Google Ads for tradies: budgets, leads and booked jobs

Start with an amount the business can afford to test, and decide how you’ll recognise a worthwhile job before the first ad runs. Google’s reports can tell you about advertising activity. Your booking records need to supply the rest of the picture.

This guide covers Google Search campaigns using an average daily budget. It doesn’t offer an Australian tradie spending benchmark or a promise of leads. The dollar amounts below are illustrative calculations, not observed prices or recommended budgets.

Start with the work you want

Write down the service you want to promote and the areas you can actually reach. For example, an electrician might choose switchboard upgrades in a defined service area rather than advertise every job the business could possibly do. That’s an illustrative starting point, not a prescribed campaign structure.

Then use Keyword Planner, under Tools, to research relevant searches and estimated costs. Google says account setup, including billing information, must be complete to access it. Its refinement controls let you narrow keyword ideas by location.

Save the forecast and its settings. Treat it as a planning estimate: Google says results also depend on factors including bids, budget, ad quality, location targeting and customer behaviour.

Put the ad allowance in a worksheet alongside any management, tracking and landing-page costs you’ve agreed to pay. The amount entered into a campaign shouldn’t become your whole marketing budget by accident.

Understand what the daily amount allows

Google’s average daily budget guidance says most campaigns can be billed up to twice that amount on a day, with a monthly spending limit of 30.4 times the average daily budget.

Illustrative example: an A$1,520 monthly ad allowance divided by 30.4 gives an A$50 average daily budget. For a campaign running throughout the month with that budget unchanged, the usual limits are A$100 on a day and A$1,520 for the month. Keep any taxes and separate supplier charges outside this ad-spend calculation.

There are two catches worth putting beside the worksheet:

Running only on selected days doesn’t reduce the monthly limit. Google’s spending-limit guidance says campaigns with ad schedules still pace towards 30.4 times the daily budget.
Budget edits change the calculation. On the day of an edit, the daily limit uses the highest average daily budget set that day. Google recalculates the rest of the month’s allowance using the new budget and remaining calendar days.

Before approving an increase, check the budget report and write down the revised allowance. A temporary increase followed by a reduction doesn’t undo the higher limit for that day.

Check who the campaign can reach

For a business that visits customers, the location setting deserves a look before spending more.

Google’s default location option includes people likely to be in or regularly in the target area, plus people who have shown interest in it. In Campaign settings > Locations > Location options, the Presence option narrows this to people likely to be in or regularly in the selected places.

Choose the option that fits the work. An owner arranging repairs to a property from another city could be a useful enquiry; a job beyond your service area may not be. Record the actual job suburb when assessing enquiries rather than treating the targeting setting as proof of location.

Find out what a conversion means in your account

Ask whoever manages the ads to name each counted action in plain English. Google supports several phone-conversion methods:

Calls from ads or website forwarding numbers can count once they reach a minimum duration you set
Clicks on a mobile website’s phone number can measure the click without confirming the call happened
Clicks on call ads and assets without a Google forwarding number can count based on Google’s estimate that a meaningful call occurred
Imported call conversions can identify calls that resulted in a sale or another chosen outcome

Google lists Australia among the countries with forwarding-number support. Availability doesn’t mean tracking is already configured in your account.

A long call could still be about a service you don’t offer. Give the person answering the phone a simple record to maintain: enquiry date, service requested, job area, whether it was suitable, and whether a job was booked. Use your existing booking or customer system where possible. Our enquiry follow-up checklist covers the handover from an enquiry to the person responsible for responding.

Google’s qualified-lead category describes a lead assessed further outside Google Ads. A converted lead records a later step that you define, such as a completed sale. Agree those definitions with the person managing your account; the label alone doesn’t establish that money was received.

Connect the report to booked work

For a first review, put three counts beside the ad spend: enquiries attributed to the campaign, suitable enquiries, and booked jobs from those enquiries. Keep the enquiry group together as it progresses, so last month’s bookings aren’t divided by this month’s advertising spend.

Illustrative example: suppose A$1,200 in ad spend produced 30 enquiries. Your team judged 20 suitable and booked eight jobs. The calculations are:

Ad spend per enquiry: A$1,200 divided by 30 = A$40
Ad spend per suitable enquiry: A$1,200 divided by 20 = A$60
Ad spend per booked job: A$1,200 divided by eight = A$150

These are invented numbers to explain the method. They exclude other marketing costs and say nothing about profitability on their own. A booked job can still be cancelled. Review completed work, revenue and delivery costs as well; Google’s ROI guidance explicitly includes costs when judging advertising returns.

For businesses ready to connect the systems, Google documents importing call outcomes so sales recorded separately can be matched to tracked calls and their ads. Have the person responsible for tracking check the setup and data requirements. Google’s phone-tracking guidance also requires clear information about data collection and consent where applicable.

Read the searches before increasing spend

Open Campaigns > Insights and reports > Search terms. Google’s search terms report shows actual searches that triggered ads; these can differ from the keywords you chose. Some low-volume searches are omitted for privacy.

Our suggested weekly review is to compare those searches with the services you sell, then check enquiry quality and booked work. Ask the ads manager to explain mismatches before approving more spend. If ads attract suitable people but the enquiries stall, use the ad-to-page checklist to inspect what happens after the click.

Checklist

Record the allowance. Have the owner put the campaign ad-spend limit and separate supplier costs in the marketing budget worksheet before launch.
Save a local forecast. Use Keyword Planner for the service and area being advertised, and record its settings beside the estimate.
Check the spending limits. Have the ads manager show the daily and monthly limits in the budget report before approving a budget change.
Review location options. Check the campaign’s Locations settings against the areas and types of customers the business can serve.
Name the conversions. Ask the ads manager whether each phone action records only a click, a duration-qualified call, an estimated meaningful call or an imported business outcome.
Record enquiry outcomes. Have the person handling enquiries log suitability and booked jobs in the booking or customer system.
Review searches each week. Compare the Search terms report with the services sold and ask the ads manager to explain irrelevant traffic.
Check the jobs before spending more. Compare ad spend, other marketing costs, completed work and delivery costs before the owner approves an increase.