I've been running my MSP for about 8 months now, got 6 clients mostly from referrals, and I'm trying to figure out if putting $500-800/month into Google Ads is going to do anything or just burn cash. The problem is most of my competitors are bigger shops with way bigger budgets, and I keep going back and forth on whether I should even bother competing there or just double down on LinkedIn outreach and local networking. I honestly have no idea what a realistic cost-per-lead looks like for IT services in a mid-size city, and I can't find anyone who's actually run these campaigns for a small shop and is willing to talk numbers.

I've been running my own IT services business for about 8 months now, got 4 clients paying monthly retainers, but I'm basically at zero on the inbound side. Someone told me to try Google Ads targeting local small businesses, but I'm spending maybe $400/month max on marketing right now and I honestly don't know if that's enough to see real results or if I'd just be burning it. Most of my clients came from LinkedIn or referrals so I keep going back and forth on whether paid search actually converts for IT services or if the buying cycle is just too long for it to make sense at this budget. Anyone run ads for a service business like this and actually gotten a decent cost per lead?

I've got about 6 clients right now, mix of small offices and a couple remote-only teams, and I'm trying to decide if I should commit to something like NinjaRMM or just keep patching things together with what I already know. The per-seat cost starts to feel real when you're not billing at scale yet, and I keep going back and forth on whether paying $150-200/month now buys me enough time back to justify it. Honestly not sure if I'm overthinking the tooling side because it feels more comfortable than actually going out and closing the next client. Anyone been through this call at a similar stage, like under 10 clients, and what did you actually land on?

I've been posting on linkedin maybe 2-3 times a week for the past month, stuff about network security tips, some light case study type posts about work I've done, and I'm getting decent impressions but zero inbound leads from it. Most of my clients right now came from referrals or me just cold calling local businesses directly, so I'm trying to figure out if linkedin is even the right channel for selling IT support contracts to small businesses in my area or if I should just put that time into something else. Honestly not sure if my content is wrong, my audience targeting is off, or if linkedin just isn't where a 10-person accounting firm goes when they need managed IT. Anyone here actually closed a client through linkedin content, not ads, just organic posting?

I'm at about 30 managed endpoints across 4 clients right now and trying to pick an RMM before I sign another contract and make the migration more painful than it needs to be. I've been going back and forth between NinjaRMM and Syncro mostly because Syncro bundles PSA/ticketing in and I don't want to be stitching together 4 tools when I'm the only one running the business. The pricing math gets weird fast though - at my current size I'm probably overpaying per endpoint for whatever I pick, but I also don't want to switch again at 100 endpoints. Anyone actually make this call recently at a similar stage, and is there anything you wish you'd looked at before committing?