Google Ads for Contractors: The Principles That Matter
Paid search puts you in front of people looking for your trade right now. Whether it pays depends on how it is set up and how you measure it.
Paying for the search
Google Ads puts you in front of people searching for your trade right now. Whether that pays depends on how you set it up and how you measure it.
For contractors, Google Ads has one big advantage over most lead services: the enquiry comes to you alone. Someone searches, clicks your ad, and calls you or fills in your form. Nobody else receives that enquiry, and you control how much you are prepared to pay for the click.
It also has real costs and real ways to waste money. Clicks are charged whether or not the person enquires, and what they cost varies widely by trade, by area and by how many other businesses are bidding. We are deliberately not quoting figures here. They move too much to be useful, and the only numbers that matter are the ones from your own account.
This guide covers the principles that hold in any trade: what to set up first, how to target, what to measure and where money usually leaks. It is part of our guide to getting more work as a contractor.
Strengths and trade-offs
What Google Ads does well, and what it asks of you
Intent you can target
You can show ads only when someone searches for the work you do, in the places you cover, at the times you can answer. Few channels let you be that precise.
The enquiry is yours
A click from your ad leads to your phone number or your page. It isn't offered to other businesses, which changes the conversation you have with the customer.
You pay per click, not per job
Every click costs money, including the ones that go nowhere. Without proper tracking it is easy to spend for months without knowing what you got for it.
Setting up
The order to do things in
A lot of wasted spend comes from launching ads before the basics are in place. Working in this order avoids most of it.
Set up conversion tracking first
Decide what counts as a result: a phone call from the ad, a call from your page, a completed enquiry form. Track those before you spend anything. Without it you can't tell good spend from bad, and Google's automated bidding has nothing sensible to aim at.
Start with a Search campaign
Search ads appear when someone types a query. Other campaign types show ads across wider placements, where intent is usually weaker. For most contractors starting out, Search is the clearest test.
Target your area properly
Set the locations you actually cover, then check the location option. Google can show ads to people who are in your area, or to people who have shown interest in it. For local trade work, people in or regularly in your area is usually the right choice.
Choose keywords that signal a job
Searches that name the work and imply a need, such as a repair or a replacement, tend to be worth more than general research. Group keywords tightly by service so each ad matches the search behind it.
Add negative keywords from day one
Exclude searches that will never become work for you: jobs, training, courses, DIY, materials, and trades you don't offer. Keep adding to the list as real searches come in.
Write ads that match what you do
Say plainly what you do, where, and why someone should call you. Accurate, specific ads attract fewer wasted clicks than clever ones.
Send clicks somewhere useful
A page about the specific service, with a phone number that works on mobile and a short enquiry form. Sending every click to a general homepage tends to cost enquiries.
Schedule ads for when you can answer
An ad that brings in a call you miss is money spent for nothing. Run ads when someone can pick up, and make sure form enquiries get a quick reply.
Keywords
How match types and search terms work
Google Ads uses three keyword match types. Broad match lets Google show your ad for searches it judges to be related to your keyword, which can stray a long way from what you meant. Phrase match shows your ad for searches that include the meaning of your phrase. Exact match is the tightest, showing your ad for searches with the same meaning as your keyword.
Looser match types reach more people and bring in more irrelevant clicks. Tighter ones give you more control and less volume. Many contractors start tight, with phrase and exact match, and loosen only once tracking shows what is working.
Whichever you choose, check the search terms report regularly. It shows the actual searches that triggered your ads, and it is the fastest way to spot wasted spend and new negative keywords.
Be deliberate with automatic settings. Google's defaults and recommendations often favour reach over precision. Review which recommendations, if any, are set to apply automatically, and whether a Search campaign is also showing on search partner sites or the Display Network. Some of these help; decide each one on purpose rather than by default.
Click prices vary widely by trade, by location, by time of year and by how many other businesses are bidding. Any figure we quoted would be wrong for most readers. Test with a small budget you can afford to lose, measure cost per job won, and let your own numbers decide.
Measuring what counts
Judge Google Ads on jobs won, not clicks
Clicks, impressions and click-through rate tell you whether the ads are being seen and clicked. They don't tell you whether they are making you money. The measure that matters is the same as for any other source: total cost divided by jobs won.
To get there, connect what happens in Google Ads to what happens in your diary. Note which enquiries came from ads, which you visited, which you quoted and which you won. Add the ad spend, any management fee and your time on visits and quotes that didn't convert. The method is set out in true cost per job won.
Give it long enough. A few weeks is rarely enough data for a trade business, especially on larger jobs where the gap between enquiry and acceptance can itself be weeks. Set a test period and a budget in advance, and review at the end rather than reacting day to day.
Budgets are set as an average daily amount. Google may spend more than that on some days and less on others, but over a month it is designed not to charge more than your daily budget multiplied by the average number of days in a month. Set it at a level where a full month's spend is something you can absorb. For budgeting across all channels, see how much should I spend on marketing.
After the click
Turning ad enquiries into work
An ad only produces an enquiry. What happens next decides whether the spend was worth it. Paid enquiries tend to be ready to act, so the same habits that win any enquiry matter even more here.
Answer quickly, or call back quickly. Ask a few qualifying questions before booking a visit: what the job is, where, and how soon they want it done. Send a clear written quote promptly, and follow it up once or twice.
Record the source of every enquiry as it comes in. Without that, you will never know whether the ads or something else produced the job, and the account will be judged on guesswork. Guides on quoting faster apply here just as much as on any other channel.
Doing it yourself
Running it yourself or paying someone
Either can work. What matters is that someone checks the account regularly and the results are measured in jobs.
Running it yourself
- No management fee on top of ad spend
- You learn how your customers actually search
- Takes regular time to monitor properly
- Easy to leave expensive settings unchecked
- Suits smaller budgets and single-service firms
Hiring an agency or freelancer
- Experience of where money usually leaks
- A monthly fee on top of ad spend
- Quality varies a great deal
- Insist on access to your own account and data
- Judge them on cost per job won, not clicks
Where money leaks
Six common ways contractors waste ad spend
No conversion tracking
Spending without knowing which clicks became enquiries. Everything else on this list is harder to fix without it.
Targeting too wide an area
Ads showing to people outside the area you actually cover, or to people who are merely interested in it.
Too few negative keywords
Paying for searches about jobs, courses, material prices or trades you don't offer.
Missed calls
Ads running while nobody can answer. A missed call from a paid click is the most expensive kind of call there is.
Sending clicks to the homepage
Making people hunt for the service they searched for. A focused page for each main service usually converts better.
Changing things too often
Editing daily in response to small numbers. Give each change time to show a pattern before judging it.
Where it fits
Google Ads alongside your other channels
Paid search works best as one part of a mix. Your Google Business Profile is free and shows in local results and on Maps. SEO for construction companies builds visibility that doesn't stop when you stop paying, though it takes longer. And whether to build a website is worth settling before you pay to send people to one. For a direct comparison with paid lead platforms, see is Google Ads cheaper than lead sites.
The common thread is that Google Ads brings you the enquiry and nothing more. The call, the visit, the quote, the follow-up and the payment are still yours to handle. For a contractor who is on the tools all day, that can be the real limit on what paid search can produce. The admin cost of winning work helps you weigh that time properly.
Some contractors prefer an arrangement where both the enquiry and the process around it are handled for them. In the Mortaro network we generate the work ourselves and handle the enquiry, the site visit booking, the quotation, the follow-up and the payment administration, with no upfront or per-lead charge. What Mortaro handles for contractors sets out the split, and no upfront lead fees, explained covers how it is paid for.
It suits some businesses better than running ads, and others less well. If you want to own every customer relationship and build your own brand, your own marketing is the better route, and the principles on this page are a good place to start.
Google Ads
What Google Ads really costs a roofer
Running your own ads avoids shared leads, but it is not cheap, and every click is paid for whether or not it becomes work.
You pay for clicks, not customers
UK roofing searches are reported at around £4.50–£9.20 a click. You pay each time someone clicks, whether they ring you, fill in the form or leave straight away.
A monthly budget, not a one-off
A sensible budget for a local single-team roofer is put at £750–£2,500 a month, and £1,000–£1,500 a month is described as the realistic floor for higher-ticket trades. An agency to run the account typically adds £295–£895 or more a month.
Not every lead is a lead
Google itself says its filters cannot stop every invalid lead reaching your forms, and calls lead quality a shared effort. Broad keywords and default settings can spend budget on searches that were never going to become work, so accounts need regular attention.
Even a properly managed roofing account is quoted at roughly £75–£160 per booked job, before your own time on quotes that do not convert. Google Ads figures as published by PositionWorks (2025 UK home services benchmarks, roofing) and Aimpro Digital (2026). Click prices vary by area, service and how well the account is run.
Straight answers
Google Ads questions
Is Google Ads worth it for contractors?
It can be, when tracking is in place, targeting is tight and someone answers the phone. It usually isn't when those basics are missing. Run a measured test and judge it on cost per job won.
How much should I spend on Google Ads?
Start with a test budget you could lose without harm, run it for a set period and measure the result. Costs vary by trade and area, so there is no sensible universal figure.
Should I use broad match?
Broad match reaches the widest range of searches and needs close watching through the search terms report. Many contractors begin with phrase and exact match and widen once they know what works.
Do I need a website to run Google Ads?
Most Search campaigns send clicks to a page, so in practice you need somewhere good to send them. A clear page for each main service, working well on a phone, usually does better than a general homepage.
For contractors
Tell us about your business
Your trade, the areas you cover and the size of work you take on. A person reads every enquiry, and if it looks like a fit we will send you the full application.