Google Ads For Plumbers - How To Generate Leads

Google ads is undoubtedly the number 1 marketing channel for plumbers to find new customers and leads for their business.

The reason for this is actually very simple - The vast majority of people looking to source a new plumber will simply Google it! 

We’re going to show you exactly which types of Google ads you should use for your plumbing business, along with examples of how plumbers can successfully use Google ads to drive them new leads consistently at a reasonable cost.

How Google Ads Work For Plumbers

There’s two major types of Google ads that plumbers use to attract new customers:

1. Google search ads
2. Google local service ads

👉 Let’s dive into both of them.

1) Google Search Ads

These are a newer addition to Google’s advertising platform, and as the name suggests these are only available for local service businesses, of which plumbers are included.

They differ from traditional Google search ads because instead of paying every time someone clicks on your website, you only pay every time that someone sends you an enquiry or makes a phone call.

For this reason, local service ads are an extremely popular type of advert for many local service businesses.

2) Google Local Service Ads

These are a newer addition to Google’s advertising platform, and as the name suggests these are only available for local service businesses, of which plumbers are included.

They differ from traditional Google search ads because instead of paying every time someone clicks on your website, you only pay every time that someone sends you an enquiry or makes a phone call.

For this reason, Google local service ads are an extremely popular type of advert for many local service businesses.

The downside is that they can end up costing more for leads depending on how much local plumbing competition there is in your neighborhood. 

Additionally, local service ads don’t give you any freedom on the pages that you can direct a potential customer to, and you don’t have any control over keywords that your services show up for. What this means is you might end up getting a ton of leads that are looking for low-cost solutions that aren’t profitable for your business.

That’s the biggest common downside we see from local service ads - Clients have to deal with a lot more low-quality enquiries for emergency repairs that aren’t nearly as profitable as longer term projects. 

In our experience, most major plumbing companies will run a combination of traditional search ads and local service ads, in order to maximize the potential number of people finding them.

Benefits of Google Ads

Why should you even consider Google ads in the first place over more traditional forms of advertising?

Google is the World’s largest search engine by far

Google still holds over 90% share of the World’s search engine market. 

And in particular, it’s still the number 1 method that people use to find specific services and local businesses that they need.

Just consider how you yourself use Google - If you’re looking for an emergency plumber or someone to quickly fix a plumbing issue at your home, chances are that you’re going to first visit Google and see what businesses nearby can solve your problem.

For this reason, there really just is no comparison to Google ads for plumbers.

Consistent Lead Generation

If you’re having a particularly busy month, it’s very easy to dial back or turn off your Google ads completely. That’s the beautiful thing about Google’s platform - You have huge flexibility.

On the flipside, if business is drying up and you need some new plumbing projects for your team to work on, you can increase your Google ads budget and expect to watch the volume of leads significantly increase.

Easy to adjust budgets

If you’re having a particularly busy month, it’s very easy to dial back or turn off your Google ads completely. That’s the beautiful thing about Google’s platform - You have huge flexibility.

On the flipside, if business is drying up and you need some new plumbing projects for your team to work on, you can increase your Google ads budget and expect to watch the volume of leads significantly increase.

Google Ads Setup for Plumbers

These are the very basic steps you can take to set up Google ads for your plumbing business:

1. Create your Google ads account.
2. Choose ‘Leads’ for your campaign objective.
3. Select search campaign.
4. Begin with a ‘Maximize clicks’ bidding strategy, with the aim of switching to ‘Maximize conversions’ after a few weeks of collecting data.
5. Toggle off the Google display network and search partner networks (these are very low quality clicks) 
6. Create your ad groups and keywords, we’ll get into this next.

See below - You always want to choose a search campaign within Google ads.

Create Ad Groups

This ad group is designed to capture people searching for a local plumber, but who have not specified a specific issue.

👉 Keywords you might use for this ad group:

• Plumber near me
• Plumber (city name)
• Local plumber
• Find a plumber 

Ad Group 1 - Plumber Near Me

This ad group is designed to capture people searching for a local plumber, but who have not specified a specific issue.

👉 Keywords you may want to target within this ad group:

• Plumber near me
• Plumber (city name)
• Local plumber
• Find a plumber 

Ad Group 2 - Emergency Plumber

This ad group is designed to capture people specifically looking for an emergency plumber.

👉 Keywords you may want to target within this ad group:

• Emergency plumber
• Fix leak emergency
• 24/7 plumber
• Emergency leaks

Ad Group 3 - Bathroom Installation

This ad group is designed to capture customers looking for bathroom installations.

👉 Keywords you may want to target within this ad group:

• Bathroom installation (city name)
• Bathroom installer
• Plumber to install bathroom
• Install shower and sink (city name)

Keywords For Plumbers

Google ads completely revolve around keywords. These are the search terms that people type into Google to find what they are looking for.

We’ve already shown a few examples of keywords above for plumbers, but below we've put together a simple list of 20 keyword ideas that you can use for your plumbing business within Google ads.

Setting Up Your Advert

Setting up your actual Google ads are simple - You just have to tell Google what information to display in the headlines. 

And in fact, you can easily see what adverts your competitors are displaying by typing in some of your target keywords.

Here’s an example in my local area:

You want to make sure you add attractive headlines within your ads that covers some key points:

• Headlines should match the specific service you’re selling.
• Headlines should include a call to action such as ‘phone now’ or ‘get an instant lead’ 
• Headlines should mention the local area that you’re 

You’re allowed to input 15 different headlines, and Google will select the very best combination of those headlines to show your advert, depending on who is searching.

Additionally, Google will give you a score from 1-10 letting you know how well they anticipate your advert to perform.

We recommend always aiming for an ‘excellent’ score within Google ads.

👉 Check out this article for ideas on Google ad copy.

Landing Pages For Plumbers

The landing page is the page on your website that visitors will see after they click on your advert.

You can hire the best Google ads expert in the World, but if you have a weak landing page that doesn’t convert visitors, you will fail.

Thankfully, it’s fairly simple nowadays to create a website & landing page that converts very well.

✅ Below is an example of a fantastic landing page for a plumbing business.

This article shows examples of landing pages for plumbers.

Here are a few tips on landing pages for plumbers:

1. Create different dedicated landing pages for each type of plumbing service you offer
2. Include a clear message between your ads and landing page - If you’re advertising emergency plumbing, then visitors should see the words ‘emergency plumber’ the second they land on the page.
3. Add positive reviews & testimonials to build immediate trust.
4. Include images of your team working successfully on jobs to build trust.
5. Make it incredibly easy to get in touch with you, either via email or call. Add some obvious call to action buttons.
6. Make sure the website performs well on mobile devices.

Conversion Tracking

Most plumbers will want to integrate their CRM to Google ads so that they know exactly which leads are coming from Google ads and which leads are coming from other sources.

This is vital so that you have a clear understanding of exactly what your Google ad conversion rates are, and the types of customers they are providing you. 

Additionally, you’ll need to set up call tracking, so that you can attribute phone calls to your adverts as well.

This entire process of conversion tracking & attribution can get a little technical, so we strongly advise hiring a professional PPC service or freelancer to help you get set up. 

The good news is that once you’ve gone through this initial process, you shouldn’t have to change too much in the future.

Common Pitfalls We See Plumbers Make

We regularly see novice advertisers make the following common mistakes within their Google ad accounts:

• Not adding assets to your account such as images or callouts.
• Forgetting to monitor negative keywords.
• Not pausing weak performing ad groups.
• Not investing more into your highest performing search queries.

Optimization

It’s one thing launching your Google ads, it’s another thing optimizing them for success.

We manage Google ads for dozens of plumbers across the US, and have developed a simple system to optimize and improve their results.

By just doing those 4 things regularly, you’re going to be ahead of 95% of your local plumbing competitors. We’ve been running Google ads professionally for years, and it still amazes me how many large-scale advertisers get the basics wrong. 

Wrapping Up

Google ads are indisputably still the best source of consistent leads for plumbing businesses, and with a little experience it’s easy to optimize your campaigns to attract high-value customers in your local area.

If you’re looking to invest in a truly reliable source of marketing where you can clearly see your return on investment in real dollar terms, Google ads is the way to go. 

Get in touch with us today for a free consultation on setting up your Google ads campaigns.