Google Ads management for handymen who list their jobs and towns
A few of the spots above a handyman search in Google are paid. Google Ads management for handymen is the work of deciding which of the typed words are worth paying for, which are not, and where each click should land.
We build, run and report search campaigns for handymen and handyman companies. Each ad group follows one job or one town from the owner's list, each carries a strict list of words kept out, and each ad opens a page that ends in a call or a form.
Search ads follow the handyman's list, not the other way round
A Google Ads campaign starts from the list that already drives the website: small jobs and towns. A sticking door in one town is an ad group. A shelf to hang in the next town is another. Someone typing handyman services near me
or local handyman
has a different need from someone typing one specific job, so that search gets its own ad group and its own landing page.
Location settings come from the towns the truck actually goes to, and the owner confirms them before the campaign opens. Searches that come from outside the route are the first thing we look for in the search-term report. When an ad is shown on a given day is up to Google, and we make no claim about timing.
Five parts of a handyman's search campaign
- Structure
An ad group for each job and each town
A curtain rod in one town has its own ad group, separate from a towel bar in the next, so the words in the ad match the words the homeowner typed.
- Location
A map drawn around the route
Targeting follows the towns the truck covers. The owner signs off on that list, and towns the truck skips stay off it.
- Calls
A call button on the ad, only if the owner picks it
Adding a call extension is the owner's choice. When it is on, call tracking logs a source tag and how long the call lasted, never what was said.
- Filters
A block list for the route that starts long
Do-it-yourself searches, parts, tutorials, people hunting for work and searches for a brand name are blocked from the first day. The list gets longer with every report.
- Landing
A matching job page behind each ad
The ad about a TV to mount opens the page about a TV to mount, not the home page, and that page finishes at the short form.
From a handyman search to the page a click opens
| What a homeowner types | The ad group it fits | The page the click opens |
|---|---|---|
| A near-me search with no job named | One broad ad group for the whole route | The home page of the handyman business, with the towns listed |
| A town and a small job together | A narrow ad group for that town and job | The town page, or the job page where the job is the point |
| One small job, such as a sticking door | An ad group for that job across the route | The job page, ending at the short form |
| A do-it-yourself fix or a parts search | None, it sits on the negative keyword list | No page, because the ad does not run for it |
How a handyman campaign gets built and kept tidy
Draft the campaign from the job list
We turn the owner's list of jobs and towns into ad groups, ad text and a first set of negative keywords.
The owner reads it before any ad runs
Ad text, towns, daily budget and landing pages go to the owner. Google publishes its own ad rules, and the owner reads the current ones before the first ad is switched on.
Open with the block list in place
The negative keyword list goes live with the campaign, so the first clicks are not spent on searches that never belonged.
Review the search terms and trim
We read the terms that triggered ads, block the ones that do not fit, and shift budget between ad groups. Cost per inquiry comes from the calls and forms counted, with no benchmark attached.
Three ideas about paid search for a handyman business
Overheard at the truck doorA handyman should bid on every search that contains the word handyman.
What the job list showsSome of those searches come from people looking for a brand, a part or a job. Paying for them adds nothing to the job list.
Overheard at the truck doorOnce ads are running, they cannot be stopped when the schedule is full.
What the job list showsThey can be paused. When the truck is booked, the owner or we switch the campaign off, and the spend stops with it.
Overheard at the truck doorThe agency holds the ad account.
What the job list showsThe Google Ads account belongs to the owner, and the owner's own card is what Google bills for clicks. Our fee is a separate line.
What the owner confirms before a campaign opens
- The towns the truck will go to, and the towns to leave out
- The small jobs to advertise, and the jobs that should never trigger an ad
- A monthly ad budget the owner picks, paid to Google by the owner's own card
- Whether a call button belongs on the ads, and which number it should ring
- Who picks up the calls and who reads the forms
What management costs and who pays Google
Our fee for managing Google Ads as the one platform is $895 a month. Ad spend sits on top of that and goes straight to Google, billed to the card on the owner's own account. Nothing is charged to open the campaign, and the work stops when the owner says stop. The price sheet shows what two or three platforms cost.
Ads and organic search lean on the same pages. SEO for handymen builds the town pages that an ad can land on, and a handyman company SEO plan keeps those pages in step with the campaign. The wider picture of paid work is on the the wider paid work for handymen, and a second campaign on Bing Ads (Microsoft Advertising) is covered under Bing for handymen. Work on Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram) has a page of its own. Calls and forms from every source are counted under lead generation.
Questions about Google Ads for a handyman company
What does Google Ads management for a handyman business include?
Building the ad groups from the owner's jobs and towns, writing the ads for approval, setting location targeting, keeping the negative keyword list, pointing each ad at a matching page, and reporting the calls and forms that came in.
Which searches does a handyman's block list keep out?
Do-it-yourself fixes, parts, tutorials, people looking for work, and searches for a brand name. The list begins with those and grows from the search-term report.
How does a handyman know whether the ads brought anything in?
Calls and forms are counted against the campaign that produced them. A source tag and the length of each call are recorded, and what a caller says is not. Someone who typed handyman near me
and then rang shows up as one line in the report.
Should a handyman company begin with Google or with Bing?
Google is the larger audience, so job and town campaigns open there. Bing can follow as a smaller second campaign once the first one has been read and trimmed.
Send your list of jobs and towns
Which kind of job should we push first?
Name the jobs you would like to book more often and the towns on your route; mention any local websites that point at yours. Street addresses, customer names and payment details stay out of the message, please.
Put one more job on tomorrow's list
A single call settles which job type to push first, which towns it should reach and which plan can carry it.
Month to month. No startup fee. No contract.