Summer makes the comparison loud. Ads look like they “work” because the phone rings while the card is charged. SEO looks slow because Maps was ignored for three years. Use both if the margin is there. Do not hire an SEO firm for a PPC campaign, and do not expect a listing cleanup to replace a July ad budget overnight.
What ads are good at
Immediate demand capture. Testing offers. Covering a service area Google does not think you are close to — at a cost per call you have to watch.
What local SEO is good at
The searches that keep happening when the ad is off: branded name, AC repair plus neighborhood, maintenance, the pack. Compounding only if the listing and the pages are real.
July is not the whole year
Furnace search in January is a different auction and a different pack. A company that only buys ads in heat waves still needs a listing that works in February.
NOBLE’s boundary
We do not manage Google Ads. If ads are the only lever that makes sense this month, say that honestly and keep the SEO conversation for the leaks ads cannot fix: category, service area, conversion on the site.