Google Ads for Home ServicesPaid Search Judged on Booked Jobs.
Paid search is the fastest way to be visible for a service you sell in an area you cover. It is also the fastest way to waste money, because the default settings are built to spend, not to be efficient.
In home services, most underperforming ad accounts fail for the same handful of reasons: broad match with no negative keyword discipline, one campaign covering services with wildly different economics, traffic pointed at a homepage, no call tracking, and nobody separating a lead from a booked job.
Local Services Ads sit above all of this and work differently — pay per lead, a Google Guaranteed badge, and heavy dependence on your reviews and responsiveness. Most companies should run both, for different jobs.
Serving home service companies nationwide. $497 Marketing Audit · No ranking, lead, or revenue guarantees.
Who this is written for
- You have capacity to take more calls now, not next quarter
- You can fund meaningful media spend on top of management, and want it spent carefully
- Someone answers the phone live during the hours your ads run
- You want cost per booked job reported, not clicks and impressions
Smaller or newer companies are genuinely welcome to use our free training and $197/month DIY membership instead — no pressure either way.
Structure by economics, not by convenience
Services with different average tickets and different close rates should not share a budget. Emergency repair, replacement, maintenance plans, and commercial work deserve separate campaigns so each can be judged and funded on its own numbers.
- Separate campaigns for emergency, repair, replacement, and maintenance intent
- Geography split when drive time or market value differs meaningfully
- Tight keyword themes so ad copy matches what was typed
- Ad schedules aligned to when your phones are actually covered
Negative keywords are the job, not a chore
Left alone, a home services account will pay for DIY searches, parts shoppers, job seekers, warranty questions, competitor brand names, and services you do not offer. Ongoing search term review — weekly early on — is usually the single largest lever on cost per lead in an inherited account.
Local Services Ads deserve their own strategy
LSAs are billed per lead, require license and insurance verification, and lean heavily on review volume and response speed. Disputing invalid leads, keeping the profile responsive, and holding a serious review pace matter more than bid tinkering. LSAs and standard Search complement each other; one is not a replacement for the other.
Tracking, or you are flying blind
Call tracking on every campaign, form tracking, and a lead source captured in your CRM or dispatch software. Without a booked-job feedback loop you are optimizing toward cheap clicks. With it, you can shut off the campaigns that produce estimates nobody buys and push budget into the ones that fill the schedule.
Where this usually goes wrong
What to measure
Hold whoever does this work — your team, us, or your current agency — to these.
Cost per booked job
The only number that decides whether paid search stays on.
Cost per qualified lead by campaign
Shows where budget should move.
Call answer rate during ad hours
Unanswered paid calls are money set on fire.
Search term waste percentage
Tracks negative keyword discipline over time.
LSA lead dispute rate
Recovers spend on invalid and out-of-area leads.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much should a home service company spend on Google Ads?
Enough to compete for your top-value services in your core geography, sized against your average ticket, close rate, and available capacity. Spreading a small budget across every service and every city is the most common way to make paid search look like it does not work.
Are Local Services Ads better than Google Ads?
They are different tools. LSAs are pay-per-lead, sit at the top of the page, and depend on reviews and responsiveness. Standard Search gives you control over exactly which searches you appear for and where traffic lands. Most established companies run both.
Why are my Google Ads getting clicks but no calls?
Usually a mismatch between the search and the landing page, a page that is slow or hides the phone number on mobile, or traffic from searches with no buying intent. Fixing the landing experience and the search terms is almost always cheaper than raising the budget.
Do you charge a percentage of ad spend?
Management is part of the marketing system engagement, which starts around $3,000/month. Media spend is billed to you directly by Google, so you always see exactly what went to advertising.
Not sure where to start?
Start with the $497 Marketing Audit for a personalized video walkthrough and 90-day roadmap. Then choose DIY, build in-house, or have us run it. Private strategy is available when you need Chris personally.
Have your ad account looked at by someone with no reason to flatter it
The $497 audit reviews campaign structure, wasted spend, landing pages, and tracking, and tells you what to fix before you raise the budget.
