Google Ads can put your business at the top of the page when someone nearby searches for what you do. Done well, it brings in enquiries from people who are ready to book. Done badly, it quietly spends money every day and gives you very little back.
This guide covers the basics in plain English, so you can decide whether ads make sense for you right now.
How local search ads work
When someone types "emergency plumber near me" or "dog groomer in Beeston" into Google, the first few results are often ads.
Businesses pay to appear there. You choose the searches you want to show up for (these are called keywords), the area you want to cover, and how much you are willing to spend. You are usually charged when someone clicks your ad, not when it is shown. That is why it is called pay per click.
Google decides who appears and in what order. It looks at how much each business is willing to pay, but also at how relevant the ad is and how good the page behind it is. A clear ad that leads to a useful page can do better than a bigger budget pointing at a weak one.
Start with a small, fixed budget
You set a daily budget, and Google works within it over the month. There is no minimum you have to commit to, and you can pause at any time.
A sensible way to start:
- Pick an amount you would be comfortable losing while you learn.
- Run it for a few weeks before judging it, so you have enough to go on.
- Check what came in, not just how many clicks you got.
- Only raise the budget once you can see ads producing real jobs.
Costs per click vary a lot by trade, area and time of year, so be wary of anyone who promises a fixed price before looking at your market. The honest answer is that you find out by testing with a small amount.
Keep your location targeting tight
This is where many local businesses waste money. If you cover a few towns, tell Google exactly that. You can target by postcode, by town or by a radius around your base.
A few things to check:
- Set the area to where you actually work, not the whole county.
- In the location settings, choose to show ads to people in your area, rather than people who are just interested in it. Otherwise someone browsing from far away can trigger your ad.
- Exclude places you do not want jobs from.
- Set your ads to run during the hours you can take calls, if phone enquiries matter most to you.
It also helps to use negative keywords. These are words you do not want to show up for. A boiler engineer might add "jobs", "training" and "course", so they do not pay for clicks from people looking for work rather than a repair.
Send people to a page that converts
"Converts" just means the visitor does what you hoped, such as calling, sending a form or messaging you.
Sending ad clicks to your homepage and hoping for the best rarely works well. A better approach is a page that matches the search. If the ad says "Gutter cleaning in Arnold", the page should be about gutter cleaning in Arnold, with:
- Your phone number at the top, tappable on a phone
- A short, simple contact form
- What you do, where you cover, and a rough idea of price if you can give one
- A few genuine reviews
- Photos of your real work
- A page that loads quickly on mobile
If someone has to hunt for your number, they will press back and click the next business.
Track calls and forms
If you cannot see which clicks turned into enquiries, you cannot tell whether your ads are working. Tracking is the part most people skip, and it matters most.
At the very least, you want to know:
- How many people called from the ad or from the page
- How many contact forms were sent
- How many of those became paying jobs
Google Ads can record calls made from the ad itself and form submissions on your site, once it is set up properly. Keep a simple note of which enquiries came from ads and which turned into work. After a month or two you will have a much clearer picture than any click report can give you. Our post on where your enquiries come from goes into this in more detail.
When not to run ads yet
Sometimes the most useful advice is to wait.
If your website is slow, hard to use on a phone, has no reviews and buries your phone number, ads will send people to a page that lets them down. You will pay for the visit and lose the customer. Fixing the website first is cheaper and makes every future ad click worth more.
It may also be worth waiting if:
- You are already fully booked and cannot take more work
- You have not set up your free Google Business Profile yet
- You have no way of tracking what comes in
At We are Graft, we would rather tell someone to fix their website first than take an ad budget. When we do run ads, the spend goes straight to Google and stays yours. You can see how that works on our add-ons page.
If you would like a second opinion on whether your website is ready for ads, get in touch and we will give you an honest answer, even if that answer is "not yet".