Salon Ads Studio

The alternatives

How we compare, honestly

There are other ways to get new clients, and some of them are right for some salons. Here is where each one is strong, where it quietly costs you, and when we would honestly tell you to choose it over us.

Salon Ads Studio vs Google Smart Campaigns

platform

Google's own five-minute ads setup, free to use. From £0 (you pay only for clicks). No management fee — but no meaningful control over what your clicks are spent on.

Broad match with no real negative keyword control, so budgets leak to "hairdressing courses", "salon jobs" and "cheap haircut"
No per-service bidding: a £25 fade and a £280 balayage are bid the same
Needs somewhere to send people — if you have no website, your options are thin
When to choose them
  • You want to spend nothing on management and accept the waste
  • You just need something live today
When to choose us
  • You want the time-wasting searches blocked before you pay for them
  • You want a page built for you and your listing tidied up
  • You want someone accountable for the result

Salon Ads Studio vs Treatwell

marketplace

The salon booking marketplace — clients supplied, a large cut of the first booking taken. From Connect subscription + 35% + VAT of each new client’s first booking. Commission applies to the first booking of every client their marketplace introduces (free repeats after that) — and a client counts as "new" again after 365 days away. Online prepayments carry a processing fee on top.

35% + VAT of a new client's first booking is a very large share of a £150 colour appointment
A lapsed client (365 days away) is charged for again as "new" when she comes back through them
Inside their app you sit beside every competitor, sorted by their rules — the audience is theirs, not yours
Read the full comparison
When to choose them
  • You want zero involvement and accept paying heavily per introduced client
  • You are starting from nothing and need any bookings at all this week
When to choose us
  • You want clients who found you, not the marketplace — at a fixed fee, not a third of the appointment
  • You want your own listing and page working for you long-term
  • You never want to pay for the same client twice

Salon Ads Studio vs Fresha

marketplace

The salon software everyone uses — with a marketplace that charges per new client it introduces. From Software free to start + ~20% one-off fee per marketplace new client. The diary, reminders and payments are the draw. The marketplace charges a one-off fee (around a fifth of the first appointment, with a small minimum) for each brand-new client it introduces, plus card processing fees on payments.

The marketplace only shows you to people already inside Fresha, sorted next to every competitor — it does nothing about the people typing "balayage near me" into Google
How "new client" gets defined has caught salons out — owners report existing clients occasionally being charged as marketplace introductions
It is a diary, not a marketing department: nobody is tidying your Google listing or blocking wasted ad spend
Read the full comparison
When to choose them
  • You need booking software — honestly, keep it for that even if you work with us
  • You want passive marketplace exposure and accept the per-client fee
When to choose us
  • You want to be found by people searching Google near you, not just browsing inside an app
  • You want new clients at a fixed monthly fee instead of a fifth of each first appointment
  • You want your free Google listing tidied and working — which no diary does

The short version: marketplaces charge you per client they introduce, Google's own setup wastes money on courses and jobs, and we do neither — £15/mo, fixed, no commission on anything booked.

Find out how many are looking for you this month

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See who's looking
A finished colour result A fresh skin fade Balayage, freshly done Bridal hair, pinned and finished