Three things I said no to last week (and why your ads probably aren't the problem)
By Tom · 13 July 2026
Most agency blogs tell you what they did brilliantly. This one's about what I turned down, what I got wrong before I checked, and why the biggest problems I saw last week had nothing to do with the ads themselves.
If you run a trades business and you're thinking about paid advertising, these three stories will save you money. Possibly quite a lot of it.
Story one: the client who "ghosted" (except they didn't)
A trades client of ours had a strong first month — a steady flow of enquiries, surveys getting booked, everything moving. Then, out of nowhere: silence. Ads off. No replies.
The easy conclusion was the cynical one — they'd taken the leads and walked. And honestly, for about a day, that's what I assumed.
Then I did what I should have done first: I checked their ad account. There was a payment error on the card. Meta doesn't send you a polite warning when your card fails — it just quietly pauses everything. The client hadn't ghosted. Their ads had been switched off by a failed payment and they didn't even know.
One phone call later, it was sorted.
The lesson: when your ads "stop working," the cause is usually boring. A failed card. An expired payment method. A form pointing at the wrong email. Before anyone tells you that your campaign needs a rebuild — or worse, sells you a new one — check the plumbing. It's now part of our weekly sweep on every account we manage, because a paused ad account loses you jobs just as fast as a bad one.
Story two: the prospect I told not to use Facebook
A B2B compliance firm got in touch last week wanting Facebook ads. That's what we do, so the easy answer was yes.
The honest answer was no.
Their customers don't buy on impulse. They buy when something forces the decision — a contract that demands certification, a failed audit, a tender requirement. Nobody scrolling Facebook at 9pm suddenly decides to get ISO certified. But they do go straight to Google and search for it the moment they need it.
So I told them Facebook was the wrong channel and pointed them at Google Search instead — even though it meant a smaller job for us.
The lesson: the channel has to match how your customers actually buy. For most trades — boiler breakdowns aside — homeowners are scrolling Facebook every evening, and interrupting that scroll with the right ad works. That's why we run Meta for plumbers, roofers and heating engineers. But if an agency pitches you a platform without ever asking how your customers find you, they're selling what they've got, not what you need.
Story three: the money I turned down
An e-commerce brand approached us wanting help with their return on ad spend. Real budget, real business, ready to go.
I didn't take it — at least, not as an ongoing client.
E-commerce is a different sport. The numbers that matter (margins per order, repeat purchase rates, subscription conversion) are nothing like the numbers that matter for a roofer. Taking that client on a monthly retainer would have meant learning on their money. Instead, I offered a one-off paid audit: I'll diagnose what's actually wrong, they keep the findings, and nobody's locked into anything.
The lesson: ask any agency you're considering what they don't do. If the answer is "we do everything," be careful. An agency that's brilliant for a fashion brand can be useless for a heating engineer, and vice versa. We work with trades and local service businesses because that's where we know the numbers cold. That focus is exactly why the model works at the price it does.
What ties it together
Three stories, one pattern: the ads were never the problem. A failed card, a wrong channel, a wrong-fit agency. That's where trades businesses actually lose money on advertising — not in the creative, not in the targeting, but in the stuff nobody checks and the questions nobody asks.
It's also why everything we build is done in your name from day one. Your ad account, your audiences, your data — yours, whether we work together for one month or three years. We call it Built to Keep™, and it means if we're ever not the right fit, you walk away with everything. No contracts, no hostage-taking.
If you want ads that book jobs — and an honest answer if we're not the right people to run them — book a call. It's 30 minutes and it costs nothing.
Tom runs 99 Ads, a UK agency delivering fully managed Meta lead generation for trades businesses at £99/month — no contracts, a 14-day leads guarantee, and everything built in your name.