Google Ads for Home Services: Avoiding the Money Pit

The average HVAC contractor spends $32.77 per click on Google Ads. That’s one click. One visitor. One person who might or might not become a customer.

At a 4% website conversion rate, you’re spending $819 to generate one lead. If you close 30% of leads, that’s $2,730 to acquire one customer.

Some contractors make Google Ads work brilliantly. They pay $30-50 per booked job and scale aggressively. Others light $5,000 a month on fire and can’t figure out why the phone isn’t ringing.

The difference comes down to a handful of expensive mistakes that are completely avoidable.

Mistake #1: Trusting broad match keywords

Google Ads offers three keyword match types: broad match, phrase match, and exact match. Most contractors default to broad match because it’s the default setting and promises more reach.

Broad match is how Google makes money from confused advertisers.

When you bid on “plumber” as broad match, Google will show your ad for searches like “plumber salary,” “how to become a plumber,” “plumber snake rental,” and “cheap plumber services 50 miles away.”

You pay for every click. None of those searchers are hiring you.

Phrase match and exact match cost more per click but attract people actually searching for what you offer. A contractor bidding on [emergency plumber near me] as exact match pays more per click but gets clicks from people with pipes actively bursting.

The math on 100 clicks:

Broad match: $25/click average, 1% conversion rate = $2,500 for 1 lead

Exact match: $45/click average, 8% conversion rate = $562 for 1 lead (8 leads total)

You’d rather pay $45 for a click that converts than $25 for one that bounces.

Switch your high-intent keywords to phrase or exact match. Use broad match only for discovery (finding new keyword ideas) at low budgets.

Mistake #2: Ignoring negative keywords

The negative keyword list is where money gets saved. These are terms you tell Google not to show your ads for.

Without negative keywords, your plumbing ads appear for “plumbing jobs hiring,” “DIY plumbing repair,” “plumbing tools for sale,” and “free plumbing advice.”

Smart contractors build negative keyword lists with 200-500 terms. The basics everyone should exclude: jobs, hiring, salary, DIY, free, how to, tools, supplies, parts, certification, training, school, cheap, and discount.

Add competitor names you don’t want to bid on. Add services you don’t offer. Add geographic areas outside your service zone.

One HVAC contractor discovered 40% of their budget went to searches containing “DIY” and “how to.” They added those as negatives and their cost per lead dropped 35% overnight.

Check your Search Terms report weekly. Google shows you the actual queries triggering your ads. Every irrelevant search term becomes a new negative keyword.

Mistake #3: Sending traffic to your homepage

Your homepage is designed to introduce your company. It has navigation links, an about section, service lists, and a dozen places for visitors to click away from converting.

Paid traffic should go to dedicated landing pages with one goal: get the visitor to call or fill out a form.

A landing page for “emergency AC repair” should feature emergency AC repair prominently. One phone number. One form. No navigation menu. No links to other services. No distractions.

Homepage conversion rates average 2-3%. Dedicated landing pages convert 5-10% in home services. That difference means twice as many leads from the same ad spend.

Each major service category deserves its own landing page. “Water heater installation,” “drain cleaning,” “AC maintenance,” and “furnace repair” should all have separate pages matching the intent of the search query.

The visitor who clicks an ad for “water heater replacement cost” should land on a page about water heater replacement, not your general plumbing page.

Mistake #4: No call tracking

50-70% of home service leads come via phone call, not form submission. If you’re not tracking calls, you’re flying blind.

Without call tracking, you can see that someone clicked your ad and visited your site. You can’t see that they called you, booked a job, and generated $3,000 in revenue. All you know is you spent money on a click.

Call tracking assigns unique phone numbers to different traffic sources. When someone calls the number displayed on your Google Ads landing page, you know that lead came from Google Ads. You can even track which keyword triggered it.

Services like CallRail, CallTrackingMetrics, and WhatConverts cost $30-100/month depending on volume. That investment pays for itself on day one by revealing which keywords generate actual phone calls.

Contractors who implement call tracking consistently discover surprises. Keywords they thought were winners (high click volume) often produce no calls. Keywords they ignored (low volume) sometimes generate their best calls.

Track calls and feed that data back to Google. The algorithm optimizes for conversions, but only if you tell it what counts as a conversion.

Mistake #5: Optimizing for clicks instead of jobs

Google’s default optimization goal is clicks. More clicks, Google says, better performance. But clicks don’t pay your bills.

The real optimization chain looks like this: Ad spend → Clicks → Leads → Estimates → Booked jobs → Revenue

Most contractors optimize the first step and ignore everything after. They celebrate lower cost per click while their cost per booked job climbs.

Set up conversion tracking for form submissions and phone calls. Once you have that data, switch your bidding strategy to maximize conversions or target cost per acquisition.

This requires patience. Google needs 15-30 conversions per month to optimize effectively. Low-volume accounts struggle because there’s not enough data for the algorithm to learn.

If you’re spending less than $2,000/month on Google Ads, manual bidding with a focus on exact match keywords often outperforms automated strategies that don’t have enough data.

Mistake #6: Running the same ads for all keywords

“Professional plumbing services, licensed and insured, call today” sounds fine. It’s also what every other plumber says.

Your ad copy should match the intent of the keyword. Someone searching “emergency plumber” needs to see that you’re available now and can arrive fast. Someone searching “water heater replacement cost” wants pricing transparency.

Write ad variations for each keyword group:

Emergency keywords: Lead with availability and response time. “Available Now - 60-Minute Response - Call 24/7”

Replacement/installation keywords: Lead with expertise and pricing. “Water Heater Replacement - Upfront Pricing - Free Estimates”

Maintenance keywords: Lead with value and convenience. “AC Tune-Up $89 - Same-Day Appointments Available”

Repair keywords: Lead with diagnostics and speed. “Same-Day Furnace Repair - Diagnosis Fee Waived with Repair”

Test at least 3 ad variations per ad group. Let them run for 2-4 weeks with meaningful traffic before drawing conclusions. Google’s ad rotation will favor the winner over time.

Mistake #7: Setting and forgetting

Google Ads requires weekly attention at minimum. Markets shift. Competitors enter. Seasonal patterns change. The campaign you built in March performs differently in August.

Weekly maintenance should include: reviewing Search Terms for new negatives, checking which ads and keywords underperform, adjusting bids based on conversion data, and updating ad copy to reflect current offers or seasons.

Monthly reviews should examine: cost per lead trends by keyword, geographic performance, device performance (mobile vs desktop), and time-of-day patterns.

Contractors who “set and forget” their campaigns see performance decay within 60-90 days. Competition increases, quality scores drift, and costs creep up without anyone noticing until the bill comes.

If you don’t have time for this, hire someone who does. A competent agency or freelancer should pay for themselves by preventing the slow bleed of wasted spend.

Mistake #8: Fighting for position #1

The top ad position looks great. It’s also the most expensive and often converts worse than positions 2-3.

Position #1 gets clicked by everyone, including tire-kickers who click the first thing they see. Positions 2-3 get clicked by people who at least scanned past the first option, suggesting slightly more intentionality.

Testing consistently shows that positions 2-3 deliver better ROI for home services. You pay less per click and attract visitors who are actually comparison shopping rather than clicking impulsively.

Don’t chase position #1 unless you’re tracking conversions and can prove it performs better for your business. Set target CPA or ROAS goals and let the algorithm find the right position.

Mistake #9: No remarketing

97% of website visitors leave without converting on their first visit. Remarketing shows ads to people who already visited your site, keeping you top of mind while they compare options.

Remarketing ads cost 50-80% less than prospecting ads because you’re only showing to people who already expressed interest. A $10 remarketing click to a past visitor often converts better than a $40 cold click.

Set up remarketing audiences for: all website visitors (general awareness), service page visitors (people who looked at specific services), and form abandoners (people who started filling out a form but didn’t finish).

The visitor who checked your AC repair page on Monday and sees your ad again on Wednesday is warmer than a cold searcher. They’ve already done the research step. Your remarketing ad just needs to give them a reason to come back.

What good looks like

Contractors who profit from Google Ads share common practices:

They use phrase and exact match for core keywords, with broad match only for discovery at limited budgets. They maintain negative keyword lists with 200+ terms and update them weekly. They send traffic to dedicated landing pages, not homepages. They track calls and form submissions as conversions. They optimize for cost per booked job, not cost per click. They write ad copy that matches keyword intent. They check campaigns weekly and adjust monthly. They don’t chase position #1. They remarket to past visitors.

None of this is complicated. But it requires attention and discipline. The contractors who treat Google Ads like a slot machine lose money. The ones who treat it like a system make it work.

The bigger picture

Even a well-optimized Google Ads account leaves money on the table. At a 10% landing page conversion rate (excellent by industry standards), 90% of your paid traffic leaves without becoming a lead.

The 96% problem applies to paid traffic just as much as organic. You’re paying for visitors who browse and bounce.

The best lead generation strategies layer multiple approaches: capturing organic search traffic, running optimized paid campaigns, retargeting visitors across channels, and building referral systems that don’t depend on ad platforms at all.

Google Ads can be one profitable channel. Depending on it as your only channel is where contractors get burned.