Campaign Management
Google Ads for Tradesmen
Google Ads for tradesmen works when the phone rings in the hours you can answer it, from the postcodes you want to work in, for the jobs you want more of. An emergency plumber click costs about twenty-three pounds in the UK, so every click on 'plumbing apprenticeship' or 'how to bleed a radiator' is money out of the next job.
Free 20 minute call with Richard, who runs the campaigns. No lock-in contracts.
- Your account, your card
- You pay Google or Meta directly and keep full access to the ad account. If you leave, it stays yours.
- Tracking before spend
- Nothing goes live until calls and form enquiries are counted, so every report is in enquiries, not clicks.
- One published fee
- The management fee is on the Campaign Management page, worked out from your monthly ad spend.
Where the money usually goes
- Ads cover a whole county when the van only goes ten miles, so most calls are too far to take.
- Searches for jobs, apprenticeships, DIY fixes and trade suppliers are paid for.
- Every ad sends people to the home page instead of a page for the job they searched.
- Emergency ads run at two in the morning when nobody is on call.
- Calls are not tracked, so there is no way to tell which job types pay back.
- Local Services Ads are not set up, so firms with the Google Verified badge sit above you.
What we run instead
- Location targeting set to people in the postcodes you work in, not people who once looked the area up.
- A campaign per job type, so boiler repairs and bathroom refits each get their own budget and ads.
- Ad schedules that match when you answer the phone, with emergency campaigns only in on-call hours.
- Call tracking on every ad, so you can match calls to jobs booked.
- Exclusion lists for jobs, training, DIY, suppliers and price-only searches from day one.
- Local Services Ads beside Search where your trade is eligible, so you show with the Google Verified badge.
What Google Ads cost for trades
Google's Keyword Planner estimates for UK searches, October 2026: emergency plumber about twenty-three pounds a click, boiler repair about eleven, kitchen fitters about eight, electrician near me about seven, loft conversion about seven, roof repair about six fifty, house extension about six, pest control about five, garden rooms about three.
Emergency work costs most per click because the customer calls the first firm that answers. Planned work like extensions and garden rooms is cheaper per click and worth far more per job, but the customer gets three quotes, so the ad and the page have to earn a place on the shortlist.
Google Ads for plumbers and heating engineers
Split emergency from planned work. Emergency searches such as 'burst pipe', 'no hot water' and 'emergency plumber' need call-only ads, a tight radius and on-call hours. Boiler installations are planned, compared and worth more, so they get their own campaign and a page showing the boilers you fit and your Gas Safe registration.
PPC for roofers
Roof repair searches jump after storms, so the budget needs room to rise for a week and fall back. Reroofs and flat roofs are planned work and worth a separate campaign. Photos of finished roofs on the landing page do more than any line of ad copy.
Google Ads for electricians
Most electrical searches are small jobs: sockets, lights, fault finding. They are quick to win and short on margin, so many electricians aim their ads at the bigger work they want, such as rewires, EV chargers and consumer unit upgrades, and let the Business Profile bring in the small jobs.
Google Ads for builders and home improvement
Extensions, loft conversions, garden rooms and kitchens are high-value and slow to decide. The click is cheaper than an emergency plumber's, the job is worth many times more, and the customer reads before they call. These campaigns need a landing page with finished projects, rough timescales and how quoting works. They suit Facebook and Instagram too, where the photos sell the idea.
Local Services Ads for trades
Local Services Ads charge for a call or message, not a click, and show the Google Verified badge above the normal ads. Google's UK list includes plumbers, electricians, roofers, HVAC, cleaning, landscaping, pest control, moving services, tree services, fencing, flooring, carpenters and handymen. Locksmiths are not on the UK list at the time of writing, October 2026.
Already running ads? We will look at the account before the call and tell you what we find.
Book a free callQuestions tradesmen ask us
- Is Google Ads worth it for a small trades business?
- If you can answer the phone and you know what a job is worth, usually yes, for work people search for urgently or plan carefully. If you are booked solid for months, put the time into reviews and your Business Profile, and come back to ads when you need the work.
- How do I stop getting calls from outside my area?
- Target people located in your area, exclude the postcodes you will not travel to, and name the area in the ad. Google's default setting also shows ads to people interested in a place, which is how a Bristol roofer ends up with calls from Birmingham.
- Should I use Checkatrade or Google Ads?
- They do different jobs. A directory membership shares the customer with other members. Google Ads sends the customer to you alone, and you pay per click or per call. Plenty of trades run both and judge them on cost per job won.
- What is the Google Verified badge?
- The badge Google now shows on Local Services Ads for businesses that pass its screening, which checks registration, insurance and your Business Profile. It replaced Google Guaranteed, and the old money-back guarantee only covers jobs booked before 7 December 2025.
- Who owns the ad account?
- You do. The account sits in your name, you pay Google from your own card, and we work inside it with manager access. If you stop working with us, the account, its history and its tracking stay with you.
Running ads for your trade business, or about to?
Book a free call. Tell us what you spend now and we will tell you what we would change first.