Sample layout. Not a real client.
Trade, city: the problem in one line
- Starting point
- Rank grid before any change
- What changed
- The one or two changes that moved it
- Result
- Rank grid after, and the change in calls
Google Ads and Local Services Ads for San Diego plumbers.
Paid calls can make sense for plumbing emergencies, because the ads sit above everything else on the page. I set up and measure the ads by job type, so you don't buy a drain call and a repipe inquiry the same way.
No long contracts. You talk to Simon.
Map pack: emergency plumber Chula Vista
A
B
C
- 17 years in SEO
- Engineering degrees
- 85% of clients in San Diego County
- No long contracts
Where plumbing ad budgets leak
- Ads run all night while calls go to voicemail
- Drain clicks and repipe clicks get the same bid
- Clicks come from people seeking plumbing jobs or parts
How I manage plumbing ads
Scientific SEO
- 1 Measure I count calls and booked jobs for each campaign, by job type and by hour.
- 2 Change one thing I adjust one setting, such as an ad schedule matched to your answering hours.
- 3 Measure again I pull the same numbers about two weeks later and set them beside the earlier ones.
- 4 Keep what works I keep the settings that lowered cost per booked job and reverse the rest.
What the work covers
- Local Services Ads for plumbers
- Search ads by job type
- Ad schedules matched to answering hours
- Negative keywords for jobs and parts
- Call tracking by campaign
- A landing page per plumbing job
How paid search works for a plumbing company
Google Ads for a plumbing company means paying for each lead, through Local Services Ads (LSA), or for each click, through search ads. Both are part of Google Ads management for any trade. In plumbing, the hour and the type of job change what a call is worth.
Local Services Ads suit the urgent call
Plumbing has been a Local Services Ads category for a long time, and the format fits an emergency. Google screens a business before it can run them. You pay per lead, and each lead goes to one business. The ad shows your review rating beside your name, which ties the ads to your reputation: a homeowner with a backed-up drain is choosing between a few plumbers, and the rating is most of what they can see.
The risk is a lead that arrives when nobody picks up. It does you no good, whatever it cost.
Search ads work best split by job
“Emergency plumber”, “water heater replacement” and “whole house repipe” are typed by people in different situations. With search ads you choose which searches you pay for, so I divide the campaigns the way the work is divided. Each group gets its own ads and its own landing page, so someone who searched for a slab leak arrives on a page about slab leaks and not on the home page.
An urgent job and a planned job aren’t worth the same click
Clearing a drain is a short visit. A repipe or a water heater replacement is a larger job, and the homeowner will probably get more than one quote for it. One bid across every plumbing keyword pays too much for some clicks and too little to win others. I ask what each job type is worth to your company and how many inquiries turn into booked work, then set bids from your numbers.
Schedules and wasted searches
Google Ads lets you set the hours and days for each campaign, so the ads can run only when a person answers. An emergency campaign can run evenings and weekends if your phones are staffed. A repipe campaign can pause overnight, since that customer isn’t in a hurry.
Negative keywords, which are terms you tell Google not to show your ads for, keep the budget away from people looking for plumbing jobs, trade schools, parts and do-it-yourself instructions.
Reviews and answering come before a bigger budget
Ads stop the day the budget stops, and they don’t make up for a weak profile. If your reviews or your after-hours answering are the weak point, fix those before raising the budget: a plumber with few or old reviews pays for the impression and then loses the comparison to the company listed beside it.
Count booked jobs, by source
Cost per booked job is the number I work from, and it takes call tracking to get it. With a separate tracking number on each campaign, you can see that a call came from the water heater ads at 7pm on a Saturday, and your office can note whether it became a job. Without that, an ad report shows clicks and “conversions” that may include wrong numbers and thirty-second hang-ups.
What a result looks like
Every engagement starts and ends with the same measurement.
Plumbing ads across San Diego County
- Chula Vista
- National City
- Imperial Beach
- La Mesa
- El Cajon
- San Diego
Should a plumbing company run Local Services Ads, search ads, or both?
Which one comes first depends on your job mix and on who answers the phone. Local Services Ads suit urgent calls, since you pay per lead and the ad shows your review rating. Search ads give more control over which jobs you bid on, which suits planned work such as a water heater replacement or a repipe. I'd start with one, measure cost per booked job, and add the second only if the numbers support it.
Should my plumbing ads run overnight?
Only if someone answers. A 2am caller will try the next plumber within a minute if nobody picks up. If a dispatcher or an on-call plumber picks up, the night hours are worth running and worth measuring separately from daytime. If nights go to voicemail, I schedule the ads to stop when the phones do.
Why am I paying for clicks from people who are not plumbing customers?
Usually because the keywords are matched too loosely. A campaign bidding on plumbing terms can show for searches about plumbing jobs, apprenticeships, parts, supply stores and how-to repairs. The search terms report in Google Ads lists what people actually typed. I read it, add the irrelevant terms as negative keywords so the ads stop showing for them, and check the report again after the change.
Can I stop paying for plumbing ads once my SEO improves?
Partly, in some cities, and I let the measurements decide. Where a rank grid shows you already hold the map pack for a search, I can test a lower ad spend there and watch whether total calls drop. Ads still sit above the map for emergency searches, so there may be hours, such as nights and weekends, where keeping them makes sense. SEO doesn't replace ads on a set schedule.
Find out what a booked plumbing job costs you in ads.
With a list of the ads you run and the hours you answer the phone, I can look at where the spend goes by job type.
- A rank grid showing where you appear, and where you don't
- The technical and Google Business Profile issues that matter most
- What I'd change first, in plain English
Prefer to talk? Call (619) 675-7678, 9am to 6pm.