Google Ads for tradies
Google Ads for tradies. One campaign for each kind of job you want more of.
A trade business does not get one kind of enquiry. An emergency call-out tonight, a new deck being quoted over a fortnight and a strata manager looking for someone regular are three different searches. They should never share a campaign.
Omologist builds each campaign for you: the keywords, the ad groups, the ad copy, the negative keywords and a budget forecast, one service page at a time. You pay once and run it yourself, or hand it to whoever looks after your marketing.
One-off price in US dollars · No retainer · Delivered within 24 hours
Every build is read by Sean Cooney before it is sent.
Running Google Ads since 2001.
Bathroom renovations
yourbusiness.com.au/bathroom-renovations
Kitchen renovations
yourbusiness.com.au/kitchen-renovations
Decks and pergolas
yourbusiness.com.au/decks-and-pergolas
Home extensions
yourbusiness.com.au/home-extensions
Commercial fit-outs
yourbusiness.com.au/commercial-fit-outs
Five pages to advertise is five campaigns. You do not need all five. Start with the job you most want more of.
Three kinds of tradie search. Three different campaigns.
Most tradie Google Ads accounts that waste money do it the same way: every kind of job in one campaign, one budget, one set of ads. The searches below behave nothing like each other, and Google will spend the shared budget on whichever is cheapest to buy.
Urgent
The customer with a problem right now
roof leak repair · blocked drain · no power
Searching now, on a phone, at any hour. They call the first business that looks close and available, and they rarely call a second.
In the campaign: a tight service area, a schedule that matches when someone answers the phone, and ads that say how soon you can be there, if you can.
Quoted
The customer planning a job
bathroom renovation · deck builder · house painter cost
Getting two or three quotes. They search by the job and the price over days or weeks, and they are comparing you with whoever else replies.
In the campaign: separate ad groups for people pricing the job, people comparing options and people ready to ask for a quote.
Ongoing
The customer who wants someone regular
strata maintenance · commercial fit-out · property maintenance contractor
Property managers, strata and businesses looking for a trade they can call again. There are few of these searches, but each one can be worth many jobs.
In the campaign: its own campaign and its own page, written for a business and kept apart from household work.
What one build covers
One build. One campaign. One service page.
Each campaign is built around a single page on your website. For a trade business that is usually a service page, sometimes an emergency page with its own hours, sometimes a page for commercial work. A second page is a second build.
One campaign · bathroom renovations
one budget · one goal
Ad group
People ready to book
Searches that name the job and a suburb, or ask for a quote
Ad group
People pricing it
Searches about cost and what a job like this should come to
Ad group
People comparing options
Searches that weigh a full renovation against a makeover
Ad group
People who know your name
Searches for your business, kept apart from the rest
every ad leads to
One page on your website
The keywords, the clusters and the audiences are all researched for this page.
An example for one service. In Performance Max the groups are asset groups and audiences, and they still lead to the one page.
Three services to advertise is three builds.
Count the pages you want to send paid traffic to. That is the number of campaigns your trade business needs.
One build
A service
yourbusiness.com.au/bathroom-renovations
One kind of job that deserves its own budget
One build
An emergency page
yourbusiness.com.au/emergency-repairs
Urgent work, with its own budget and hours
One build
A commercial page
yourbusiness.com.au/commercial-fit-outs
Business customers, kept apart from households
What is in a Google Ads build for a trade business.
Every build covers the same ground, delivered as an editable spreadsheet you own. Here is what each part does for a trade business.
Keywords read for intent
“Deck builder” and “how to build a deck” share most of their words. One is a customer. The other has a free weekend and a drill. Live search volume and cost for your own area, then a decision on every term.
Ad groups built from what people are asking
Grouped by what the searcher is trying to do, not by your list of services. It is what lets each ad answer the search it appears for.
Match types
Exact and phrase, chosen term by term. We never use broad match in an initial build.
Ad copy written to each group
Headlines and descriptions inside Google’s character limits, written for the question that ad group is asking.
Negative keywords
Trade searches are full of people who are not customers. The list on the right is where that money goes when nobody excludes it.
Budget forecast
What your budget can realistically buy in your area, and what a job has to be worth for the numbers to hold. If Google Ads is the wrong channel for that work, the build says so.
Landing page readiness
What the service page needs fixed before you send paid traffic to it.
Pre-launch checklist
Conversion tracking for calls and quote requests, locations, schedule, bid strategy, and the defaults Google switches on for you.
People looking for work
jobs · apprenticeship · wages · award rates
People learning the trade
course · TAFE · white card · licence
People buying materials
trade supplies · timber · tools · hire
People doing it themselves
how to · DIY · plans · calculator
People heading for the quote sites
lead and quote sites, by name
Examples of the kinds of term a trade campaign should exclude. Your own list comes from the search data for your services and your area.
See the Performance Max build →
Or open a complete sample build, made for a fictional retailer: Search sample · Performance Max sample. Free, no email.
The rules a tradie ad has to respect.
Trade advertising is regulated in ways that most Google Ads advice ignores. In Australia your licence follows you into the ad, and so does consumer law.
Australia · licensing and consumer law
What your ads have to show, and what they can claim
- Your licence number. In New South Wales the licensee’s name and licence number must be shown in all advertising for residential building work and specialist trades, and the rules cover the internet. Queensland requires the licensed name and licence number, clearly legible. A Search ad has very little room, so decide where the number goes before the headlines are written.
- Other states have their own rules. Check with the regulator that issued your licence before you launch.
- No part prices. In New South Wales you cannot state part of a price unless the full price is also clearly stated. Take care with call-out fee and “from” price headlines.
- Claims you can back. Open 24 hours, same day and fixed price are promises. Consumer law does not allow false or misleading claims, and an ad is a claim.
Sources: NSW Government, building trade advertisements · QBCC advertising · ACCC, false or misleading claims.
Australia · Local Services Ads
The Google product you may have read about
- A separate product, sold overseas. In the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and parts of Europe, Google sells Local Services Ads to trades. They are bought by the lead and are not part of a Google Ads campaign. Much of the advice written for tradies online assumes you can buy them.
- Not listed for Australia. Google’s Local Services help centre does not list Australia among its countries.
- What a build is. An Omologist build is a Search or Performance Max campaign, and both run in Australia.
Source: Google Local Services Ads help.
Plumber or electrician? There is a page for each trade: Google Ads for plumbers · Google Ads for electricians.
This is a summary and not legal advice. You are responsible for your own advertising, whoever writes it. Read every headline before it goes live, and tell us in the brief your licence details and anything you cannot claim.
Is a build right for your trade business?
Not for every trade business. Better to know before you order.
A build fits if
- You know which jobs you want more of
- Your website has a page for each of them
- You, or someone in the office, will run the account
- You want to know whether the numbers work before you spend on clicks
- You already have someone doing your marketing and want the campaigns they manage built properly
Hire an agency instead if
- You want someone to manage the account every week and report every month
- You want an audit of an account that is already running. We do not review accounts
- You want to talk it through on a call. We work by email and do not take calls
- You have no service pages yet. A campaign needs a page to send people to
- You run enough crews and locations that one person should be watching the account full time
What it costs a trade business.
The price is for each campaign, paid once. Count the service pages you want to advertise and you have your total.
Your ad spend is separate and is paid to Google. The budget forecast in each build tells you what that spend can buy.
One service, Search
For example a bathroom renovations Search campaign
One service, Performance Max
The same page, built for Performance Max
One service, Search and Performance Max
Both campaigns for the one page
Three services, Search
Three pages, three campaigns, 3 × $129
Delivered as an editable spreadsheet within 24 hours. An optional upload into your Google Ads account, paused for you to check, is $79.
Google Ads for tradies: the questions.
Does Google Ads work for tradies?
It can, and it depends on three numbers: what a click costs in your area, how many enquiries become jobs, and what a job is worth to you. Every build includes a budget forecast that works this through before you spend. If the numbers do not hold for a service, the build says so.
How much should a tradie spend on Google Ads?
There is no single figure, because click costs change with the trade and the area. The build forecasts what your budget can buy, using live search data for your own market, so you can set the spend with the numbers in front of you.
How many campaigns does a trade business need?
One for each page you want to send paid traffic to. A builder advertising bathrooms, decks and commercial fit-outs needs three campaigns, because the searches, the ad copy and the budgets are different for each.
Should a tradie use Search or Performance Max?
Search shows your ad to someone who has just typed what they need, which suits most trade work. Performance Max also runs across YouTube, Maps, Gmail and Display, and works best once conversion tracking is in place. You can order either, or both for the same page.
Do I have to show my licence number in a Google ad?
In New South Wales the licensee’s name and licence number must be shown in all advertising, including online. Queensland requires the licensed name and licence number. Other states have their own rules, so check with your regulator. Tell us your licence details in the brief.
Which trades do you build campaigns for?
Any trade with a website. The build starts from your own page and the search data for your own area, so it works the same way for a builder, a roofer, a painter or a landscaper.
Do you manage the campaign after it is built?
No, deliberately. You own the campaign and run it yourself. If you later hire a freelancer or an agency to manage it, they start from a properly structured account.
We already have a marketing agency. Can they use the build?
Yes. The build is an editable spreadsheet that you own. Hand it to whoever manages your account.
Do I need to give you access to my Google Ads account?
No. You receive a spreadsheet. Access is only needed if you add the optional $79 upload, where we load the finished campaign into your account, paused.
Which countries do you work with?
Any. Builds use live search data for your own market and currency. Prices are in US dollars.
Start with the job you most want more of.
One campaign, built for that page and checked by a specialist, in your inbox within 24 hours. No retainer and no account access.
One-off price in US dollars · Human-reviewed · Delivered within 24 hours