How does Google Ads work for tradies?
Google Ads for tradies puts your business at the top of Google when someone in your area searches for the exact job you do, like "blocked drain Joondalup" or "switchboard upgrade Wanneroo". You pay when someone clicks, not when the ad shows.
That makes it different from most advertising. The person searching already has the problem and wants someone today. Your job is to be the first sensible option they see, and to make calling you easy.
A tradie account I build usually has:
- One campaign per service you want more of, so hot water, drains and gas fitting each get their own budget and keywords.
- Location targeting set to the suburbs you actually cover, not the whole state.
- An ad schedule that matches when you answer the phone, or extra budget after hours if you take emergency work.
- Call assets with call reporting, so people can ring you straight from the ad and you can see which ad made the phone ring.
- A matching landing page for every campaign, not your home page.
How much do Google Ads cost for tradies?
Most tradies spend $500 to $5,000 a month on clicks, paid straight to Google, plus a management fee. Our management starts at $950 a month plus ad spend, ex GST. In Perth, trades and home services clicks average $3 to $8 each.
| Cost | Typical amount (ex GST) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ad spend | $500 to $5,000 a month | Paid to Google on your card, depends on trade and competition |
| Cost per click, Perth trades | $3 to $8 on average | Emergency and high value jobs sit at the top end |
| Management | From $950 a month | Setup, tracking, weekly search term checks and reporting |
| Landing pages | From $950 | One off, built to match your campaigns |
| GST | 10% on top of our fees | All our prices are quoted ex GST |
Here's how the maths works. At $5 a click, $1,500 of ad spend buys about 300 clicks. How many of those turn into calls depends on your landing page, your reviews and how fast you answer, which is why the page and the follow up matter as much as the ads. I'd rather you start at a budget you can hold for 3 months than spend big for 3 weeks and stop. If you're in WA, our Google Ads in Perth page covers local costs in more detail.
Why does each service need its own landing page?
Because the person who searched "hot water system replacement" wants to land on a page about hot water systems, with a call button, not on a home page listing 14 services. Matching the page to the search is the cheapest way to get more calls from the same spend.
Each landing page I build for a tradie campaign has:
- The service and suburb in the headline, matching the ad.
- Your number at the top, tap to call on a phone.
- A short quote form asking only what you need to price the job.
- Licence, insurance, service area and real job photos.
- Reviews close to the call button.
Google also rates how relevant your landing page is when it works out what you pay per click, so a page that matches the search can help bring your costs down. Landing pages start from $950 ex GST. See our landing page design service for how they're put together.
Search campaigns for businesses that sell on a call or a quote.
- Campaigns, keywords and negatives
- Call and form tracking
- Budget checked every week
- A plain English monthly report
One page built for one offer, so clicks turn into enquiries.
- One offer, one call to action
- Fast on a phone
- Tracking built in
- Live in days, not weeks
Facebook and Instagram lead ads.
- Ad copy and creative
- Lead forms or a landing page
- Audience testing
- Leads sent straight to you
Every ad lead texted back in seconds.
- $0 setup, cancel any time
- Missed calls texted back
- Quotes followed up
- 30 day guarantee
Prices exclude GST. Ad spend is paid to Google or Meta directly, usually $500 to $5,000 a month depending on your industry. No lock-in contracts.
How do you track which ads bring in calls?
Every call and form gets tracked back to the campaign and keyword that produced it, before a dollar is spent. Without that you're guessing, and tracking is the part of Google Ads for tradies that most accounts I look at get wrong.
The tracking I set up:
- Calls from the ad: Google forwarding numbers on call assets, so calls over a set length count as conversions.
- Calls from the website: tap to call clicks and website call tracking on the landing page.
- Quote forms: each submission recorded in Google Ads and GA4.
- Real jobs: each month we go through which enquiries turned into booked work, so the budget follows jobs, not just clicks.
Speed matters too. MIT and InsideSales found leads contacted within 5 minutes were 21 times more likely to qualify than leads contacted at 30 minutes. If you're on the tools all day, Omega CS texts every web form lead back in seconds from your own Australian mobile number, asks the job details and texts back missed calls, so an ad click doesn't go cold while you're up a ladder.
Which negative keywords should tradies add?
Negative keywords stop your ad showing for searches that will never become a paying job. Every new tradie account gets a starting list on day one, and I check the real search terms every week and add more.
| Search words | Who's searching | Why block it |
|---|---|---|
| jobs, apprenticeship, salary, hiring | People looking for work | They want a job, not a quote |
| course, licence, TAFE, training | Students and apprentices | No chance of a booking |
| how to, DIY, video | People doing it themselves | They want instructions, not a tradie |
| parts, wholesale, supplier, price list | Buyers of materials | They want the part, not the install |
| free, cheapest | Price shoppers | Optional: block them if you don't compete on price |
| suburbs you don't cover | People outside your area | Location targeting isn't perfect, so block them by name too |
In accounts nobody has checked for a few months, searches like these are usually the first place money is leaking. It's also the cheapest fix there is.
Should tradies use Google Local Services Ads?
Not in Australia yet. Google's Local Services Ads, the pay per lead listings with a Google Verified badge, run in the US, Canada, the UK and parts of Europe. As of November 2026, Google's own Local Services Ads help page doesn't list Australia as a supported country.
So for Australian tradies, the same job is done by two things working together: Search ads for the jobs you want more of, and a complete Google Business Profile with steady reviews for the map pack. If Google brings Local Services Ads here, we'll test it next to your Search campaigns and keep whichever brings in cheaper booked jobs.
Who is Google Ads not right for?
Google Ads for tradies isn't the right first step for everyone. Be honest with yourself on these before you spend a cent:
- You're booked out for weeks. More leads you can't service just annoy people. Raise your prices instead.
- Nobody can answer the phone or reply to forms quickly. Fix that first, or paid clicks go to the next tradie.
- You can't hold at least $500 a month in ad spend for 3 months. There isn't enough data to learn what works.
- Your website is one page for everything with no photos. Build proper pages first, like the 12 page site we built for Perth Ceiling Contracting, with every page mapped to a real search and prices published.
If you'd rather grow from free search over time, start with SEO for tradies and add ads when you want work faster. Plenty of tradies end up running both: ads for the jobs they want this month, SEO for the work that keeps coming without a click cost.
