Google Ads for contractors that ring the phone

Sometimes. It depends on three numbers and one question.

• What you keep on an average job. A roof replacement and a gutter clean are different animals. Use what you keep after costs.
• How many calls it takes you to win one. Your close rate, in plain terms.
• What a call costs in your town. It varies by trade, town and season.
• Can your crew take the calls? A heat wave of calls you can't run costs you money and reviews.

If a call is worth more than it costs to get, ads can pay. If it isn't, they can't, and we'll say so before you spend. Put your numbers into the ROI calculator to see where you land.

No honest agency can promise how many calls or jobs you'll get. We promise an account that is yours, spend you can see and a report that tells the truth, good or bad.

Many contractors have. This is how it usually goes:

• The ads ran on broad words like "roofer" or "free estimate," and the clicks came from people three counties away.
• The agency opened the account in its own name. You couldn't log in.
• The invoice showed a management fee and a markup, and you couldn't tell where one stopped.
• The report listed clicks. It didn't list calls.

That is paying for traffic. Traffic doesn't pay a crew.

Ads leak quietly. A wrong keyword can spend the day's budget while you're on a roof. And on the day a storm hits or the heat breaks, the company with ads already running in your town takes the calls you wanted.

An account that is yours

We build the campaigns in your own Google Ads account, on your card. You can log in any day and see every click and every dollar.

No markup

Your ad money goes straight to Google. We take no cut of it. Our fee pays for our work, and your ad budget is a separate number.

Keywords for the jobs you want, and a block list

We choose the searches that match the jobs you want. And we block a long list of words: "free," "jobs," "DIY," other towns, and anything else that brings calls you don't want.

Your towns only

The ads show where you work, not across the whole state.

A page for each ad

The click lands on a page for that job in that town, not on your home page. See contractor website design.

Calls tracked

We track calls from your Google Ads, from the click to the call, and calls from your Google Business Profile. A call that reaches you any other way is not tracked, and the report says so. Where you tell us the outcome, we tie the call to a job. Calls from ads land in your CRM.

Also in the build: ads on when you can answer (you tell us your hours and how many jobs the crew can take), a review of the actual search terms on a schedule, and one plain report a month with tracked calls, form leads from ads, jobs and what you spent. No impressions.

Three places to spend. They catch different people.

Google Ads catch someone who is searching for your job right now. That is why they suit a trade with a phone that has to ring this week.

Facebook ads reach people who weren't searching. They can help with brand and with seasonal offers, but the customer isn't looking yet. We run Google Ads.

Local Services Ads are Google's pay-per-lead listings above the regular ads. You pay for a lead rather than a click, and Google checks your license and insurance first. We run Google Ads. On the call we'll tell you whether Local Services Ads fit your trade and market.

The three are not rivals. A contractor with a full profile and good reviews usually gets more from every ad dollar, because the click lands on a business that looks real.

You set the budget. Here is the method, with no numbers in it, so you can run it yourself.

1. What a job is worth. What you keep on an average job, after materials and labor.
2. What a call is worth. That number times the share of calls you close. If you close one call in four, a call is worth a quarter of a job.
3. What the crew can take. How many jobs a week you can run without slipping. That's your ceiling.
4. What you can pay for a call. Less than a call is worth. The gap is your margin.

Start where the ceiling and the margin meet. On the strategy call we write down what we'd start with for your trade and your town. The ROI calculator shows what a budget has to bring in before it pays for itself.

We don't promise a number of calls or a number of jobs. We don't open an account in our name. We don't mark up your spend. And we don't spend more of your money to prove a point. The full terms are on how we work.

1. Before any ad dollar goes out, call tracking on your Google Ads and Business Profile works, a test call lands where it should, and you tell us how many jobs your crew can take on.
2. Build. We build the campaigns in your account. You approve the ads and the budget before anything goes live.
3. Run and trim. We watch the searches, the calls and the spend, and fix what leaks.
4. Day 60 and day 90. We sit down with the numbers against the targets we wrote down together. If a channel isn't producing, the budget moves. If nothing is working, the ads pause.

Delaware Holiday Lights (Delaware): a booking-focused website, local SEO and Google Ads ahead of peak season.

Do Google Ads work for contractors?

They can, when a call is worth more than it costs and the crew can take the calls. The budget section above shows how to check. We tell you before you spend if the numbers don't add up.

What is the best Google Ads setup for contractors?

An account in your name, campaigns built around the jobs you want, a long block list, your towns only, and a landing page for each ad. Then a report that counts tracked calls, not clicks.

Why not use SEO and skip the ads?

They do different jobs. Ads can send a call this week and stop when you stop paying. SEO builds something that stays, but it takes months. Most contractors do well with both. See contractor SEO.

Do I own the ad account?

Yes. It's in your name, on your card.

Do you mark up my ad spend?

No. You pay Google directly. We take no cut.

How fast will I get calls?

Ads can start sending calls within days of going live. The first weeks are for learning which searches bring the right calls.

How do you know the calls are real?

Calls from your ads are tracked and listed in the report. We can't count calls that reach you any other way, and the report says so.

What if the ads don't work?

At day 60 and day 90 we look at the numbers together, move the budget and, if nothing works, pause the ads.

Can I leave?

You can. The ad account is already yours, so leaving means we step out and you keep it running. Give us 30 days' notice in writing. Your minimum term is set in your written agreement.

Running ads for a law firm? See Google Ads for law firms.