Paying to be at the top
Top of Google tomorrow, not in six months.
Google Ads, or PPC as you will sometimes see it called, put you above the free results from the day they go live. Set up properly they bring work in for a plumber, sparky or builder while everything else builds. Set up badly they quietly burn a few hundred dollars a month.
In short
How do Google Ads work for a trade business?
You pay Google to put your business in front of people. For a trade the usual starting point is a search campaign: you appear above the normal results when someone searches for the work you do, and you are charged when they click. Other campaign types work, and charge, differently.
How it works
Not all Google Ads are the same thing.
People say “Google Ads” as if it is one product. It is several, they behave differently, and they do not all charge you the same way. Here are the three worth knowing about.
- Search
- Charged per click
- Text ads above the normal results, shown when somebody types what you do into Google. They are already looking for you, which is why this is the one that works for trades.
- For a tradeStart here. For most trades this is the only one you need.
- Performance Max
- Charged per click or view
- You hand Google a budget and it spreads it across search, YouTube, Gmail, Maps and the display network, deciding where to spend on its own. Less control, and it needs good conversion tracking to have any idea what it is aiming at.
- For a tradeCan work once search is proven, but it will happily spend money in places that never bring you a job.
- Demand Gen
- Charged per view or impression
- Image and video ads on YouTube, Gmail and Discover. Nobody seeing these is searching for you, so it is not the place to go looking for work today.
- For a tradeUseful for staying in front of people who already visited your site and did not call.
Almost every tradesperson and contractor I work with starts on search and stays there. The others are worth a look once search is working and there is budget left over, not before.
Is it right for you
Ads are brilliant sometimes, and a waste other times.
Usually worth it if
- You are new, or new to an area, and nobody knows your name yet
- You need work coming in now rather than in six months
- You do jobs people search for in an emergency
- You have a quiet season you would like to fill
Usually not, yet
- Your website gives people no reason to call once they land on it
- Your budget is so small it cannot buy enough clicks to learn anything
- You are already flat out and turning work away
- You want it to keep working after you stop paying. That is the other job
If you are in the second column I will say so, and tell you what to fix first instead. Usually that is your website.
What I actually do
Where the money goes, and where it stops going.
- Working out what is worth bidding on
- Not every search is worth paying for. I go after the ones where someone is ready to book, not the ones where they are reading up.
- Stopping you paying for the wrong clicks
- Without this you pay for people searching for DIY guides, apprenticeships and jobs two hours away. It is the single biggest waste in most accounts I inherit.
- Ads that say what the job is
- Your trade, your area, and what makes you worth ringing, in the space of a text message.
- Sending clicks somewhere that converts
- An ad for hot water cylinders should not land on your homepage. It should land on a page about hot water cylinders with your number on it.
- Counting calls, not clicks
- Set up so we can see how many calls and enquiries the spend produced, not just how many people visited.
- Managing it, not setting and forgetting
- Checking in on it properly rather than setting it live and walking away. Pausing what is quietly wasting money, leaning into whatever is bringing jobs in.
Your money
Your ad budget is yours, and it stays separate.
There is no markup buried in your ad spend, because none of it passes through my hands. Google charges your card directly. I invoice for the work. Nothing to reconcile at the end of the month and nothing to take on trust.
The account is in your name. If we stop working together you keep it, along with everything it has learned about which searches actually bring you work. Most businesses run ads while getting found on Google catches up.
What it costs
A setup fee and a monthly fee. That is it.
No percentage of your spend, so I have no reason to talk you into a bigger budget than you need.
New Zealand dollars, GST added on top.
- To set it up
- $300one-off + GSTAccount built in your name, the searches worth bidding on worked out, the wasteful ones blocked, ads written and conversion tracking connected so we can see what actually produces calls.
- To run it
- $600a month + GSTWatching what is spending and what is producing, cutting the searches that waste money, and moving budget toward the ones bringing work in. Month to month, stop whenever you like.
Your ad budget is separate and is not included above. It goes straight to Google on your own account, every cent of it buys clicks or views, and you set it. Most trade businesses start somewhere between $30 and $50 a day.
What that buys depends on your trade and your area, because you are bidding against whoever else wants the same clicks. I can give you a rough idea before we start, but nobody knows the real numbers until the campaign has been running a few weeks and there is actual data to look at.
We have been using Stu for our advertising campaigns for a number of months and could not recommend him enough! The communication has been excellent and the service delivered has really helped us to maintain and grow our business.
Questions
Things people ask me.
How do Google Ads actually work?
In a search campaign, the one most trades start with, you bid to appear at the top when someone searches for a particular thing, and you are only charged when someone clicks. You set a daily budget and Google stops showing your ads once it is used up. Other campaign types can charge for views or impressions instead, which is worth knowing before you pick one.
How much do I need to spend?
There is no figure that works everywhere. What matters is whether your budget buys enough clicks in your trade and your area to learn anything at all. Spread too thin you get a handful of clicks a month and no idea which of them meant anything, and the first month teaches you nothing. If that is where your budget lands, I will say so rather than take a setup fee anyway.
Is my ad budget on top of your fee?
Yes. Two payments, to two places. Google bills you for the ads on your own card. I invoice separately for the setup and the management. Both numbers are on the table before anything starts.
Whose account is it?
Yours, in your name, with your billing on it. That matters more than it sounds. Plenty of agencies run their clients inside their own account, so leaving means walking away with nothing and starting cold somewhere else. Here there is nothing for me to hand back, because it was never mine to begin with.
How quickly will I see enquiries?
Ads can put you at the top within a day or two of going live, so this is the fastest option there is. The first few weeks are usually about learning which searches produce actual calls and cutting the ones that do not.
What happens if I stop?
The ads stop and so do the enquiries from them, immediately. That is the trade-off. Ads buy visibility while you are paying. Getting found on Google builds visibility that stays. Most businesses eventually want both.
Am I tied in?
No lock-in. Management is month to month and you can stop whenever you want. You keep the account either way.
By trade
Looking for your trade specifically?
Everything on this page applies whatever you do. Where a trade changes the advice enough to be worth its own page, there is one.
Weighing this up against the other two? Marketing for plumbers covers all three and which one to spend on first.
Worth reading
More on this, in plain English.
Let’s talk
Not sure whether ads are worth it for you?
Tell me your trade and the areas you cover. I will give you a rough idea of what to expect and tell you straight whether ads look like the right move for you at all.