Should Home Service Businesses Worry About AI Ads in 2026?

Everyone in the marketing world is buzzing about ChatGPT rolling out a paid advertising platform, and the usual voices are already telling you to jump on it or get left behind. So should a family-owned handyman or home service business actually care?

In this episode, Jason Call and Coby McManaman break down what's real and what's noise. They cover who these ads are actually built for (hint: it starts at a $50K per month minimum ad spend), what the new ChatGPT ad placements look like, and why Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is becoming the AI version of SEO. The kicker: one home service operator running $3 million companies tracked thousands of leads last quarter and got exactly one documented lead from ChatGPT. That's less than 1% of total visibility, even though AI dominates 90% of the marketing conversation right now.

The takeaway is simple. Be where people are actually searching, be prudent about chasing hype, and focus on the things moving the needle: Google rankings, a Google Business Profile loaded with reviews, a website that converts, and showing up organically across AI platforms as they grow.

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New episodes of the Home Hero Podcast every week. If you got value from this one, subscribe and leave a review. It helps more home service pros find the show.

👉Schedule a free, no-pressure strategy call: go.handymanmarketingpros.com

👉Grab the free 3-in-1 Handyman Playbook Bundle: go.handymanmarketingpros.com/playbook-form

👉Connect with us:
💻Website: handymanmarketingpros.com
✉️Email: sales@handymanmarketingpros.com

New episodes of the Home Hero Podcast every week. If you got value from this one, subscribe and leave a review. It helps more home service pros find the show.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You know, be prudent, be wise in where people are actually searching, where actual ROI is coming from. It is it is prudent to be omnipresent. Welcome back to another episode of the Home Hero Podcast. Today we are talking about Chat GPT launching a paid advertising platform. Um it's super early, so we're just gonna be uncovering kind of the initial details, who it's for, um, all that good stuff, um, just to keep everybody informed as far as being a you know family-owned handyman trade business. Um, so you'll probably see stuff about this online. Um, and it's always spun in a way to make it seem like you know it's the biggest deal ever and you've got to get on it, or else you're gonna be left behind. Um, so take heart that the uh first iteration of ChatGPT releasing paid ads um requires uh massive budgets that are just gonna be on, uh be beyond any true family-owned local home service business. Um, minimum $50,000 a month in ad spend. Um, so most of our listeners out here are probably not spending at least $50,000 a month. Um, the early figures that I saw uh when they first were doing some beta testing was like six or so months ago, was $100,000 a month. So currently, the kind of too long didn't read version here is it's not really for, it's definitely not for local home service businesses, local family owned handyman businesses. Um, if someone were running a large franchise with over 100 locations, uh it certainly could be applicable to them. Uh, but because it's so early, there's just no kind of research and data out there as far as case studies uh within the home service space, um, mostly big brands. Kobe, I know you mentioned seeing you know a couple of the big brands that were being tied to this whole Chat GPT ads. So that's kind of the update. Um, what are your thoughts, Kobe, or any questions?

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Yeah, the the the thing that I think is worth kind of pointing out in the start is we're not talking about um like organic results in in Chat GPT, like somebody typing in, you know, help me find the best handyman near me. Um, and in the chat, it's giving you um, you know, hey, check out this guy, he's got this many reviews on Angie. Um, you know, the SEO or AI um AEO, whatever you want to call it, um, kind of the the AI search engine optimization type thing. This is completely separate. We're talking about running paid ads on Chat GPT, which um seems like they're the first AI platform to start rolling this out and introducing it. Um so we're talking about running paid ads, paying money to Chat GPT to force a you know a sponsored um ad to show up in somebody's chat when they're asking something that's um theoretically relevant to what they're asking ChatGPT about.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Yeah, uh thanks for clarifying that, man. Uh crystal clear. So yeah, the use case here is it's basically Chat GPT's kind of Google ads. So on Google, you know, someone searches Handyman Near Me, um, Handyman Services, City, State, um, you're gonna see the or the paid results, local service ads, pay-per-click, you're gonna see the rank, the like map pack with the your Google business profile with your reviews, and then website listings. Um, this is ChatGPT's kind of first paid ads platform where someone is searching ChatGPT for the best handyman in your area. Um, these ads that I've seen are at the bottom of kind of the answer there. They actually look really nice. I like the design of them. And uh, I've only seen examples of one ad being shown, which makes sense because there's just no the space is not crowded. They've really slowly rolled this out. Um, so great clarification though. Um and the AI optimization as far as organically being recommended in Chat GPT. The official industry where the industry has identified it is AEO, which is answer engine optimization. I've seen that stick for over a year now. It's been more than that. So it's AEO is kind of the more industry term for AI optimization, basically SEO, search engine optimization, but for AI. Uh, we won't go into the weeds there. Uh, that's a whole different episode we could chat about. Uh, but you know, for the purpose of this episode, absolutely, this is for running paid ads to be recommended at the bottom of those Chat GPT results.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

Yeah, and I think it's also worth noting, at least as of now, um, the these paid ads, they're and they've only rolled this out to um, you know, like a beta market. So they they've got a select um you know number of businesses that they're allowing to do this um just per what they've got on their website. Um but the example they gave in there just to give some context around like what these look like. They gave an example of somebody asking, you know, ChatGPT for um like recipe ideas, and Chat GPT spits out its normal response and gives a bunch of ideas for recipes um, you know, that you could cook for your potluck or whatever it is. And then at the bottom below the normal response that Chat GPT would typically give, then it would have the you know, the sponsored ad that would say um, you know, like you know, DoorDash or Instacart or whate whatever it would be, get your groceries delivered. So it's like adjacent to you're asking about recipes, you might need, you know, your groceries delivered. Um they put that at the bottom. So the idea is it's not supposed to change the it's not supposed to change the result or the answer that ChatGPT would normally give you. It's just kind of an addendum at the bottom, like, hey, by the way, yeah, get your your groceries delivered for this thing.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Yeah, that's uh it's a whole interesting topic too, because yeah, we're kind of getting a more uh conversational response using AI, right? Um and that clarity on the advertiser is not affecting the organic results. Um is kind of an interesting thing to think about, and I would certainly hope it stays that way. Um, it'd also be interesting to see as you know, assuming they roll out paid ads for you know regular business owners, small local home service companies, um, you know, even uh million-dollar HVAC companies, plumbing companies, just not a good fit for them yet. Um it'll be interesting to see how that develops when you know in Google with local service ads, they're typically showing like two or three options that they're all paying to be there. Pay-per-click can have anywhere from like one to usually like three or four at the most at the top of the page. So it'll be interesting to see how it develops. Um, one word of encouragement here is uh one of um uh someone in my kind of networking group within the marketing agency world, he owns three million dollar home service companies. Two are in HVAC, one is in plumbing. Um, and so he stays up to speed on all this, of course, with his own home service companies. And uh their analysis from quarter four of 2025, um, where you know, they're getting thousands and thousands of leads. Uh they had one documented lead from Chat GPT, uh, so it counts for just less than 1% of their total visibility, which is interesting in the business world space because you know, 90% of the conversation in online marketing is about AI and ChatGPT. Um, but such a small portion of the actual results are currently coming from it. Um, will consumer behavior change as the platforms change? Absolutely. Uh, we should always seek to be where people are searching for help right now for local home services, whether it's plumbing, HVAC, uh, handyman services. Um, so it's prudent to be there. There is certainly strategies to be ranking there uh organically, which we do as part of our service. And the development of paid advertising, it'll just be interesting. So take um take heart that all the as all this develops, when you should start taking it seriously, is whenever it's actually a reasonable part of like the market share of where your leads are coming from, where people are searching. It's just not there right now to certainly spend a large amount of stress or worry or money to be there because it's just a small fraction of your total visibility right now. Will that change in a year, two years? Very likely, as consumer behavior shifts, and we'll certainly be keeping up to date with that. And um, you know, the purpose of these episodes here is just to kind of talk about what's happening right now. Um, any other kind of thoughts or or questions on the subject of Chat GPT, paid ads, um, or anything I just mentioned there, Kobe?

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Yeah, the last thing I wanted to say, it's just kind of you know, reiterating what you just said, but Google, you know, when it comes to online marketing, Google's still kind of the the top dog, especially when we're talking about home service businesses. That's where people are looking to find, you know, a handyman near me, a plumber near me, um, is is Google. And so my sort of prediction, based on nothing but Kobe's opinion, I guess, is is that when we're talking about like AI is gonna be more prevalent in search and people are gonna use it more um to find local businesses near them. I think if I could predict it, I th I think it's gonna be Google integrating their own AI, which they're already doing, Gemini, into you know, Google searches. When you type something out of Google, it gives you that AI blurb at the top sometimes. Um and so I think I think most of those most of the searches um i if they start to transition towards AI, it's gonna be because Google is integrating their AI with you know standard Google searches more and more. That's a prediction based on absolutely nothing but but just a just a wild guess from Kobe.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

But yeah, and that's it's I I believe that's accurate. Uh Google, at the end of the day, it's one of the largest companies in the world. They hire the smartest people in the world world theoretically because they pay them the most money. Um and they have massive incentive to adopt AI and Gemini and use how does that look in search results? Um, what do people enjoy about Chat GPT that we could use on Google? Um, so they have massive, massive incentive to do this and do this really well. Uh so it will be interesting to kind of see how Google certainly develops Gemini. How does that affect a big part for us is how in any home service business is how is that going to affect your Google business profile, your organic rankings? Um, of course, this is why we keep up with all this because our uh we our clients, we have an obligation to make sure they have visibility organically in Google, um, in Chat GPT and AI platforms. Um, so my kind of encouragement for all our listeners is you know, be prudent, be wise in where people are actually searching where actual ROI is coming from. It is it is prudent to be omnipresent um within reason based on the scope and size of your business. But is it good now to be recommended in ChatGPT and Gemini and Claude? Absolutely. Is it prudent to be ranking in Google and have your Google profile with lots of reviews? Absolutely. Posting to social media. So my encouragement is um there's lots of buzz, or always will be in you know, marketing news, business news, and anything that that says, oh, Google is dead, your business needs to change, you're gonna go out of business. Like, remember how the internet works. Um, be honest with your business and your marketing and focus on the things that are moving the needle. It's good stuff.

unknown 11:59

All right.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Thank you for joining us for another episode of the Home Hero Podcast, brought to you by Handyman Marketing Pros.