How to Set Up Google Ads for Your Local Service Business

Google Ads · Setup Guide

How to Set Up Google Ads for Your Local Service Business

Setting up Google Ads for the first time feels overwhelming, and the platform is happy to let you spend money before you know what you're doing. Most UK local service businesses, plumbers, dentists, roofers, physios and similar, make the same handful of mistakes in the first 90 days: too broad a keyword list, the wrong bidding strategy, no conversion tracking, and a daily budget that burns without producing a single call. This guide cuts through that. Here is what to actually do, in the right order, and what each decision costs you if you get it wrong.

Start by choosing the right campaign type

Google gives you two very different ways to advertise, and they are not interchangeable.

• Google Search Ads (pay per click): your ad shows when someone types a keyword you are bidding on. You pay every time they click, whether they enquire or not. You control the keywords, the ad copy, the landing page and the bid. More work to manage, but more control over who sees you and what they land on.
• Local Services Ads (pay per lead): the "Google Verified" or "Google Guaranteed" tiles that sit above everything else in search results. You pay only when someone calls or messages through the ad, and Google vets your business before you can show. Far simpler to run, but only available in certain categories and locations in the UK, and you have less control over the ad itself.

For most local service businesses, the right answer is to run both once you have the budget. Start with LSAs if your trade is eligible (plumbing, electrical, cleaning, HVAC, legal and more are covered in the UK as of 2026), because the barrier to getting a lead is lower and the cost per lead tends to be predictable. Add Search Ads when you want to control your message more precisely or target services that LSAs don't cover.

What budget do you actually need

This is the question everyone asks and nobody answers honestly. Here are realistic UK figures for Search Ads based on current cost-per-click data across local trades.

£3-8 typical cost per click, plumber or electrician

£5-15 typical cost per click, dentist or physio

10-15% average conversion rate click to enquiry, well-set-up landing page

£500+ minimum monthly budget to get meaningful data in most UK markets

If your landing page converts at 10 percent and your average click costs £5, each enquiry costs you £50. If your jobs are worth £800 and you close one in three enquiries, your cost per job is £150 against a £800 revenue. That is a healthy return. The numbers only work out, though, if your landing page actually converts. A slow, generic site with no clear call to action will convert at 2 to 3 percent, tripling your cost per lead before you've touched the campaign settings.

Step-by-step: how to set up a Search campaign correctly

1 Set your conversion tracking before you spend a penny

This is the single most important step and the one most skipped. Go to Google Ads, click Tools, then Conversions, and set up tracking for every action that counts as a lead: phone calls from the ad, form submissions on your site, and calls from your website number. Without this, Google's algorithm has no signal to optimise toward, and you are flying blind. Install the tracking code via Google Tag Manager if you can, and test it before you launch.

2 Build a tight keyword list, not a wide one

Your instinct will be to add every keyword that sounds relevant. Resist it. Start with 10 to 20 tightly focused keywords around your core service and location. Use phrase match or exact match, never broad match at this stage. Examples of the right shape: "emergency plumber London", "boiler service Edinburgh", "private dentist Manchester". Use Google's Keyword Planner to check search volume and estimated cost before committing. Add negative keywords from day one: words like "jobs", "courses", "training", "DIY" and "free" should be excluded immediately or you will pay for clicks from people who are definitely not your customers.

3 Choose the right bidding strategy for your stage

Google will push you toward "Maximise conversions" or "Target CPA" from the start. Ignore that advice until you have at least 30 conversion events recorded, ideally 50. Before that threshold, the algorithm has too little data to optimise intelligently and tends to overspend. Start with Manual CPC or Maximise Clicks with a bid cap, gather your first month of data, then switch to a smart bidding strategy once Google has enough signal to work with.

4 Write ads that answer the specific search, not your general pitch

Use Responsive Search Ads with at least 10 headlines and 4 descriptions. Your headlines should echo the keyword the person searched (Google calls this "keyword insertion" and it genuinely improves click-through rate), include a clear benefit or differentiator, and have at least one urgency or credibility signal. Examples: "Same-Day Plumber in Bristol", "Family Dentist, No Waiting List", "Roofing from £150, Free Survey". Pin your most critical headline, usually the one with your service and location, to position 1 so it always shows.

5 Set location and ad schedule tightly

Under campaign settings, target by radius around your postcode or by specific cities and postcodes you actually serve. Do not rely on Google's default "presence or interest" setting; switch it to "presence only" so you are only shown to people physically in your service area. Set an ad schedule that matches when your phone is actually answered. Paying for clicks at midnight when no one picks up is money wasted, unless you have a form and a fast follow-up system.

6 Add all available ad extensions

Extensions are free additions that make your ad bigger and more useful. Set up at minimum: call extensions (your phone number, clickable on mobile), location extensions (links to your Google Business Profile), sitelink extensions (links to specific service pages), and callout extensions (short trust signals like "Fully Insured", "Same Day Available", "5-Star Rated"). Extensions do not cost extra and consistently improve click-through rate by 10 to 20 percent.

The three mistakes that burn the most money

Mistake 1: Letting Google run a "Smart campaign" instead of a Search campaign. When you first sign up, Google often nudges you toward Smart campaigns. These hand over most control to the algorithm and are generally poor value for local service businesses. Always choose to create a standard Search campaign manually.

Mistake 2: Sending ad traffic to your homepage. Your homepage is not a landing page. It is a navigation hub. Send paid traffic to a dedicated page that matches the ad exactly: if the ad says "Emergency Plumber Manchester", the page the click lands on should say the same thing, have one clear action (call or form), and load in under 3 seconds on mobile.

Mistake 3: Setting a budget and not checking for a month. The first two weeks of a new campaign are the most expensive and least efficient. Check every two to three days in the first month, review your search terms report, add negatives for irrelevant searches, and pause any keywords that are spending without converting. The campaign improves as you feed it more data.

How long before you see results

Clicks start as soon as the campaign goes live, usually within a few hours of approval. But a well-optimised campaign typically takes four to eight weeks to settle, because Google's algorithm needs time to learn which searches, times and audiences produce your conversions. Expect the first month to be more expensive per lead than month three. If you are not seeing any enquiries at all after two weeks and a reasonable spend, the problem is almost always your landing page, your location targeting, or missing conversion tracking, not the campaign itself.

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