For most local businesses on the Costa Blanca, online marketing that works comes down to this order: a website people can use on a phone, a complete Google Business Profile, one or two social media accounts that you keep up, and a small Facebook or Instagram campaign when you have something specific to promote. Blogging and email come after that. Most businesses that struggle are working on the later steps while the first ones are still unfinished.
I build websites for businesses in Spain, the UK and Germany, and I run social media, advertising and blog writing for some of them. I also do it for my own site, Bikes Costa Blanca. This guide is the order I would follow for a local business with a small budget and little time. It is written for owners, not for marketers.
Start with your website and Google Business Profile
Your website needs to load quickly on a phone, say what you do and where, and show your phone number, email and opening hours without making anyone hunt for them. If you are not sure it does, why your business needs a website covers what a visitor expects to find.
Your Google Business Profile is the free listing that appears in Google Maps and in the local results when someone searches for what you do near them. Fill in every field: the right main category, opening hours including holidays, your services, and photos of the place and the work. Answer reviews, including the bad ones, politely and quickly. I also post to the Google Business Profile as part of the social media work I do for clients, because an active profile looks very different from an abandoned one.
Ranking higher in Google for searches such as ‘web design Costa Blanca’ is a separate job. That is SEO, and it has its own page: our SEO service.
Which social media platforms are worth your time
Spain is not short of social media users. DataReportal’s Digital 2026 report for Spain (data from October 2025) counts 46.1 million internet users, 96.4% of the population, and 39.0 million social media user identities. Instagram’s advertising reach is 26.4 million and Facebook’s is 20.3 million. Those are advertising reach figures, not unique people, so read them as a sign of scale rather than a head count.
The number that matters is how many of your own customers look for businesses like yours on a platform. That differs from one business to the next, so here is where I would start. It is a rule of thumb, not a law.
| Type of business | Start with | Add later |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurants, bars, cafes and shops | Google Business Profile and Instagram | |
| Trades and local services (air conditioning, pools, builders, cleaners) | Google Business Profile and Facebook | Blog articles answering common questions |
| Estate agents and property services | Instagram and Facebook adverts | Newsletter, LinkedIn for business contacts |
| Business to business services | LinkedIn and a blog | Newsletter |
Pick one or two platforms from this table and stay with them. An account that posts on a regular schedule for six months does more for you than five accounts that were busy for a month. With my clients we agree a content calendar in advance, for example for the next 12 weeks, so the accounts stay active without you having to think about them.
Write in the language your customers read. Many businesses here serve English, German and Spanish speakers, sometimes all three, and a post written in the reader’s own language reads better than a translated one. I write posts, adverts and articles in all three.
Facebook and Instagram adverts: when they pay off
A normal post reaches mostly people who already follow you. An advert reaches people who do not. That makes adverts a good fit for something specific with a date on it: a new listing, an opening, a seasonal offer, an event.
For Fine Immobilien, a real estate company, I create the Facebook and Instagram adverts and schedule them on the dates agreed with the client. The client decides the advertising budget and pays it. A few habits make the difference:
- Advertise one offer at a time, with one clear thing you want people to do.
- Send people to the page about that offer, not to the home page.
- Write a separate advert for each language instead of translating one.
- Start with an amount you can afford to lose while you learn, and judge the result after a few weeks, not a few days.
Blog articles and SEO: slower, but they keep working
Social media puts your business in front of people who were not looking for you. A blog article helps the people who are already searching find you on Google. It is the slowest of these channels and the one that keeps paying after the work is done.
The clearest example I have is Bikes Costa Blanca, our own cycling directory. I write and optimise its blog posts and run its Facebook campaigns. According to Google Search Console, clicks from Google search went from 185 in July 2026 to 517 in the four weeks to mid-October, and impressions from 11.9k to 30.9k. The numbers are still modest. I also cannot tell you how much came from the articles and how much from the campaigns, because both were running at the same time. The direction is clear, though.
For Solar Guard I write the blog posts in English and publish them on their WordPress website. Each article starts from what the owner tells me about the work. I research the topic around it and write it up so that readers and search engines can both follow it.
Email: the audience you own
Followers on Facebook or Instagram belong to those platforms, and the platforms decide how many of them see your posts. An email list is yours. I write newsletters and build the Mailchimp template for clients so that every issue looks like their business. Keep them short and send them on a schedule you can keep.
A 12-week starting plan
| Weeks | What to do |
|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | Check your website on a phone. Complete your Google Business Profile. Set up Google Search Console so you can see how people find you. |
| 3 to 4 | Choose one or two platforms. Decide what you want to say and write a content calendar for the next 12 weeks. |
| 5 to 12 | Publish on the agreed dates. Answer comments, messages and reviews. Publish blog articles on a schedule you can keep. |
| 6 to 8 | Run a first small advert for something specific. |
| 12 | Look at the results: clicks in Search Console, calls and direction requests from your Google Business Profile, and the enquiries you actually received. Keep what worked and drop the rest. |
Mistakes I would avoid
Being on five platforms and active on none. Boosting a post without deciding what you want people to do. Leaving reviews unanswered. Expecting results after two weeks. Most of these come from trying to do too much at once.
Frequently asked questions
How much does online marketing cost on the Costa Blanca?
It depends on the platforms, the number of posts and adverts, and the languages. I quote each business individually, so there is no fixed price list. If you run Facebook or Instagram adverts, the advertising budget is separate and you decide it.
Do I need to be on every social media platform?
No. Choose one or two where your customers already look for businesses like yours, and add a Google Business Profile, which is free.
Can I do my own online marketing?
Yes, and many owners do. What you pay for when you hire someone is time: planning the topics, writing the posts, making the artwork, setting up the adverts and publishing on schedule. If you have that time, start with the plan above.
How long does it take to see results?
Adverts can bring visitors within days. Search takes months. The Bikes Costa Blanca figures above compare July with mid-October, so think in months, not weeks.
Do I need a blog?
Not at the start. Once your website and Google Business Profile are in order and you have a social media routine, a blog is the next step, especially if customers keep asking you the same questions. Each answer can become an article.
Which languages should I use?
The ones your customers read. I write in English, German and Spanish.
Want someone to take this off your desk?
If you would rather not write the posts, adverts and articles yourself, see our social media and content marketing service. You tell me about your business, we agree a plan and a content calendar, you approve every piece, and we publish on the dates we agreed.