Google Ads is an auction. You bid to appear when someone searches a term, but position is not decided by money alone — relevance and landing page experience matter too. That is good news for a well-run small account, because a tightly themed campaign with strong ads and a fast, relevant landing page can outperform a bigger competitor spending more carelessly.
For a local service business, the structure that works is usually straightforward: a small set of campaigns split by service, tight ad groups around closely related keywords, responsive search ads written specifically for that service, a comprehensive negative keyword list, and location targeting restricted to the area you genuinely serve. Call extensions and location extensions matter enormously on mobile, where a large share of clicks turn into direct calls.
The single most important piece is conversion tracking. Without it you are optimising toward clicks, which tells you nothing. With calls, form submissions and WhatsApp clicks tracked properly, Google's automation has something real to learn from and you can see your true cost per enquiry.