it cannot see, so this gets done first or everything else compounds slower.

03

Campaign build

Week 2–3

Ad groups structured by buyer intent, ad copy with the maximum Responsive Search Ads asset count, dedicated landing pages built for each high-intent keyword cluster, geo-targeting at the suburb level (tuned to the neighborhoods you actually serve), and a baseline negative-keyword list. Every campaign launches with a 30-day optimization plan already mapped.

04

Launch and learning phase

Week 3–6

We build your Great Falls campaigns from the ground up: ad groups by intent, ad copy with the maximum Responsive Search Ads asset count, sitelinks tuned to Great Falls buyer language, geo-targeting at the suburb level, and dedicated landing pages for the highest-intent keywords. Every campaign launches with a baseline negative-keyword list and a 30-day optimization plan already mapped.

05

Ongoing optimization

Week 6–7

Daily monitoring during the first 30 days, weekly after that. We optimize on search-terms reports, conversion data by ad group, landing-page conversion rate, device and audience performance, and quality score drift. Bid adjustments, ad copy rotations, and budget reallocations happen on real data, not gut feel. Every change is logged and tied to a measurable outcome.

06

Measurement and monthly iteration

Post-launch

Monthly written report tied to leads, cost per lead, and revenue from paid search. Strategy call with DJ Van Zanten to set the next month’s priorities. The strategy adjusts every thirty days based on what is actually moving the phone in Great Falls. Not what looks good on a vanity chart.

LITHIUM VS. DIY VS. TYPICAL PPC AGENCY

What a Great Falls service-business owner actually gets, by PPC approach.

Capability
DIY PPC Tools
Typical PPC Agency
Lithium Marketing
Day-to-day operator
DIY PPC Tools:
You, alongside running the business
Typical PPC Agency:
Junior account manager
Lithium Marketing:
Senior strategist, co-founder oversight
Conversion tracking depth
DIY PPC Tools:
Default Google Ads only
Typical PPC Agency:
Set at launch, rarely audited
Lithium Marketing:
GA4 + CallRail + server-side + CRM imports
Dedicated landing pages
DIY PPC Tools:
Home page used as landing
Typical PPC Agency:
Templated, rarely tested
Lithium Marketing:
One per intent, conversion-rate tested
Negative-keyword discipline
DIY PPC Tools:
Set once, forgotten
Typical PPC Agency:
Reviewed quarterly
Lithium Marketing:
Monthly search-terms review
Call tracking + call quality scoring
DIY PPC Tools:
Google Ads call extension only
Typical PPC Agency:
CallRail set up, rarely scored
Lithium Marketing:
CallRail through GA4, scored monthly
Cross-channel coverage
DIY PPC Tools:
Google Ads only
Typical PPC Agency:
Google + Meta sometimes
Lithium Marketing:
Google + Microsoft + Meta + LinkedIn
Bid management approach
DIY PPC Tools:
Set-and-forget tCPA
Typical PPC Agency:
Mostly automated
Lithium Marketing:
Manual on high-intent + automated where data supports
Monitoring cadence (first 30 days)
DIY PPC Tools:
When you remember
Typical PPC Agency:
Weekly check-ins
Lithium Marketing:
Daily during the learning phase
Reporting tied to revenue
DIY PPC Tools:
Google Ads dashboard only
Typical PPC Agency:
PDF with impressions and clicks
Lithium Marketing:
Looker Studio + monthly leads, CPL, ROAS
Strategy call ownership
DIY PPC Tools:
N/A. No strategist
Typical PPC Agency:
Quarterly review with AM
Lithium Marketing:
Monthly call with DJ Van Zanten, co-founder
GREAT FALLS PPC PRICING

Transparent pricing. Management starts at $500/month, separate from your ad spend.

Typical Great Falls service businesses run $500 to $1,500 per month in management on top of $2,000 to $5,000 in monthly ad spend. Pricing scales with monthly ad spend, channel count (Google, Microsoft, Meta, LinkedIn), and how much landing-page production work the campaign needs. You will see the math on the first call. No haggling, no hidden upsells.

REAL CLIENTS, REAL OUTCOMES

Service businesses Lithium runs PPC for.

Daniel Busby

Willard Power Vac

“Lithium Marketing has been amazing for our business. They have greatly increased our web traffic and helped us land hundreds of jobs.”

Drake Snodgrass

Drake’s 7 Dees

“Cost per lead is down, lead quality is up, and the monthly reports actually mean something. Lithium runs our Google Ads like they own the business.”

Marc Rickabaugh

Rickabaugh Construction

“Working with Lithium Marketing has been awesome.”

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Great Falls PPC, straight answers.

A properly built Great Falls campaign starts producing tracked conversions within the first week of launch. The first 30 days are a learning phase where the algorithm calibrates on real north-central Montana search data. Cost per lead typically stabilizes by month two and improves through month three as negative-keyword lists tighten and landing pages get conversion-rate-tested. We report weekly during the first month, monthly after that.

Great Falls CPCs run well below the national $5.58 average in most verticals, typically $2 to $5 in trades and $6 to $15 in legal, because the auction has fewer competing advertisers than Bozeman or Billings. The constraint is thin search volume on long-tail terms. PPC works in Great Falls when the campaign captures the full relevant intent pool including Microsoft Ads, and when ad copy speaks to a Montana audience with explicit TRICARE and ag references where relevant. Properly run Great Falls campaigns deliver cost per lead under $85 in trades and under $180 in legal.

Management starts at $500 per month, separate from your ad spend. Typical Great Falls service businesses run $500 to $1,000 per month in management on top of $1,500 to $3,500 in monthly ad spend. The number depends on monthly ad spend, channel count (Google, Microsoft, Meta, LinkedIn), and how much landing-page production work the campaign needs. You will see the math on the first call. No haggling, no hidden upsells.

No reputable PPC agency guarantees a specific cost per lead or conversion rate, because both are controlled by the Google Ads auction, the season, and your offer. What we guarantee is the work: conversion tracking shipped properly, dedicated landing pages per intent, monthly negative-keyword review, weekly bid optimization, and reporting tied to revenue per lead. The cost-per-lead curve bends downward when the work is done right, on a predictable timeline.

Quality Score is Google’s estimate of how relevant your ad and landing page are to the keyword. It directly affects your cost per click and ad position. We optimize Quality Score on three vectors: expected click-through rate (better ad copy, headline pinning where intent demands it), ad relevance (tight ad-group themes, one core keyword set per ad group), and landing-page experience (dedicated pages per intent, fast mobile load, message-match with the ad). A 7+ Quality Score on high-volume keywords often saves Great Falls clients 30 to 50 percent on cost per click compared to a 4 or 5.

Three layers. Leading indicators: impressions, clicks, click-through rate, quality score, search impression share in the Great Falls auction. Mid-funnel: conversion rate by ad group, conversion rate by landing page, call quality scoring. Revenue: leads delivered, cost per lead, ROAS, revenue attributed to paid via offline conversion imports from your CRM. The dashboard updates daily and the written report ships monthly with a strategy call.

Daily campaign monitoring during the first 30 days (weekly after), bid and budget optimization, ongoing ad copy and creative testing, landing page conversion-rate optimization, monthly negative-keyword review, audience segmentation refinement, call quality scoring, monthly reporting tied to leads and revenue, and a strategy call with DJ Van Zanten. Great Falls retainers above the base tier include landing page production and CRM offline-conversion wiring.

Yes. PPC is the fastest channel for a new Great Falls business because it does not depend on domain authority, review history, or earned search visibility. With CPCs below national averages in most Great Falls verticals, a new business with a real offer, a clean landing page, and proper conversion tracking can produce tracked leads within the first week. We typically pair an aggressive PPC launch with a measured SEO build over the next six months so the blended cost per lead drops as earned visibility compounds.

MEET THE CO-FOUNDER

Your Great Falls PPC strategy call is run by DJ Van Zanten, not handed to a junior account manager.

DJ Van Zanten joined Lithium as co-founder in 2018 and leads the strategic side of every client partnership. His approach is real-talk consulting: map out a simple, actionable plan, identify the revenue opportunities that matter most, and translate the technical work into business outcomes you can measure. Behind DJ on every Great Falls PPC program, co-founder Kurt Schell directs the technical and content execution, drawing on more than twenty years of SEO, PPC, and conversion-rate work. The strategy call you book is the actual call you take, with the person who will be calling the shots on what to prioritize, what to ignore, and how to measure progress.

Get a free 30-minute Great Falls PPC audit.

On the call we look at your current Great Falls PPC campaigns against impression share, conversion tracking depth, search-terms waste, landing-page conversion rate, and the actual cost per lead your CRM is recording. You leave with a specific 30-day plan, whether or not you decide to work with us. There is no slide deck and no sales pitch.

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