- An advertising agency plans paid campaigns, makes the ads and buys the space they run in. Your website and Google Business Profile decide what happens after someone clicks or calls.
- Google says advertising with Google has no effect on your place in its free search results, and that creating a Business Profile is free.
- Put the profile, the landing pages and call tracking in place first, then spend money on ads.
- The Chattanooga metro area covers three Tennessee counties and three Georgia counties, so check the location settings before a campaign starts.
- The FTC says an advertising agency may be held legally responsible for misleading claims too, and claims need evidence before the ad runs.
What an advertising agency in Chattanooga does
An advertising agency in Chattanooga plans paid campaigns, makes the ads and buys the space they run in, whether that space is a Google search result, a Facebook feed, a radio spot or a billboard on a road into town. You pay the agency for the planning and the creative work, and you pay the media for the space. Before you hire one, make sure the places those ads send people, your website and your Google Business Profile, are ready to turn a click or a call into a customer.
The federal industry codes draw the line clearly. The code for advertising agencies, NAICS 541810, covers businesses that create advertising campaigns and place them in periodicals, newspapers, radio, television or other media. It lists a full range of services, offered in house or through subcontractors: advice, creative services, account management, production of advertising material, media planning and buying. A separate code, 541830, covers media buying agencies, which purchase advertising time or space from media outlets and resell it to agencies or directly to companies.
So when a local firm calls itself an advertising agency, ask which of those pieces it does itself. Some write and design everything and hand the buying to a partner. Others mainly buy media and expect you to bring the creative. Either can work, as long as you know who is doing what and who you call when an ad goes wrong.
Advertising versus website, SEO and Business Profile work
Owners often get quotes for all four in the same month and struggle to compare them, because each is paid for differently and shows results on a different clock. The table lines them up.
| Work | What you pay for | What you get | When you stop paying |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paid advertising | Agency fees plus the media. On Google Ads, cost-per-click bidding means you pay for each click on your ads. | Visits and calls while the campaign runs | The ads stop, and so do the visits they brought |
| Website | A build, then hosting and upkeep | The page every ad, listing and search result points to | The site keeps working if the accounts are in your name |
| SEO | Ongoing work on your pages, content and listings | A place in Google's organic results, which Google says costs nothing to appear in | Rankings tend to fade over time instead of switching off |
| Google Business Profile | Nothing to Google. Google says creating a profile and listing your business is free. | Your listing on Search and Maps, with reviews and posts | The profile stays up, and goes stale if nobody updates it |
Google also states that advertising with Google won't have any effect on your site's presence in its search results. Ad spend pays for the ad slots and nothing more. The free listings below the ads have to be earned separately, which is why the order you buy these in matters.
What a Chattanooga owner should buy first
For most local service businesses the sensible order runs from free to paid, so that every ad dollar lands on something ready to convert.
- Claim and fill in the Google Business Profile. It is free, it puts you on Search and Maps, and Google lets you respond to reviews and add posts for offers, events and updates. Our Google Business Profile help guide covers the setup.
- Fix the page the ads will land on. Google Ads rates each keyword with a Quality Score from 1 to 10, and one of its three parts is landing page experience: how relevant and useful your landing page is to people who click your ad. A slow page, or one with no clear phone number, wastes paid clicks.
- Set up tracking. Google Ads treats a conversion action as a specific customer activity that is valuable to your business, such as calls from your ads, calls to the number on your website, or purchases and sign-ups on the site. Without it, nobody can say which ads brought in work.
- Then buy advertising for a defined offer, area and season, and judge it on the calls and jobs it produces.
SEO runs alongside these steps. It builds slowly, so start it early and let paid ads cover the gap while it takes hold. Our guide to SEO in Chattanooga explains what that work involves.
There are exceptions. A restaurant opening, a seasonal event or a launch with a fixed date may need advertising from the first day, because waiting for search to build would mean missing the date.
Drawing the ad map around Chattanooga
Where ads show matters as much as what they say, and the Chattanooga market crosses a state line. The Chattanooga, TN-GA Metropolitan Statistical Area is six counties: Hamilton, Marion and Sequatchie in Tennessee, and Catoosa, Dade and Walker in Georgia. Catoosa County alone holds two cities, Ringgold, its county seat, and Fort Oglethorpe.
Google Ads can aim at people by physical location, meaning where they are or regularly are, by locations they show interest in, or both, and both is the default. Google's own example is that if you target the city of Portland, your ads may also show to people in nearby suburbs. For a Chattanooga business, that default can help or cost money.
- A plumber or HVAC company that only drives to certain areas should check that the default is not paying for calls from towns the crew will not serve.
- A downtown restaurant or attraction may want the interest setting on, so people planning a visit see the ad before they arrive.
- A shop near the state line should include the Georgia side on purpose instead of leaving it to chance.
Ask any agency to show you the location settings in writing before the campaign starts, and again after the first month.
Which kinds of ads fit a local business
Most proposals mix a few channels. Each one reaches people at a different moment, so the right mix depends on whether customers search for you or need to be reminded you exist.
A good agency recommends the smallest set of channels that fits your budget, and explains why it left the others out.
The advertising rules your agency should know
Federal truth-in-advertising law covers every ad you run, whoever wrote it. The Federal Trade Commission says advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive, and advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims before the ad runs. A reasonable basis, in the FTC's words, means objective evidence that supports the claim.
The agency carries part of that weight. The FTC says the advertising agency may also be held legally responsible for misleading claims in ads, and that advertising agencies have a duty to make an independent check on the information used to substantiate ad claims. If an agency never asks you to prove a line such as "fastest service in Hamilton County", it is skipping a step the FTC expects.
Endorsements follow the same thinking. The FTC says all endorsements must reflect the honest experience or opinion of the endorser, and that a line like "Your results may vary" is not enough to fix a claim about results most customers will not get.
Paid posts by local personalities count as advertising too. The FTC tells influencers to disclose any financial, employment, personal or family relationship with a brand, to place the disclosure with the endorsement message itself, and to use plain words such as "ad", "advertisement" or "sponsored". If your agency books influencers, ask how it makes sure those disclosures appear.
How to judge an advertising agency before you sign
Ask every agency you are comparing the same questions, and compare the written answers side by side.
- What will you make, what will you buy, and what will you pass to partners?
- How much of the monthly budget goes to media, and how much to your fees?
- Which locations and audiences will the campaign target, and with which setting?
- What counts as a result: calls, form fills, bookings or sales?
- Where will the ads send people, and what do you want changed on those pages first?
- How will you check that every claim in an ad can be backed up?
- Who keeps the ad accounts and the finished ads if we part ways?
For the account side, our guide to hiring a Chattanooga marketing agency lists the access levels to give and the fee disclosures Google requires of ad managers. If the website needs work before any ad money is spent, our guide to choosing a website developer in Chattanooga covers the build, and our Chattanooga digital marketing plan puts the channels in order.
Nooga Tech builds websites and runs local search and tracking together, so the pages are ready before any ad points at them. Our Web Design & Growth page explains the work, and the free consult is a good place to sort out what to buy first.
Frequently asked questions
What does an advertising agency do?
It creates advertising campaigns and places them in media such as search, social feeds, radio, television, print and billboards. The industry code lists advice, creative services, account management, production of ads, media planning and buying.
Is an advertising agency the same as a marketing agency?
They overlap. An advertising agency centers on paid campaigns and buying media. A marketing agency may also handle the website, SEO, email and your Google Business Profile. Ask each firm which of those it does itself.
Should I run ads before my website is ready?
Usually not. Landing page experience is one of the three parts of a Google Ads Quality Score, so a weak page can make every click less useful. Fix the page and set up tracking first.
Does paying for Google Ads help my organic ranking?
No. Google says advertising with Google won't have any effect on your site's presence in its search results, and that it costs nothing to appear in the organic results.
Is a Google Business Profile free?
Yes. Google says creating a Business Profile and listing your business on Google is free. It puts you on Search and Maps and lets you reply to reviews and add posts.
How do Local Services Ads charge?
Google says you pay only for leads related to your business and the services you offer. Leads are the calls and messages that come through the ad. Only certain business categories can use them.
Can my ads reach the Georgia side of the Chattanooga area?
Yes. The metro area includes Catoosa, Dade and Walker counties in Georgia. Set the campaign's locations on purpose, since Google's default uses both where people are and the places they show interest in.
Who is responsible if an ad makes a false claim?
Both sides can be. The FTC says advertisers need evidence before an ad runs, and that the advertising agency may also be held legally responsible for misleading claims in ads.