Short answer: Google Ads can put your trades business at the top of the page today, but only a fraction of the searches you pay for will ever become a job. Our work is shrinking the account down to that fraction and growing it from there.
Are my Google Ads wasting money?
Short answer: probably some of it. In nearly every trades account I review, a meaningful share of spend goes to searches that could never have booked a job.
Open your search terms report (not your keyword list) for the last 90 days and look for:
- Wrong intent: "plumber salary", "how to become an electrician", "roofing course"
- Do-it-yourself: "how to fix a leaking tap", "replace thermostat myself"
- Wrong place: towns you don't serve, or another province with the same town name
- Wrong service: commercial work when you only do residential, or the reverse
- Competitor names you never chose to target
Each of those is a negative keyword waiting to be added. Fixing them is often the cheapest improvement available to any trades business.
Who is this service for?
Short answer: trades businesses that can answer the phone quickly and want more work this month, not next year.
Ads suit emergency and urgent trades best, where people search and call within minutes. They also work for planned jobs such as roofing, windows or renovations, but the path is longer, so landing pages and follow-up matter more. If you can't answer calls during the hours the ads run, fix that first.
What's included?
Short answer: the account structure, the targeting, the tracking and a monthly decision on every dollar.
- Account audit against your search terms, locations, schedules and conversions.
- Campaign structure by service, so an emergency call and a planned replacement don't share one budget.
- Location and schedule set to where and when you can actually work.
- Call tracking so each call is tied to the campaign and search that produced it.
- Landing pages that match the ad, with the phone number at the top. See website conversion.
- Local Services Ads set-up and lead disputes, where your trade and area qualify.
- Monthly review by cost per booked job, with the reasons for each change written down.
What does a worked example look like?
Short answer: start from the job, not the click.
Say your average service call earns $450 in gross margin and you're willing to spend up to 30% of that, or $135, to win one. If about one in three ad calls books, you can afford around $45 per call. If your clicks cost $9 and one in six clicks calls you, each call costs $54. That's over budget, so either the click-to-call rate improves (a better landing page), the cost per click drops (tighter keywords) or the booking rate rises (better phone handling). The lead cost guide goes further with these numbers.
How long does it take?
Short answer: calls usually start within days; a stable, efficient account takes two to three months of data.
The first month is about stopping waste and getting tracking right. The second is about finding which services and areas produce jobs at a fair cost. By the third, you should be able to say which campaigns deserve more budget.
How do we measure results?
Short answer: cost per booked job, booked jobs from ads, and the share of spend going to searches that book.
Click-through rate and cost per click are diagnostic numbers. They help explain a result but they aren't the result. As a sense of what disciplined paid and organic work can produce, HVACDeal.ca generated 500+ leads at a 12:1 ROI. That is a result from our HVAC work, not a forecast for your trade.
What mistakes should I avoid?
Short answer: letting Google's automated suggestions run the account without supervision.
- Accepting every "recommendation" in the ads interface
- Broad match keywords with no negative list
- Location set to "people interested in" an area instead of people in it
- Sending all ads to the home page
- Counting page visits as conversions instead of calls and enquiries
To compare this with other services, see the services overview. Plan prices are on the pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
How much should I spend on Google Ads?
Enough to get a fair test, and no more until the numbers justify it. We work it out from your target cost per booked job and the number of jobs you can take, then adjust monthly.
Should I run Local Services Ads or regular search ads?
Often both, where Local Services Ads are available for your trade and area. They charge per lead rather than per click and sit at the very top of the page, while search ads give more control over keywords and landing pages.
Who owns the ads account?
You do. We set accounts up in your name, or work inside the one you have, and you keep full access and history if you ever leave.
Why did my last agency's ads stop working?
The most common reasons are broad match keywords that drift into unrelated searches, locations set too wide, and no feedback from booked jobs. We start every account review with the search terms report.