Blended Search

Google Ads for Home Service Contractors

Intent-first search campaigns that capture homeowners who are actively looking for your services right now.

Ready to Start the Conversation?

Show up for the high-intent searches that actually drive calls, not vanity keywords
Turn clicks into phone calls and booked jobs with landing pages built to convert
Tight budget control, transparent spend, and no wasted money on broad match junk

The Philosophy

ONE SYSTEM. EVERY CHANNEL THAT MATTERS. ONE OUTCOME: BOOKED JOBS.

Google Ads Can Be a Cash Register. For Most Contractors, It Is a Slot Machine.

When a homeowner types “emergency AC repair near me” at 2pm on the hottest day of July, Google Ads is the fastest way to put your phone number in front of them. Done right, Google Ads is the most predictable high-intent lead channel available to a contractor. You set a budget, you get calls from people ready to buy today, and the cost per booked job is a number you can actually plan around.

Done wrong, Google Ads burns money faster than almost anything else in marketing. Broad match keywords chasing anyone who ever typed something related to your trade. No negative keywords, so you pay for clicks from people looking for DIY videos or free estimates from a neighbor. Ad copy that sounds like every other contractor. Traffic sent to a homepage that was not built to convert. No call tracking. No idea which searches actually produced jobs and which just drained the account.

We run Google Ads the way it is supposed to be run. Intent-first keyword selection. Exact and phrase match with tight negative keyword lists. Ad copy that speaks to homeowners in your market, not everyone in the country. Dedicated landing pages built to convert. Proper call tracking and conversion attribution. Ongoing optimization every month. It is not magic. It is discipline that most accounts never get.

Why Do So Many Contractors Waste Money on Google Ads?

Most contractors who have tried Google Ads have a story about how it did not work. This short video breaks down the three or four things that almost always go wrong, and what a properly run Google Ads account actually looks like.

Your Google Ads Budget Is Either an Investment or a Line Item You Resent. There Is No In Between.

When Google Ads works, contractors describe it as a tap they can turn on and off. Spend more, get more calls. Pull back, slow the phone down. That is what a properly run account feels like. When Google Ads does not work, it feels like a subscription you cannot cancel because you are afraid of what happens when you do. That difference has almost nothing to do with the platform and almost everything to do with who is running the account.

We do not guess. We build campaigns around the exact searches that drive revenue for your trade, write ad copy that pulls the right homeowners in and keeps the wrong ones out, send the clicks to landing pages we built to convert, and track every call and form submission back to the search term that caused it. Then we optimize every month based on what the data actually says.

  • Hundreds of paid search campaigns managed for home service contractors since 2007
  • Ad spend is always separated from management fees so you can see exactly what Google is charging and what you are paying us
  • Conversion-focused landing pages and call tracking built in from day one, not bolted on after the fact
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What Your Google Ads Program Includes

Keyword Research & Intent-First Campaign Strategy

We build campaigns around the highest-intent searches in your market: emergency services, specific trade terms, service-plus-city combinations. Not vanity keywords. Not broad match catch-alls. Just the searches that actually produce calls from homeowners ready to hire.

Campaign Build and Ad Copy

Every campaign is structured for control and clarity: tight ad groups, match types that filter instead of waste, and ad copy written for your trade and your market. Ads speak directly to the homeowner and the moment they are in, not generic agency boilerplate.

Conversion-Focused Landing Pages

We build dedicated landing pages for your campaigns, not sending traffic to a general homepage. Each page is built around a single service, a single action, and the trust signals that turn a click into a call. Homepages convert paid traffic poorly. Landing pages pay for themselves.

Negative Keyword Management

Every campaign is built with a comprehensive negative keyword list on day one and expanded every month based on search term data. This is how you stop paying for DIY searches, job seekers, free estimate hunters, and out-of-area clicks. It is also the easiest place for a campaign to leak money when nobody is watching.

Call Tracking and Conversion Attribution

Every phone call from your Google Ads traffic is tracked to the campaign, ad group, keyword, and search term that produced it. Same for form submissions. We can tell you which search terms book jobs and which just burn budget. Without this, Google Ads is a guessing game.

Bid Strategy and Budget Optimization

We manage bid strategy, daily budgets, and ad schedules based on what is actually producing calls for your business. Budgets shift between campaigns, services, and times of day as the data comes in. Money follows performance.

Monthly Reporting on Calls, Cost per Lead, and Booked Jobs

Total calls, form fills, cost per lead, and where possible cost per booked job. Not impressions. Not clicks. Not click-through rate. The numbers that tell you whether Google Ads is earning its keep or costing you money.

Not All Google Ads Management Is Created Equal

Talking Monkey Typical Agency / DIY
Match Types Exact and phrase match by default. Never broad match with heavy negative keyword coverage. Broad match everywhere. Budget burned chasing loosely related searches
Keywords Intent-first selection built around the specific searches that produce calls in your trade and market. Long lists of generic keywords pulled from a template or copied from competitors.
Landing Pages Dedicated, conversion-focused landing pages built for each campaign. Traffic dumped on the homepage. Low conversion, high bounce, wasted clicks.
Call Tracking Every call and form submission tied back to campaign, keyword, and search term. Google's default conversion tracking or no tracking at all. No clear line from spend to job.
Budget Structure Ad spend billed by Google directly. Management fees billed separately. Clear view of both. Ad spend bundled into management fees. No clarity on what Google is actually charging.
Transparency You own the account, see every change we make, and get monthly reports tied to calls and booked jobs. Agency-owned accounts, vague reports, no clarity on what you would keep if you left.
✓ Talking Monkey X Typical Agency / DIY

Match Types

✓ Talking Monkey
Exact and phrase match by default. Never broad match with heavy negative keyword coverage.
X Typical Agency / DIY
Broad match everywhere. Budget burned chasing loosely related searches

Keywords

✓ Talking Monkey
Intent-first selection built around the specific searches that produce calls in your trade and market.
X Typical Agency / DIY
Long lists of generic keywords pulled from a template or copied from competitors.

Landing Pages

✓ Talking Monkey
Dedicated, conversion-focused landing pages built for each campaign.
X Typical Agency / DIY
Traffic dumped on the homepage. Low conversion, high bounce, wasted clicks.

Call Tracking

✓ Talking Monkey
Every call and form submission tied back to campaign, keyword, and search term.
X Typical Agency / DIY
Google's default conversion tracking or no tracking at all. No clear line from spend to job.

Budget Structure

✓ Talking Monkey
Ad spend billed by Google directly. Management fees billed separately. Clear view of both.
X Typical Agency / DIY
Ad spend bundled into management fees. No clarity on what Google is actually charging.

Transparency

✓ Talking Monkey
You own the account, see every change we make, and get monthly reports tied to calls and booked jobs.
X Typical Agency / DIY
Agency-owned accounts, vague reports, no clarity on what you would keep if you left.

Your Ad Spend Is Separate From Our Management Fee. Always.

Most agencies bundle ad spend with management fees. That hides the actual cost of Google Ads from you and lines up incentives the wrong way. If they make more money when you spend more with Google, the pressure is to increase budgets, not to sharpen campaigns. We do not run that way. You pay Google directly for clicks through your own account. You pay us separately to run the program. That keeps the incentives clean: we win when your campaigns produce jobs, not when they spend more.

You own the Google Ads account. We manage it on your behalf. You see every campaign, every ad group, every keyword, every ad, and every dollar. If we ever part ways, the account is yours. No hostage situations. No “proprietary” campaigns. Just a clear view of what is being spent, what is producing, and where we are going next.

  • Ad spend billed by Google directly to your card. Management fees billed separately by Talking Monkey.
  • Monthly reporting tied to calls, cost per lead, and booked jobs, not impressions or click-through rate
  • You own the Google Ads account, the landing pages, the call tracking, and all the data. Always.
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What Contractors Say About Working With Us

SEE WHAT OUR CUSTOMERS SAY ABOUT US.

Talking Monkey Media worked closely with us on a from the ground up new website. Our collaboration was smooth and very productive. As a, among other skills, project manager, Blair allowed me to guide and lead while providing expert advise outside of my area of expertise…

Keith Reynolds

Talking Monkey Media worked closely with us on a from the ground up new website. Our collaboration was smooth and very productive. As a, among other skills, project manager, Blair allowed me to guide and lead while providing expert advise outside of my area of expertise…

Keith Reynolds

Talking Monkey Media worked closely with us on a from the ground up new website. Our collaboration was smooth and very productive. As a, among other skills, project manager, Blair allowed me to guide and lead while providing expert advise outside of my area of expertise…

Keith Reynolds

Talking Monkey Media worked closely with us on a from the ground up new website. Our collaboration was smooth and very productive. As a, among other skills, project manager, Blair allowed me to guide and lead while providing expert advise outside of my area of expertise…

Keith Reynolds

Talking Monkey Media worked closely with us on a from the ground up new website. Our collaboration was smooth and very productive. As a, among other skills, project manager, Blair allowed me to guide and lead while providing expert advise outside of my area of expertise…

Keith Reynolds

Talking Monkey Media worked closely with us on a from the ground up new website. Our collaboration was smooth and very productive. As a, among other skills, project manager, Blair allowed me to guide and lead while providing expert advise outside of my area of expertise…

Keith Reynolds

Frequently Asked Questions About Google Ads

YOU’VE GOT QUESTIONS WE HAVE ANSWERS

What are Google Ads and how do they work?

Almost always for the same short list of reasons: broad match keywords with no negative keyword strategy, generic ad copy, traffic sent to a homepage that was not built to convert, and no real call tracking. When any one of those is missing, the account leaks money. When all four are missing, Google Ads becomes a very expensive way to learn that you should have hired someone who knew what they were doing. The platform is fine. The setup is where accounts succeed or fail.

Why do Google Ads fail for so many contractors?

Almost always for the same short list of reasons: broad match keywords with no negative keyword strategy, generic ad copy, traffic sent to a homepage that was not built to convert, and no real call tracking. When any one of those is missing, the account leaks money. When all four are missing, Google Ads becomes a very expensive way to learn that you should have hired someone who knew what they were doing. The platform is fine. The setup is where accounts succeed or fail.

How much should a home service contractor spend on Google Ads?

Almost always for the same short list of reasons: broad match keywords with no negative keyword strategy, generic ad copy, traffic sent to a homepage that was not built to convert, and no real call tracking. When any one of those is missing, the account leaks money. When all four are missing, Google Ads becomes a very expensive way to learn that you should have hired someone who knew what they were doing. The platform is fine. The setup is where accounts succeed or fail.

What is the difference between Google Ads and Google Local Service Ads?

Almost always for the same short list of reasons: broad match keywords with no negative keyword strategy, generic ad copy, traffic sent to a homepage that was not built to convert, and no real call tracking. When any one of those is missing, the account leaks money. When all four are missing, Google Ads becomes a very expensive way to learn that you should have hired someone who knew what they were doing. The platform is fine. The setup is where accounts succeed or fail.

How do I know my Google Ads budget is not being wasted?

Almost always for the same short list of reasons: broad match keywords with no negative keyword strategy, generic ad copy, traffic sent to a homepage that was not built to convert, and no real call tracking. When any one of those is missing, the account leaks money. When all four are missing, Google Ads becomes a very expensive way to learn that you should have hired someone who knew what they were doing. The platform is fine. The setup is where accounts succeed or fail.

Do I need landing pages or can we just use my homepage?

Almost always for the same short list of reasons: broad match keywords with no negative keyword strategy, generic ad copy, traffic sent to a homepage that was not built to convert, and no real call tracking. When any one of those is missing, the account leaks money. When all four are missing, Google Ads becomes a very expensive way to learn that you should have hired someone who knew what they were doing. The platform is fine. The setup is where accounts succeed or fail.

How long until Google Ads starts generating calls?

Almost always for the same short list of reasons: broad match keywords with no negative keyword strategy, generic ad copy, traffic sent to a homepage that was not built to convert, and no real call tracking. When any one of those is missing, the account leaks money. When all four are missing, Google Ads becomes a very expensive way to learn that you should have hired someone who knew what they were doing. The platform is fine. The setup is where accounts succeed or fail.

Do I own my Google Ads account?

Almost always for the same short list of reasons: broad match keywords with no negative keyword strategy, generic ad copy, traffic sent to a homepage that was not built to convert, and no real call tracking. When any one of those is missing, the account leaks money. When all four are missing, Google Ads becomes a very expensive way to learn that you should have hired someone who knew what they were doing. The platform is fine. The setup is where accounts succeed or fail.