Google Ads for trades
Google Ads for plumbers who want the phone to ring
A campaign for the person with water on the floor tonight, another for the one planning a bathroom next month. Both inside your area and your hours.
A burst pipe does not wait for your website to rank.
Someone with a leak at nine at night types "plumber" and the name of their town, and calls the first one who looks reliable. Google Ads puts you at the top at that moment, with a call button and your opening hours. You pay only when someone clicks or calls.
It only works when the campaign is built the way a plumber works: emergencies apart from planned jobs, your own area, and no clicks from people looking for a course or a job. This page shows how we set it up and what you can check yourself.
Two kinds of searcher, two campaigns
A plumber gets two kinds of enquiry. One calls within the hour, the other wants a quote and compares three firms. They type different words, at different times, and they are worth a different bid.
| Search | What the searcher wants | What the ad shows |
|---|---|---|
| emergency plumber leeds | someone today | call button, hours, "out today" |
| blocked toilet | quick help, a clear call-out fee | call button, call-out price |
| water leak under floor | someone who finds the leak | call button, leak detection |
| bathroom fitting leeds | a quote and examples | form, photos of work |
| boiler replacement | advice, a visit | page with options and a booking |
Put the emergency words in their own campaign with their own budget. Then a stormy night does not leave quotes without budget, and you see what a call costs in each campaign. The general setup is in how to set up Google Ads; the split is what makes it work for a plumber.
Emergency call-outs or planned jobs
The same plumber, two campaigns with different rules.
- Keywords
- Emergencyemergency, leak, blocked, now, weekend
- Planned jobbathroom, boiler replacement, heat pump, renovation
- Ad
- Emergencycall button, response time, area
- Planned jobform, photos, finance options, a visit
- Hours
- Emergencyonly when someone answers
- Planned jobdaytime and evenings, when people compare
- Counts as a result
- Emergencya call longer than a minute
- Planned joba completed form or a booked visit
- Budget
- Emergencyhigher bid, small area
- Planned joblower bid, wider area
Start with the campaign that fits your diary. If you do not run an emergency line, leave that campaign out rather than disappoint callers.
Words to exclude from day one
People who search "plumber" also want to become one, look for a course or want to do it themselves. Every click from them costs money. Negative keywords keep them out, and the list grows each week as you read the report of real search terms.
| Word | Why it goes |
|---|---|
| jobs, salary, apprenticeship | job seekers, not customers |
| course, training, become | students |
| diy, how to, video | do-it-yourselfers |
| free | not looking for paid help |
| wholesale, parts, merchant | looking for materials |
Your area: who is there, not who reads about it
By default Google also shows your ad to people who show interest in your area, wherever they are. For a plumber that is wasted money: someone in London reading about Leeds has no leak in Leeds. Set the location option to presence, draw your area as a radius or a list of towns, and raise the bid where you drive most often.
Gas work and what you may claim
If your ads mention boilers or gas, the engineer doing the work must be on the Gas Safe Register; that is the law in Great Britain. Put your Gas Safe number on the landing page and do not advertise gas work you subcontract without saying so. Claims like "cheapest in Yorkshire" need proof, and Google rejects exaggerated claims as well.
An emergency search with a call button on top
- The keyword carries the urgencySomeone who types "emergency" calls within the hour. Those keywords get their own campaign, a higher bid and a call button.
- Only the hours you pick upA call button at 3 am with nobody on the phone burns clicks. The ad schedule follows your on-call rota.
- Map and ad work togetherA firm in the ads and on the map with plenty of reviews earns trust twice on the same page.
An example of what we can build, with made-up names.
Measure calls, not just clicks
A plumber gets most work by phone. A campaign that only counts clicks does not know what works. Calls come from three places, and each is measured differently.
- The call button in the adA call asset shows your number with the ad, and Google Ads counts those calls with their length. Since call-only ads are being retired, call assets are the way to go.
- Your number on the siteA tap on your number on mobile is a conversion in Google Analytics 4 or Tag Manager.
- The formA sent enquiry, measured apart from calls.
Set a minimum call length, such as a minute, so a wrong number does not count as a customer. If you also run Meta ads or email, tag those links with the UTM builder.
The page after the click
Do not send emergency searchers to your homepage. A landing page per service with your number at the top, your area, your response time and reviews works better. Your Google Business Profile matters too: someone who sees your ad and your reviews on the map trusts you twice. More on that in SEO for plumbers and how to get more plumbing work.
Budget for a plumbing business
The cost per click depends on your area, your competitors and how urgent the word is. Use the Google Ads budget calculator to see how many clicks your budget buys, and the Google Ads cost guide for how the price per click is set. Start with the campaign that pays most per job and add the other once you know what a call costs.
Ad texts a caller trusts
Someone with water on the floor reads three things: will this plumber come to me, how fast, and can I call now. A responsive search ad gets up to 15 headlines, and the best ones answer those questions: "Plumber in Leeds and Wakefield", "Out Today, 7 Days a Week", "Call-Out Fee Shown Upfront". For more examples by trade, see Google Ads examples.
Mistakes we see in plumbing accounts
| Mistake | What it costs | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| One campaign for everything | emergencies eat the budget for quotes | split emergency and planned work |
| Presence or interest left on | clicks from outside your area | presence only |
| Ads running at night with no one on call | missed calls, angry reviews | schedule ads to your hours |
| Only clicks counted | no idea which words bring jobs | count calls and forms as conversions |
| No negatives | clicks from job seekers and DIY | a growing list, checked weekly |
A healthy click-through rate on emergency words tells you the ad matches the worry; a low one usually means the headline talks about you instead of the leak. Watch the cost per click per campaign, not for the account as a whole, because emergency words always cost more.
Google Ads
How VBS gets plumbers on the phone
In our Google Ads service we start with measurement: for Park & Wash we put the Meta pixel behind consent with Contact and Lead events, and for a plumber we add calls. Then we set up the two campaigns, the area and the hours, and read the search terms every week. If your site needs a call-first page, we build it as part of web design for plumbers. For software that runs the jobs behind the calls, see plumbers.
More calls for leaks and boilers?
Tell us which towns you cover and whether you run an emergency line. We tell you which campaign comes first.
Rather get in touch right away?