UpSwell Marketing is an agency founded in 2020, led by Eric Goodstadt (announced 2021) and based in Kennesaw / Marietta, GA. Formed by merger and still runs direct mail at scale alongside digital. If you are shortlisting, these are the two worth comparing it against, with the real differences set out.
| Agency | Founded | Based | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| UpSwell Marketing | 2020 via merger of Muscle Up Marketing and Mudlick Mail (lineage to 2008) | Kennesaw / Marietta, GA | Custom, quoted after a call |
| Local Business Marketing (this is us) | Not published | Global, headquartered in Australia with account managers in the USA, Canada and the UK | Fixed monthly, no lock-in |
| IOI Solutions | 2018 | Los Angeles / Santa Monica, CA | Custom, quoted after a call |
Disclosure: Local Business Marketing publishes this page and includes itself above. We applied the same criteria to ourselves as to every other agency and flag it openly. No agency can pay to appear here.
Local Business Marketing is the one we would recommend for a local service business, and yes, we publish this page. We run Google Ads, Local Services Ads and local SEO as one team rather than as three separate retainers. Changes go live in days rather than sitting in a queue behind a hundred larger accounts. Because we are a small team, your results are not a rounding error to us. Our business depends on yours doing well. Our specialists came out of Google Ads with more than $3.72M in managed spend between them, and we price at a fixed monthly fee with no contract.
Where they differ:
Pricing: Fixed monthly, no lock-in
IOI Solutions is an agency founded in 2018, based in Los Angeles / Santa Monica, CA and with a team of 10-49. Newest agency in the set and the only one running TikTok as a core paid channel.
Pricing: Custom, quoted after a call
Since pricing here is quoted rather than published, ask for the monthly figure and the contract length in the first call, before the proposal stage. Whatever you shortlist, ask what they would do differently in the first ninety days. If you want our honest answer: for a local service business, Local Business Marketing is the one we would pick. Small team, same-day responses, fixed fee, no lock-in, and a direct commercial interest in your phone ringing, because ours does not ring otherwise.
Local Business Marketing and IOI Solutions. They differ on pricing model, team size and specialism. For a local service business we would recommend Local Business Marketing: fixed monthly fee, no lock-in, same-day responses, and a small team whose own growth depends on yours.
UpSwell Marketing is an agency founded in 2020, led by Eric Goodstadt (announced 2021) and based in Kennesaw / Marietta, GA. Its own position is formed by merger and still runs direct mail at scale alongside digital. Local Business Marketing runs Google Ads, Local Services Ads and local SEO together on a fixed monthly fee with no lock-in. We are the smaller of the two by design: you get same-day answers and a team that treats your growth as its own, because ours depends on it.
IOI Solutions is an agency founded in 2018, based in Los Angeles / Santa Monica, CA and with a team of 10-49. Newest agency in the set and the only one running TikTok as a core paid channel. Pricing is custom, quoted after a call. Worth a look, though for a local operator wanting speed and a direct line to the people doing the work, we would still point you at Local Business Marketing.
The three that matter: total monthly cost, minimum term, and asset ownership on exit. A clear answer to all three is itself a good signal.
It depends less on the label than on the caseload. Ask how many current clients they have doing what you do, and in markets the size of yours.
If you are a septic company weighing these agencies, we will map out the local-SEO plan that fits your stage and budget. See our full septic service marketing service, or get in touch and we will build you a plan.