What Google Ads actually are (in plain English)
Google Ads are the paid results at the very top of the page when someone searches, marked with a small "Sponsored" label. You bid to appear for searches like "emergency electrician near me", and you only pay when someone clicks. You set a daily budget, so you never spend more than you agree to.
The appeal is simple: they put you above the free results instantly, before your Google Business Profile and normal listings. The catch is that you're paying for every click whether it turns into a job or not.
How much do they cost?
There's no set price. You pay per click, and the cost of a click depends on how many other trades are bidding for the same search in your area. For competitive, high-value terms, "emergency plumber", "24 hour electrician", a single click can cost anywhere from a few pounds to £15 or more. Quieter searches cost less.
Before you set a budget, go and look up what a click actually costs for your terms in your area. Google Keyword Planner is free and takes about ten minutes. Whatever you then spend, the daily figure is not the number that matters. The number that matters is your cost per booked job: total spend for the week, divided by the jobs it won. Work that out inside the first fortnight, because it is the only thing that tells you whether to carry on.
When Google Ads are worth it
Ads tend to pay off for tradespeople in a few specific situations:
- Urgent, high-value work. People searching "emergency plumber [town]" at 9pm need someone now and will click the first credible result. If you do emergency call-outs, the kind of work my plumbers and electricians sites are built around, ads can catch that demand the moment it appears.
- Filling a quiet spell. If your diary suddenly has gaps, ads can turn the tap on quickly rather than waiting weeks for free listings to build.
- A new business with no reviews yet. When you're too new to rank in the free local results, paid ads buy you visibility while your "near me" ranking catches up.
- You already convert well. If your website and replies already turn enquiries into jobs, more traffic simply means more work. Ads pour fuel on a fire that's already lit.
When to skip them (for now)
Ads are the wrong first move if the basics aren't done. Skip them if:
- You have no website, or a poor one. Ads send people to a page. If that page is slow, confusing or missing a contact button, you'll pay for clicks and lose the customer at the last step. Sort a proper page first, here's what to put on a one page trade website.
- Your Google Business Profile is empty. That's free, works forever and is where most local trade enquiries come from. Fix it before you pay for anything.
- You're slow to reply. Paying for a click and then taking a day to respond is money straight in the bin. Speed wins trade jobs, ads or not.
- You can't track results. If you don't know which calls came from ads, you can't tell if they work, and you'll either overspend or quit too early.
Ads vs the free stuff: do the free stuff first
The honest order of priority for almost every tradesperson is: free basics first, paid ads as a top-up. A complete Google Business Profile, a simple website you own and a steady flow of reviews will win you local work for £0 in ongoing cost and keep working whether or not you're paying. Ads stop the moment your budget runs out.
Lead-generation sites sit in the same "paid top-up" bucket, and I compare them here: your own website vs Checkatrade and MyBuilder. The theme is always the same, own your presence first, rent extra visibility second.
If you do run ads, do these five things
- Send clicks to a fast, clear page. Your own site or a dedicated landing page, with a big contact button above the fold, beats sending paid traffic to a social profile.
- Target tightly. Set your ads to your real service area, the towns and postcodes you actually cover, not a huge radius that burns budget on jobs too far away.
- Use negative keywords. Block searches like "jobs", "salary", "DIY" or "free" so you're not paying for clicks from people who'll never hire you.
- Turn on call and form tracking. Know exactly how many enquiries each pound of spend produced, so you can judge it on cost per job.
- Review weekly and be ruthless. Keep what brings work, cut what doesn't. A small, well-managed budget beats a big, ignored one.
The short version
Google Ads are worth it for tradespeople who already have the basics working and want more of the jobs they're good at winning, especially urgent, high-value work. They're a waste of money for anyone sending paid clicks to a weak page or a slow reply. Sort your profile, your website and your response speed first, then treat ads as an optional accelerator, not a rescue. For more free wins, see my guide to getting more local work as a tradesperson.
Frequently asked questions
How much do Google Ads cost for a tradesperson?
There is no fixed price. You set a daily budget and pay each time someone clicks your ad, and what a click costs depends on your trade, your town and the time of year. Do not take anyone’s figure for it: Google Keyword Planner is free and will show you the current cost for your own terms in your own area in about ten minutes. The number that actually matters is not the click price anyway, it is your cost per booked job. Add up a week of ad spend, count the jobs it won, and divide.
Do I need a website to run Google Ads?
In practice, yes. Ads send people to a page, and if that page is slow, unclear or missing a contact button, you pay for the click and lose the customer. Sending paid traffic to a proper landing page or a simple site you own almost always converts better than sending it to a social profile or nothing at all.
Are Google Ads better than a Google Business Profile?
They do different jobs. A Google Business Profile is free, keeps working forever and puts you in the local map results, every tradesperson should sort that first. Ads are a paid top-up that can put you above the free results instantly, which is useful for urgent work or a quiet spell. Do the free basics first, then add ads if you still want more volume.
Want a website worth sending clicks to?
I build clean, fast one page websites for UK trades with the contact button front and centre, so the traffic you earn (or pay for) actually turns into jobs. £299 one-off, no monthly fees.
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