Google Ads for tradies is paid advertising that puts your business at the very top of search results the moment someone looks for your trade — and unlike SEO, it works from day one. Done properly it’s the fastest way to fill a quiet week. Done carelessly it’s the fastest way to hand Google a few thousand dollars for nothing. This guide shows you how to set it up so it actually books jobs.
When Google Ads is worth it for a tradie
Google Ads shines for two situations: urgent, high-intent work (“emergency electrician”, “blocked drain”) where the customer is ready to call right now, and filling capacity fast when your pipeline dips. If you have a decent website and Google Business Profile already, you can usually see job leads from a targeted campaign within the first couple of weeks. If your website is weak or you have no reviews, fix those first — ads just send more people to a page that isn’t converting.
How to structure a tradie Google Ads campaign
Separate campaigns by service and urgency
Don’t lump everything into one campaign. Emergency work and planned work behave completely differently: emergency searchers convert at very high rates and justify higher bids, while planned work (“bathroom renovation quote”) is a slower, more considered decision. Split them so you can bid and budget each on its own terms.
Use tight, high-intent keywords — and lots of negatives
Target phrases that signal someone ready to hire: “[service] [suburb]”, “emergency [trade]”, “[trade] near me”. Then build a ruthless negative keyword list — “jobs”, “salary”, “how to”, “DIY”, “course”, “apprentice” — so you’re not paying for clicks from people who want to become a tradie or do the job themselves. This one step saves more wasted spend than anything else.
Turn on call tracking
Tradies get hired by phone, not contact forms. Use call extensions and call-only ads so the ad dials you directly, and track those calls so you know which campaigns actually produce booked jobs — not just clicks. If you can’t measure calls, you’re flying blind.
Send clicks to the right page
Never run ads to your homepage. A “Hot Water Repairs” ad should land on your hot water repairs page, with the phone number visible, a clear service area, and proof (reviews, licences, guarantees) above the fold. Matching the ad to a focused landing page can double your conversion rate for the same spend.
What does Google Ads cost for a tradie?
Cost per click depends on your trade and city — emergency plumbing in a capital city costs far more per click than landscaping in a regional town, and tradies typically pay somewhere between $40 and $100 per lead. Most Australian trade businesses start with $1,000–$2,500 a month and scale from there. The number that actually matters isn’t cost per click, it’s cost per booked job — we break the whole thing down in how much a tradie should spend on Google Ads.
Google Local Services Ads (the Google Guaranteed badge)
Separate from standard Google Ads, Local Services Ads sit right at the top of the page with a green “Google Guaranteed” tick, and you pay per lead rather than per click. For eligible trades they’re often the highest-converting paid option going, because the badge does a lot of trust-building for you. Worth setting up alongside your search campaigns where they’re available for your trade.
The mistakes that burn tradie ad budgets
- No negative keywords. You end up paying for “plumber salary” and “how to fix a tap”.
- Running ads to the homepage. Generic landing = wasted clicks.
- Broad match with no oversight. Google will happily spend your budget on loosely related searches if you let it.
- Advertising a huge radius. Bidding on suburbs two hours away burns money on jobs you’d never take.
- No call tracking. If you can’t tell which ad produced the job, you can’t improve.
Google Ads is one piece of a bigger picture. For how paid fits alongside SEO, reviews and your website, see our full guide to marketing for tradies. And if you run a specific trade, our industry pages go deeper — for example, electrician marketing covers the emergency-vs-planned split that makes or breaks electrical campaigns.
Want ads that book jobs, not just clicks?
We build and manage Google Ads campaigns for trade businesses that are measured on booked jobs and cost per lead — not vanity metrics. Start with a free audit of your current setup. Call (02) 8357 4899 or book your free audit and consultation.