How to Set Up Google Ads for Your Home Service Business

Google Ads returns an average of $2 for every $1 spent across all industries. Home service contractors who set up their campaigns correctly can do significantly better. Those who don’t end up paying $30 per click for visitors who bounce in 5 seconds.

The difference between profitable Google Ads and an expensive lesson comes down to how you set things up on day one. Most of the costly mistakes happen during setup, not after campaigns are running.

This guide walks through the setup decisions that separate contractors who make money on Google Ads from those who lose it.

Set your budget before touching Google

Start with $1,000-2,000/month minimum. Anything less doesn’t generate enough data to know what’s working. At $25 per click, a $500 monthly budget buys you 20 clicks. That’s not enough traffic to draw any conclusions.

Calculate your target cost per lead first. The average home service conversion rate on Google Ads is 7.33%. At $25 per click, you need about 14 clicks per lead. That’s $350 per lead.

If your average job is worth $2,000 and you close 30% of leads, each customer costs you roughly $1,167 to acquire through Google Ads. Does that math work for your margins? If not, you need to either improve your conversion rate, lower your cost per click, or increase your close rate before spending heavily.

Understanding how to track and reduce your cost per lead helps you set realistic expectations before launching any campaign.

Campaign structure that works

Create separate campaigns for each major service category. Don’t lump “AC repair,” “furnace installation,” and “duct cleaning” into one campaign. Each service has different keyword costs, conversion rates, and seasonal patterns.

A plumber might set up campaigns for:

• Emergency plumbing
• Water heater services
• Drain cleaning
• Bathroom remodeling

Each campaign gets its own budget, its own keywords, and its own landing page. This structure lets you see exactly which services produce leads and which ones drain budget.

Within each campaign, create tight ad groups that match specific search intents. An ad group for “water heater replacement” should have ads and keywords focused exclusively on water heater replacement, not general plumbing.

Avoid the common Google Ads mistakes that come from lazy campaign structure. Broad, unfocused campaigns are how contractors waste thousands before realizing the problem.

Location targeting: get this right first

Location targeting might be the most important setting in your entire account. Get it wrong and you pay for clicks from people you’ll never serve.

Set a radius around your actual service area. If you serve a 30-mile radius from your shop, target that radius. Don’t target an entire state hoping to catch more searches.

Use “Presence” targeting, not “Presence or Interest.” The default Google setting shows your ads to people who are searching about your area, not just people who are physically there. A homeowner in Chicago researching “plumber Phoenix” shouldn’t trigger your Phoenix plumbing ads.

This one setting change prevents 30-40% of wasted spend for contractors who were using the default targeting.

Add negative location targeting for areas you don’t serve. If there’s a neighboring city with heavy traffic but outside your range, exclude it specifically.

Ad scheduling saves real money

Running ads during business hours only saves 20-30% of your budget with minimal lead loss.

Most home service searches happen between 7am and 9pm. Searches at 2am exist, but the conversion rate is lower and your team can’t answer calls. You end up paying for clicks from people who leave voicemails that you return 8 hours later.

Set your ad schedule to match when someone can actually answer the phone. If your office is staffed 7am to 6pm, run ads 7am to 7pm (the extra hour catches people searching just before you close).

Emergency services are the exception. If you offer 24/7 emergency plumbing or HVAC, run those specific campaigns around the clock. But your non-emergency campaigns should stick to business hours.

Choosing the right keywords

Your keyword selection determines whether you attract homeowners ready to hire or random browsers who cost you money.

Start with high-intent keywords. These are searches where someone has a problem and needs help:

• “emergency plumber near me”
• “AC repair [your city]”
• “water heater replacement cost”
• “licensed electrician [your city]”

These keywords cost more per click, but the people clicking them are ready to hire. A click on “emergency plumber near me” at $40 converts dramatically better than a click on “plumbing tips” at $5.

Use phrase match and exact match. Broad match is Google’s default, and it’s how they maximize their revenue at your expense. Broad match for “plumber” can trigger your ad for “plumber salary,” “plumber tools,” and “how to become a plumber.” None of those people are hiring you.

Phrase match (“[emergency plumber]”) and exact match (“[emergency plumber near me]”) restrict when your ads appear to searches that closely match your keywords.

Building your negative keyword list

Negative keywords are the terms you tell Google to never show your ads for. This list is what separates profitable campaigns from money pits.

Start with these universal negatives for home service contractors:

• DIY, how to, tutorial
• Jobs, hiring, salary, career
• Free, cheap, discount
• Tools, supplies, parts, rental
• Training, certification, school, license
• Reviews, complaints, lawsuit
• YouTube, video, blog

Add to this list weekly by checking your Search Terms report. Google shows you the actual queries that triggered your ads. Every irrelevant search becomes a new negative keyword.

A contractor who maintains a negative keyword list of 200-500 terms typically saves 20-30% of their budget compared to one who ignores this entirely.

Landing pages: stop sending traffic to your homepage

Your homepage has navigation menus, an about section, service lists, and a dozen distractions. Paid traffic should land on a dedicated page with one goal: get the visitor to call or fill out a form.

A landing page for “AC repair” should talk about AC repair. One phone number. One contact form. No navigation menu. No links to other services. No distractions.

Service-specific landing pages convert 2-3x better than sending everyone to your homepage. The visitor clicked an ad about a specific service. The page they land on should match that exact intent.

Every major service category needs its own landing page. “Water heater installation,” “drain cleaning,” “AC maintenance,” and “furnace repair” each get a dedicated page that matches the ad and the keyword.

If your landing pages aren’t converting, the problem is usually a mismatch between what the ad promises and what the page delivers. Keep the message consistent from keyword to ad to landing page.

Call extensions and call tracking

50-70% of home service leads come by phone, not form submission. If you’re not set up to track and encourage phone calls, you’re ignoring the majority of your potential leads.

Add call extensions to every ad. This displays your phone number directly in the ad, letting mobile users tap to call without visiting your website. Call extensions increase click-through rates significantly because they remove a step from the conversion process.

Install call tracking through a service like CallRail or CallTrackingMetrics. These tools assign unique phone numbers to your Google Ads campaigns so you can track exactly which keywords and ads generate phone calls.

Without call tracking, you’re blind to your most important conversion action. You might see that a keyword generates no form submissions and pause it, not knowing it was driving 10 calls a week. A complete conversion tracking setup is non-negotiable for any serious Google Ads investment.

Quality Score: the hidden multiplier

Google assigns a Quality Score from 1-10 to each keyword based on your ad relevance, landing page experience, and expected click-through rate. This score directly impacts what you pay per click.

A Quality Score of 8+ can cut your CPC nearly in half compared to a Quality Score of 4. Google rewards advertisers who create relevant, helpful experiences for searchers.

Improving Quality Score comes down to alignment. Your keyword, your ad copy, and your landing page should all be about the same specific topic. An ad group targeting “water heater repair [city]” should have ad copy mentioning water heater repair and link to a landing page about water heater repair.

This alignment is why tight campaign structure matters. Broad campaigns with generic ads and a homepage landing page get low Quality Scores and pay premium prices for every click.

Tracking what matters

Set up conversion tracking before you spend a dollar. You need to track:

• Phone calls from ads (via call extensions and call tracking)
• Form submissions on landing pages
• Click-to-call actions on your website from paid visitors

Google Ads shows you clicks and cost by default. Without conversion tracking, that’s all you see. You have no way to know which keywords produce leads and which ones waste money.

UTM parameters help you track paid visitors through your entire funnel, from ad click to booked job. This data tells you your true cost per customer, not just cost per click.

Google LSA vs Google Ads

Google Local Services Ads (LSAs) are a different product from standard Google Ads. LSAs appear at the very top of search results with a “Google Guaranteed” badge. You pay per lead instead of per click.

For many contractors, running both LSAs and Google Ads makes sense. LSAs capture leads at the top of the page, while standard Google Ads provide more control over targeting, bidding, and landing pages.

LSAs are simpler to set up but offer less control. Google Ads require more expertise but reward that expertise with better cost efficiency and scalability.

The setup checklist

Before you launch, verify these settings:

• Separate campaigns per service category
• Location targeting set to service area radius with “Presence” only
• Ad scheduling aligned with business hours
• Phrase or exact match keywords (not broad match)
• Negative keyword list with 50+ terms minimum
• Dedicated landing pages per service
• Call extensions enabled
• Call tracking installed
• Conversion tracking configured for calls and forms
• Budget set at $1,000-2,000/month minimum

Following the methodology for measuring marketing performance ensures your Google Ads investment is tied to actual revenue, not vanity metrics. Track cost per lead, cost per booked job, and revenue per campaign. Those numbers tell you everything you need to know about whether your setup is working.