Google Ads management for home improvement businesses.
Search campaigns built around the work you want, the postcodes you cover and the hours you can answer the phone. Managed continuously, and judged on the enquiries they produce rather than the clicks they buy.
The settings that decide where your money goes.
Most of the waste in a trade account comes from a handful of settings. These are the ones we build properly at the start and keep checking.
Campaigns by service and area
Each service you sell gets its own campaign or ad group, with its own budget, ads and landing page. A boiler installation budget should never be spent on someone searching for a dripping tap.
Keywords and search terms
We start with the services you sell and the words customers actually use for them. Then we read the search terms report, which shows what people really typed before they clicked, and act on it.
Negative keywords
Exclusion lists written for home improvement: jobs and training, DIY and “how to”, free and cheap, parts and materials, trade counters, and any service you do not offer.
Location targeting
The areas you genuinely cover, set by postcode district or radius, using Google’s presence setting so ads show to people in or regularly in your area, not just people who have shown an interest in it.
Ad schedule
Ads, and especially call ads, timed to the hours when someone can pick up the phone. Out of hours, the ads ask for a form instead of a call, or stop.
Ads and assets
Responsive search ads written for each service, with sitelinks, callouts, call assets and a linked Google Business Profile for location details. Your accreditations, guarantees and finance options go where customers can see them.
Bidding
Automated bidding only once conversion tracking counts the right things. Until then it would be learning from bad data, so we keep tighter control of what each click can cost.
Landing pages
If every ad sends people to your homepage, we will recommend changes or build a page for each main service, with your phone number, your area, proof of your work and a short form that works on a phone.
What we check first in an existing account.
If you already advertise, the campaign review starts here. Read-only access is enough, and nothing changes until you have agreed a plan.
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01
Conversion actions
What the account counts as a conversion, whether short calls count, whether one enquiry is counted twice, and whether bidding is optimising for any of it.
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02
Search terms
What people typed over the last few months, grouped by theme, so you can see how much went on searches you would never have chosen.
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03
Location settings
Presence or interest, radius or postcodes, and whether the targeted area matches where you will actually travel.
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04
Automatic changes
Whether auto-applied recommendations have been switched on, which lets Google change keywords, budgets and ads without anyone checking.
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05
Networks
Whether search campaigns are also showing on search partner sites or the Display Network, where trade enquiries are usually weaker.
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06
The page after the click
How fast your landing pages load on a phone, whether the number is tappable, and whether the form actually reaches you.
Clear work, in your account, explained in plain English.
- A written plan before anything changes. What we will build or fix, in what order, and why.
- Your account, in your name. We work as an added manager. You keep ownership, billing and full access.
- Ad spend paid straight to Google. On your own card. Our monthly fee is separate and agreed up front.
- A monthly report and a call. Spend, enquiries, enquiry quality and what we changed. See what it covers.
- The LeadCentre app. New enquiries on your phone the moment they arrive, with replies by text, email or WhatsApp. Included for every client. More about LeadCentre.
- Honest expectations. No guaranteed lead numbers, costs or rankings. We tell you what we expect and what it depends on.
Google Ads questions.
How much should I spend on Google Ads?
It depends on the cost of clicks for your services in your area, how many jobs you can take on and what a job is worth to you. A budget that is too small to produce a steady flow of enquiries is hard to judge, and hard to improve.
We suggest a starting budget during the campaign review, based on what we can see for your trade and area, and explain the reasoning.
Do you use Performance Max campaigns?
Not by default. For most trades, search campaigns give much clearer control over which searches you pay for. Performance Max can earn a place once conversion tracking is reliable and the search campaigns are working, and we would explain the trade-off before suggesting it.
Can you take over from my current agency?
Yes. If the account is in your name, you add us as a manager and remove the previous agency when you are ready. If the agency owns the account, ask them to transfer ownership to you first. We can tell you what to ask for.
Do I need a new website?
Usually not. Most trades need one or two good landing pages for their main services rather than a new site. We will tell you during the review whether your current pages are holding the campaigns back.
Related
Want a second opinion on your Google Ads?
Give us read-only access and we will show you where the budget is going, what is being counted as a lead, and what we would change first.