Google Ads can put your trade at the top of Google today. Whether they're worth it comes down to a bit of simple maths and avoiding a few expensive mistakes.
Climbing Google for free takes months. Google Ads put you at the top today, for people searching for your trade right now. That's the appeal. The worry, for most tradespeople, is pouring money in and not knowing what came back. Both are fair, so here's how it actually works.
How Google Ads work
You choose the searches you want to appear for, like 'emergency plumber Chester' or 'flat roof repair', and the area you want to show in. When someone searches, Google runs a quick auction between the businesses bidding on that search. You only pay when someone clicks your ad, not when they see it.
You set a daily budget, so you can't spend more than you've agreed. You can change it, or pause the ads, any time.
What does a click cost?
It depends on your trade and your area. Searches where one job is worth a lot of money, like roofing or emergency plumbing, cost more per click because more businesses are bidding for them. A click can cost anything from under a pound to well over ten pounds.
The cost per click matters less than the cost per job. A dear click that turns into a £3,000 roof is a better deal than a cheap click that turns into nothing.
The maths that tells you if it's worth it
Work backwards from a job. Say your average job is worth £1,200 and you'd happily spend £150 to win one. If roughly one in four people who ring you book a job, each call is worth up to about £37 to you. That's the most you can afford to pay for a call and still come out on top.
Those are example numbers, not a promise; yours will be different. The point is to know them, and to count every call that comes from your ads so you can check. If you can't see which ad brought which call, you're guessing.
The mistakes that waste money
Showing for the wrong searches. Without care, your ad for 'roofer' can show for 'roofing jobs', 'how to fix a roof myself' or 'roofing felt B&Q'. Every one of those clicks costs you. Good campaigns block them.
Sending people to your homepage. Someone searching for a boiler repair wants a page about boiler repairs, with your number on it, not your company history.
Showing in the wrong places. Set your ads to the towns you actually cover, or you'll pay for clicks from people you'd never drive to.
Not counting calls. Most trade enquiries are phone calls. If your ads only count form fills, you'll think they're failing when they're not.
Set and forget. Ads need checking every week: what people searched, what you paid, what came in.
When Google Ads aren't worth it
If your diary is already full for months, ads just bring calls you'll turn away. And if your website is slow, hard to use on a phone or has no reviews or photos, fix that first; otherwise you're paying to send people somewhere that loses them.
Doing it yourself, or getting help
Plenty of tradespeople run their own ads, and it can work if you've got the time to check them every week. If you'd rather be on the tools, that's what our Get Leads plan is for. The ad account stays in your name, you pay Google directly with nothing added on top, and every call is counted on your own dashboard.