Ask ten tradies whether Google Ads work and you'll get five who swear by them and five who tried it once, spent $1,500 in a month, got three calls from people wanting a price on a job in the next state, and never went back. Both groups are telling the truth. Google Ads work for tradies when they're set up properly and fail when they aren't, and the difference has almost nothing to do with the trade and almost everything to do with the account.
This article answers the question directly: do Google Ads for tradies work, what do they cost by trade, when should a trade business start, and what are the mistakes that make people conclude they don't work? It's written for owner-operators and small trade businesses who need the phone to ring, not a marketing department.
In this article
The short answer
Yes, Google Ads work for tradies, and for reactive trades (plumbing, electrical, locksmiths, emergency roofing) they work better than almost any other business type, because the person searching needs someone today and will call the first credible business they see. For general trades (concreting, landscaping, painting, fencing) they still work, but the return depends more on suburb targeting and a website that converts.
The catch is that Google Ads amplify whatever you point them at. Point them at a tight campaign, a fast page with your licence and reviews, and a phone someone answers, and they produce jobs. Point them at a broad campaign, a slow homepage and a phone that rings out, and they produce an invoice from Google.
What Google Ads cost by trade
Costs vary by trade, city and season. These are realistic ranges across Australian metro markets in 2026, with Sydney and Melbourne at the top of each range and Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide towards the bottom.
| Trade |
Cost per click |
Cost per lead |
Typical job value |
| Plumbing (emergency and general) |
$15 to $45 |
$40 to $120 |
$200 to $2,000 |
| Electrical |
$12 to $40 |
$50 to $150 |
$300 to $5,000 |
| Roofing and guttering |
$10 to $35 |
$80 to $250 |
$2,000 to $30,000 |
| Concreting |
$6 to $20 |
$60 to $180 |
$3,000 to $30,000 |
| Landscaping and paving |
$6 to $18 |
$60 to $200 |
$3,000 to $50,000 |
| Painting |
$5 to $15 |
$50 to $150 |
$1,500 to $15,000 |
| Fencing and decking |
$5 to $15 |
$50 to $160 |
$2,000 to $25,000 |
The pattern: emergency trades pay the most per click but convert fastest and win the job on the first call. Project trades pay less per click but need a website that sells, because the customer is comparing quotes.
Which trades get the best return
Return on Google Ads for tradies comes down to three things: how urgent the customer's need is, how much a job is worth, and how many competitors are bidding. On that basis:
- Best return: emergency plumbing, electrical faults, locksmiths, hot water replacement, emergency roof repairs. Urgent need, immediate call, job won on the phone.
- Strong return: roofing, concreting, landscaping, air conditioning installation. Higher job values offset the quoting effort, especially when targeting is tight.
- Good return with the right set-up: painting, fencing, decking, tiling, general handyman work. Lower job values mean the campaign has to be efficient and the phone has to be answered.
- Weaker return: trades with very low job values or where customers strongly prefer referrals. Even here, ads can fill quiet weeks if the budget is small and tightly targeted.
When to start Google Ads
Google Ads are the fastest lever a tradie has, but starting too early wastes money. Start when:
- Your Google Business Profile is complete with the right category, service area and at least a handful of reviews. Ads send people who then check your profile.
- Your website has a page for each service you'll advertise , with your licence number, real job photos, reviews and click-to-call. Sending ad traffic to a homepage roughly doubles cost per lead.
- Someone can answer the phone during the hours your ads run. See the missed calls section below.
- You can fund at least $800 to $1,500 a month in media spend for three months. Below that, campaigns can't gather enough data to improve, and you'll conclude ads don't work when the real problem was budget.
- You have capacity to take the jobs. Paying for calls you turn away is the most expensive form of advertising.
If you can't tick all five, fix those first. The first two are free and produce calls on their own.
The five mistakes that make ads fail
When a tradie tells us Google Ads didn't work, one of these five is almost always the reason:
- One campaign for everything. "Plumber Brisbane" as a single campaign attracts blocked drains, hot water, gas fitting, renovations and job seekers. Split by service so each has its own keywords, ad and landing page.
- No negative keywords. Without them, ads show for DIY, cheap, jobs, courses, Bunnings, "how to", supplies, and every service you don't offer. Negatives typically cut wasted spend by a third in the first month.
- Targeting the whole city. A tradie in Brisbane's Bayside paying for clicks from Caboolture is paying for jobs they'll never quote. Target the suburbs you actually cover.
- Sending clicks to the homepage. Each service campaign needs its own page: headline matching the search, licence, photos, reviews, call button.
- Not tracking calls. Most tradie leads are phone calls. Without call tracking you can't tell which campaign produced the job, so you can't fix what's broken or scale what's working.
The set-up that works for tradies
The account structure that produces calls for a trade business is simple and specific:
- One campaign per main service (blocked drains, hot water, gas fitting) with its own daily budget.
- Suburb or radius targeting matched to your real service area, set to "people in" the location.
- Phrase match keywords for the service plus location and service plus "near me" variations.
- A shared negative keyword list applied to every campaign, updated weekly from the search terms report.
- Ad copy leading with the service and area, licence number, availability ("same day", "24/7" only if true), and a call extension.
- A dedicated landing page per campaign , fast on mobile, with click-to-call above the fold.
- Call tracking and form tracking as conversions, with call duration so short wrong-number calls don't count.
- Ad scheduling matched to when you can answer the phone.
Our guide to how much to spend on Google Ads covers budget by business size, and our lead cost benchmarks give comparison figures.
Missed calls: the hidden cost
This is the part most agencies won't tell you because it isn't something they sell. A tradie spending $2,000 a month on ads who misses a third of the calls because they're on a roof, under a house or on the tools is spending $660 a month on calls that go to the next business in the list. Customers with urgent problems don't leave voicemails. They hang up and tap the next result.
Options, in order of cost: an SMS auto-reply for missed calls ("Sorry I missed you, I'll call back within 15 minutes") which recovers a meaningful share; diverting to a partner or office person during ad hours; or a receptionist service like Gofer Receptionist that answers as your business, takes the details and books the job. For most tradies running ads, answering the phone is worth more than any optimisation inside the account.
How to judge whether it's working
Don't judge Google Ads by clicks or impressions. Judge them by three numbers after 60 to 90 days:
- Cost per lead: total spend divided by tracked calls and forms. Compare with the table above for your trade.
- Cost per won job: total spend divided by jobs you actually booked from ads. This needs you to note where each job came from, even roughly.
- Return: revenue from those jobs against total spend including management. Above three to one is healthy for most trades; emergency trades often do far better.
If cost per lead is in range but cost per won job is high, the problem is conversion: missed calls, slow quoting or price. If cost per lead is well above range, the problem is the account: targeting, negatives or landing pages. Either way it's fixable, and it's a much better position than concluding the channel doesn't work. Our complete guide to digital marketing for tradies shows where Google Ads fit alongside the free channels you should have running first.
Constructiv Digital manages Google Ads for tradies and trade businesses across Australia, structured by service with call tracking and landing pages built to convert. If you'd like an honest review of an account that hasn't worked, or help setting one up properly, get in touch with our team.
