Google Ads for tradies · Search campaigns, call tracking and booked-job bidding · From $500K revenue
Google Ads for tradies, bid against what the job is worth.
Keyword Planner puts top-of-page bids for 'plumber' at $12 to $52 a click in Australia, 'locksmith' at $5 to $36 and 'blocked drains' at $12 to $51 (October 2026). At those prices, an account that counts a tap on a phone number as a conversion is paying Google to find more taps. We track every call, connect ServiceM8, Tradify or simPRO so booked and completed jobs flow back as offline conversions, and run your search campaigns every week against what each job is worth.
30 min · No pitch · Senior operator on the call
Engagement intake, currently open
$12 to $52
Top-of-page bids for 'plumber', searched 40,500 times a month in Australia. Keyword Planner, October 2026.
$3 to $10
The same range for 'landscaping', searched 12,100 times a month. Keyword Planner, October 2026.
From $500K
Trade business revenue where we start, with $1,500 a month or more going into ads.
How we run marketing for trade businesses
Four principles for Google Ads in a trade business.
Principle 01
Price the click against the job
Click prices differ enormously between trades. Keyword Planner's top-of-page bid ranges for Australia (October 2026) run from $2 to $6 for 'fencing' and $3 to $11 for 'carpenter' to $8 to $42 for 'garage door repairs' and $10 to $71 for 'pipe relining'. None of those numbers is good or bad on its own. The most you can pay for a click is what you would pay for a booked job, times the share of clicks that ring, times the share of calls that book. We work that out for each job type before setting a bid.
Principle 02
Calls are the first conversion, booked jobs the real one
Most trade work is booked on the phone, so every call from the ads and the website is tracked, and calls that ring out are reported by hour. A call is still not a job. Booked and completed jobs come back from your job software as offline conversions, which Google Ads accepts up to 90 days after the click. In our Sydney home services case study, once bookings rather than phone taps were measured, Google search booked jobs at $128 each, while a marketplace that reported $94 per booked job was really costing $387.
Principle 03
Bid on what the job software knows
Smart Bidding is only as good as the conversions it is given. Once booked jobs and their values flow back from ServiceM8, Tradify, simPRO or Fergus, the account can bid toward the jobs worth having instead of the cheapest call. Google's guidance for Target CPA is about 30 conversions in 30 days per campaign, so smaller accounts start on a simpler strategy and move to Target CPA or value-based bidding once there is enough booked work to learn from.
Principle 04
Spend where you can answer, on work you can do
Ads run in the hours someone picks up and in the postcodes you actually service. Search terms are read every week, and the ones that never become work are added as negatives: job seekers, apprenticeships, DIY how-tos and brands of products you do not install. Each job type gets an ad that names it and a page that matches it, because a search for a switchboard upgrade should land on the switchboard page, not the home page.
Deliverables
What a trade business gets in its Google Ads account.
01
Campaigns built around your job types and service area: one for each service line you want more of, ad groups by job, location targeting set to the postcodes you work in, and schedules matched to the hours you answer.
02
Call tracking on the ads and the website, call assets on the ads, and missed calls reported by hour, so you can see what an unanswered phone is costing.
03
ServiceM8, Tradify, simPRO, AroFlo, Fergus, Jobber or ServiceTitan connected, with booked and completed jobs uploaded as offline conversions with their values, and enhanced conversions for leads where they fit.
04
Bidding that starts simple and moves to Target CPA or value-based bidding once there are enough booked jobs to learn from.
05
A weekly search terms review with negative keywords added, and a landing page that matches each job, built by us if you need one.
06
Each month, cost per booked job by job type and campaign, reconciled to your job software, with every change and the reason for it in a decision log you keep.
Who this is for
- Trade or home services business turning over $500K or more
- Spending $1,500 a month or more on Google Ads, or ready to
- Jobs recorded in ServiceM8, Tradify, simPRO, AroFlo, Fergus or similar, so results can flow back
- Someone answering the phone in the hours the ads run
Who it isn't
- Want ads running around the clock with nobody to pick up
- Judge Google Ads on cost per click or cost per lead alone
- Want Local Services Ads set up in Australia. Google's help centre did not list Australia when we checked on 1 October 2026
- Want a guaranteed number of leads each month
How we work with trade businesses
Google Ads for your trade, in three steps.
The free audit call comes first, then a written proposal. Setup and management are each priced as a fixed fee for what we agree, not as a share of your spend, so our fee does not climb when Google's prices do. If you want the account checked before anything changes, take the two-week diagnostic on its own.
Optional · Diagnostic
The two-week account review
Read-only. We go through your campaigns, search terms, conversion tracking and call handling, and you get a ranked list of fixes, whoever ends up doing the work.
Setup · Fixed fee
Calls and jobs tracked
Call tracking live, your job software connected, booked and completed jobs flowing back to Google Ads, and the account restructured by job type. If your tracking is already sound, we start managing straight away.
Ongoing · Fixed fee
Weekly management
Senior operators run the account each week against cost per booked job, read the search terms, adjust budgets to your capacity and log every decision with its reasoning.
Need a site for the ads to land on? Tradie websites are quoted separately and built in two to three weeks.
Where to go next
Related services and neighbouring industries.
Related services
Tradie marketing →
Google Ads alongside Meta, Business Profile and SEO for trade businesses.
Google Ads agency →
Our Google Ads management for businesses outside the trades.
Local SEO for tradies →
The map results that sit next to your ads, and how to win them.
Call tracking →
How each call is tied to the ad and search that produced it.
Related industries
- Marketing for plumbers →
- Marketing for electricians →
- Marketing for builders →
- Marketing for roofers →
- Pest control marketing →
- Commercial cleaning marketing →
- Air conditioning and HVAC marketing →
- Tradie websites →
Cities we run Google Ads for trade businesses from
SydneyMelbourneBrisbanePerthAdelaideNational (remote)
Run your numbers
Proof, with the working shown
We'd rather show you the maths than the buzzwords.
“Profit Geeks rebuilt our whole sales engine, and not just the ad accounts. They went after the systems sitting behind them too. Sales are up 140% and we've pushed past $25M. Honestly the bit I didn't see coming was the operation running leaner than it did back when we were half the size.”
“We were quietly bleeding about a thousand dollars a week and had no idea why. They found the leaks, sorted out the measurement and the offer, and now we'll do more than $10K in a single day. Same product. Completely different business.”
“We went from scraping together two installs a week to running four crews and fifteen-plus jobs a week, north of $10M turnover. The clever bit was they tied the scaling to what we could actually deliver, so growth never broke the operation. Booked jobs, not vanity leads.”
“After iOS, our Meta numbers stopped matching the bank, and we'd basically been writing the gap off as “just tracking.” Profit Geeks rebuilt our measurement server-side and reconciled it straight back to the P&L. Turned out about $1.42M of ad spend in year one had been working all along. They're the first team that showed me the maths instead of a dashboard.”
“We didn’t spend a dollar more on ads. What they did was fix how we counted a booked job versus a platform “conversion,” cut the wasted spend, and by week twelve our blended ROAS had more than tripled. Revenue went from $4.8M to $9.1M. Same senior bloke on every call too. No juniors, no relay race.”
Reasonable questions
What you're probably thinking.
01
We've been burned by an agency before.
Most of our intake has. The difference is structural. A senior operator runs your account, not a junior hidden behind a dashboard, and you leave the first call with written findings you own even if we never work together. No relay race, no account manager translating between you and the people doing the work.
02
How do I know it'll actually work for my business?
You don't yet, and neither do we until we've seen your numbers. That's why the first step is a diagnostic, not a contract. We've documented this in DTC and home services (the case studies show the full working) and run the same playbook in professional services. If the maths isn't there for you, we'll tell you on the call.
03
What if there's nothing worth fixing?
Then you've spent thirty minutes and walked away with a second opinion that cost you nothing. We'd rather say no than take on an engagement we can't earn, so we turn away intake that isn't a fit. There's no pitch and no follow-up sales sequence.
04
What does it cost, and what am I signing up for?
A fixed fee for the tracking set-up, then a fixed fee for ongoing management, both quoted in writing after the call. No per-channel markup and no percentage of your ad spend. If your spend is too small for the fee to pay for itself, we will say so on the call. Budgets only climb when booked jobs show the extra spend is paying.
Frequently asked
Ten questions about Google Ads for tradies.
How much do Google Ads cost for tradies?
It depends on the trade more than anything. Keyword Planner's top-of-page bid ranges for Australia (October 2026), with monthly searches: plumber $12 to $52 (40,500), electrician $10 to $37 (33,100), locksmith $5 to $36 (33,100), removalists $11 to $28 (14,800), roof repairs $9 to $42 (5,400), garage door repairs $8 to $42 (9,900), air conditioning repair $8 to $32 (18,100), pest control $7 to $22 (18,100), office cleaning $8 to $44 (2,400), painters near me $5 to $24 (8,100), concreters near me $4 to $13 (9,900) and landscaping $3 to $10 (12,100). These ranges are roughly the 20th to 80th percentile of what advertisers have bid to show at the top of the page, not a price you are guaranteed to pay.
Click costs by trade, Australia 2026Is $10 a day enough for Google Ads?
For most trades, no, and how far short depends on your trade's click prices. A $300 month, which is what $10 a day adds up to, buys five to 25 clicks at Keyword Planner's top-of-page bids for 'plumber' ($12 to $52), eight to 60 for 'locksmith' ($5 to $36) and 30 to 100 for 'landscaping' ($3 to $10), in Australia (October 2026). Even the cheapest of those is a handful of calls a month: too few to tell a good month from a lucky one, and well short of what Google's automated bidding needs. A budget that size works best concentrated: one profitable job, a small radius, and a verdict after three months rather than three weeks.
Is $20 a day good for Google Ads?
It is a workable start for one service in one area. Twenty dollars a day is about $600 a month: at Keyword Planner's top-of-page bids for 'electrician' ($10 to $37), that is 16 to 60 clicks, and for 'removalists' ($11 to $28), 21 to 54 (Australia, October 2026). That can bring a steady trickle of calls, but it is still below the 30 or so conversions a month Google suggests before switching on Target CPA. Run it as one campaign, track calls through to booked jobs, and judge it after a full quarter.
How much do Google Ads cost for construction?
Construction clicks are cheaper than most trades', but each signed job takes longer to arrive. Keyword Planner shows top-of-page bids in Australia (October 2026) of $2 to $10 for 'home builders' (5,400 searches a month), $3 to $18 for 'granny flat builders' (2,400), $4 to $17 for 'bathroom renovations' (18,100), $3 to $15 for 'kitchen renovations' (6,600), $2 to $12 for 'deck builders' (5,400) and $4 to $13 for 'concreters near me' (9,900). Judge construction accounts on cost per qualified consultation or signed contract, because cost per click says little when a decision takes months.
Marketing for buildersWhere should tradies advertise?
Start where customers search with the problem in hand: Google search and Maps. Search ads catch the person typing the job right now, and your Business Profile catches the map results beside them. Then add the channels your numbers support: the marketplaces for jobs where customers compare quotes, Meta for considered work like renovations or installs, and past customers for repeat work. Whatever the mix, compare every channel on cost per booked job.
What the lead marketplaces charge, comparedAre Google Local Services Ads available to Australian tradies?
Not as of 1 October 2026. Google's Local Services help centre listed Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, and asking for the Australian version of its getting-started page returned the United States one. Some Australian blogs describe the product as available here, so ask anyone selling it to show you Google's page. Without it, search ads with call tracking and a well-kept Business Profile are the nearest thing.
What Google's help centre showsHow do booked jobs get from ServiceM8 or Tradify back into Google Ads?
The enquiry has to carry its Google click ID, or the customer's email and phone number, into the job record, so the booking can be matched to the ad later. From there, ServiceM8 can pass new and completed jobs to Google Ads through Zapier or its API, and simPRO has a documented API, webhooks and a Zapier app. Tradify's help centre documents CSV exports of enquiries, jobs and invoices, and we found no public API, so its jobs go up as a file, which Google Ads can import on a schedule from Google Sheets. Google accepts the conversion up to 90 days after the click, with the job's value attached.
ServiceM8, Tradify and simPRO comparedShould tradies run Facebook ads as well?
For some trades and some jobs. A burst pipe sends people to Google, not to Facebook, so emergency work belongs on search. Planned work is different: renovations, solar, air conditioning installs, landscaping and pools are researched over weeks, and Meta can put finished jobs in front of homeowners nearby and bring back people who visited your site. Measure it the same way, on cost per booked job, and optimise to enquiries, because Meta's learning phase wants around 50 optimisation events per ad set a week. Organic posting is a separate job, and not one we sell.
What should a tradie count as a conversion in Google Ads?
The steps that predict a job, weighted by value. A tracked call over a set length, or a submitted quote request, is the first conversion, because it arrives quickly enough for the bidding to learn from. The booked job is the second, uploaded from your job software with its value, and the completed or invoiced job can carry the final amount. Taps on a phone number, page views and half-finished forms should not count at all: in our Sydney home services case study, Meta's pixel recorded 412 conversions in 30 days while the business's records showed 22 booked jobs.
How much does Google Ads management cost for a trade business?
Two parts: the ad spend, which goes to Google, and the management fee. Australian agencies commonly charge 10 to 20 percent of spend, falling as budgets grow, or a flat monthly retainer of about $1,500 to $3,000 for small accounts and $3,000 to $8,000 for mid-sized ones. Ours is a fixed fee for the agreed scope, never a percentage, so it does not rise when click prices do. The tracking setup and ongoing management are quoted in one written proposal after the free audit call, and if your spend is too small for the fee to pay for itself, we will say so.
How much a Google Ads agency costs in AustraliaFurther reading
Google Ads Costs for Tradies (2026 Data)
The full table of Keyword Planner bid ranges and search volumes by trade.
Google Local Services Ads in Australia: Are They Available?
What Google's own help centre shows, and why some Australian guides disagree.
ServiceM8 vs Tradify vs simPRO for Tradie Marketing
Which job tools can send booked jobs and their values back to Google Ads.
Google Ads conversion tracking
Setting up the conversions the bidding learns from.
How Much Does a Google Ads Agency Cost in Australia?
Agency fee models and AUD ranges for Google Ads management.
Case study: From $4.8M to $9.1M without raising the ad budget
Google search at $128 per booked job, once bookings were what got measured.
What you actually buy
We connect the tracking, then we run the account. It starts with a free call.
Which of these sounds like your week?
- Meta says one number, Google says another, the CRM says a third, and the bank says something else again.
- The leads come in and most of them are rubbish.
- Traffic is fine. Not enough of them buy.
- You cannot spend more without losing margin.
- Something is wrong and you cannot say what.
All five come back to the same gap: nobody can say which job came from which dollar. We close that first, then the same senior operators run the spend against booked jobs. The free call is where we work out what your business needs first.
00 · Free
Run your own numbers
Six calculators and an attribution reference. Work out your break-even ROAS, your CAC payback, and whether the spend is structurally profitable, before you talk to anyone. The calculators need no signup.
01 · Free · 30 minutes
The profit audit call
A senior operator looks at your real spend, revenue and attribution gap on a call. You leave with a written fix list you keep, whether or not we ever work together. No deck, no follow-up sales sequence. We reply within one business day with three times to choose from.
02 · Optional · Two weeks
The two-week diagnostic
Read-only. We change nothing in your accounts. Every tag, event and consent rule mapped and written up: 20 to 35 pages, every issue rated P0 to P3 with an engineering-day estimate, and a 90-minute walk-through on day twelve. Yours to hand to us, your own team, or your existing agency. About a third of clients run this first, then decide.
03 · The engagement · Ongoing
The tracking set-up, then we run it
First the phones, the forms and your job software get connected to Google Ads and Meta, so every booked job traces back to the search, ad or page that produced it. From there the same senior operators run Google Ads, Meta, your Google Business Profile and SEO week to week, with budgets decided against booked jobs and the reasoning written down. The scope and timing of the set-up are in the written proposal.
What it costs
Four things set the number
- The size of your stack
- How many ad platforms are live
- The state of your CRM integration
- How many service lines and locations you run
Two things do not
- Your industry
- How much you spend on ads
Revenue only matters because a bigger business is usually a bigger scope. We do not price off a percentage of it. We charge for the work, not for what you look like you can afford.
How it is billedThe set-up is fixed scope. Ongoing management is a fixed fee for the agreed scope. Both are quoted in one written proposal after the call. No hourly billing and no percentage of ad spend.
Included at no extra costThe decision log and the tracking set-up, yours to keep whether we run the account or you take it back in-house.
What happens after you book
Three steps. No mystery.
Step 01 · Within 1 business day
30-minute audit call
A senior operator on the call. We look at your real numbers, spend, revenue, attribution gap, and tell you on the call whether the rebuild is worth doing for you and where it would start. No pitch deck.
Step 02 · Within 1 week
Written proposal
Fixed scope, fixed number, written up. The proposal names deliverables, timeline, the people involved, and the price. No hourly billing, no retainer drift.
Step 03 · Within 2 weeks
Engagement starts
Senior operators from day one. The measurement rebuild starts, we take over day-to-day buying on the channels we can measure, and the first working session lands. Inside two weeks of the call.
Next step
Every bid set against a job you can actually book.
If your Google Ads report shows clicks and calls but you cannot see which ones turned into work, book the free 30-minute profit audit. Bring a month of ad spend, the jobs your software booked in the same month, and the job types you most and least want. We will tell you in writing what the account is buying now and what we would change first.