It can be a really big growth driver for a small business, if done correctly. However, the specific economics of it depends on your industry and your market. What industry are you in?

I use them a lot, my advice find one of those companies that excels and whatever your area of businesses and pay them their small monthly fee. It sucks at first but you end up spending way more money doing it yourself because you don’t know how to optimize as well as they do.

Edit: avoid yelp ads like the plague. They are dying company and extremely predatory.

Are you running a B2B or b2c product/service? The conversion funnel is going to differ vastly for this channel.

Google is pushing for more and more automation targeting audience and demographic triggers across their five major platforms so “Google Ads” has also become quite a generic way to talk about what used to be just paid search.

It can work very well, but you need to either learn how to run them properly or find someone to help you. If you want a referral, DM me. I know experts.