These Google Ads Mistakes Are Costing Home Service Businesses $10,000s
These Google Ads Mistakes Are Costing Home Service Businesses $10,000s
Last month, I had the opportunity to speak with 25 home service business owners about their Google Ads strategies. What stood out to me was that 99% of them were making the same five mistakes. These errors were holding them back from getting better leads and maximizing their return on investment (ROI). In this post, I’ll walk you through each mistake and show you how to fix them so you can start seeing real results.
Mistake #1: Not Knowing If Google Ads Are Actually Working
One of the most common questions we hear is, What should my budget be? How much should I spend? Should I spend more or less? If you’re not tracking your Google Ads performance in your CRM and pulling a return on ad spend (ROAS) report every month, making informed decisions becomes nearly impossible.
Why It Matters: Without proper tracking, you’re essentially throwing money at Google and hoping for leads. This approach rarely works.
How to Fix It:
- Integrate your Google Ads with a CRM that can track leads and revenue.
- Focus on collecting accurate data—better data leads to better decisions.
- Review your ROAS monthly to understand what’s working and what isn’t.
Mistake #2: Using the Wrong Keywords and Ignoring Negative Keywords
Many home service business owners target broad keywords and hope Google will direct the right traffic to their website. Unfortunately, this strategy often leads to wasted ad spend on irrelevant traffic.
Why It Matters: Broad keywords can result in high costs per click, especially in competitive markets. Ignoring negative keywords, such as “cheap plumbers” or “cheap electricians,” means your ads might show up for searches you don’t want to pay for.
How to Fix It:
- Focus on long-tail, specific keywords that are more likely to convert.
- Regularly audit your keyword list and add negative keywords to avoid irrelevant clicks.
- Continuously track keyword performance and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Mistake #3: Sending Traffic to a Homepage Instead of a Landing Page
Driving ad traffic to your homepage is one of the quickest ways to lose potential leads.
Why It Matters: Homepages often lack clear calls to action (CTAs) and are not optimized for conversions. Visitors might click around aimlessly and leave without contacting you.
How to Fix It:
- Create dedicated landing pages for your ads.
- Ensure your landing pages have clear CTAs, such as forms and phone numbers.
- Use tracking tools to measure the effectiveness of each landing page.
Mistake #4: Not Using Tracking Phone Numbers
Even if you’re sending traffic to your homepage, failing to use tracking phone numbers can leave you in the dark about where your leads are coming from.
Why It Matters: Without tracking phone numbers, you can’t tie calls back to your Google Ads campaigns, making it difficult to measure success.
How to Fix It:
- Use dynamic number insertion (DNI) to change the phone number across your website to a tracking number.
- Ensure forms and phone numbers are correctly set up to track conversions.
- Combine this with landing page tracking for the most accurate results.
Mistake #5: Missing Out on Local Targeting
One of the most significant mistakes we see is home service businesses running ads nationally when their target market is local.
Why It Matters: Ads shown outside your service area waste money and fail to generate relevant leads.
How to Fix It:
- Set up local targeting to ensure your ads only appear in your service area.
- Analyze performance by city and adjust your budget to focus on the best-performing areas.
- Use conversion metrics to refine your strategy and target specific keywords in specific locations.
Case Study: We worked with a company spending $144,000 a month on Google Ads. After auditing their account, we discovered they were targeting a national audience instead of their local market. By scaling back to $4,000 and focusing on local targeting, they generated more leads and significantly reduced wasted ad spend.
Avoid These Mistakes
If you’re trying to manage Google Ads on your own, it’s easy to fall into these traps. But with the right strategies—like proper tracking, keyword optimization, landing pages, tracking phone numbers, and local targeting—you can transform your campaigns and start seeing a positive ROI.
If you’re feeling stuck and need expert help, my team specializes in running Google Ads campaigns that deliver measurable results. Schedule a call with us today to get started. If you’re not ready to partner with a professional, implementing these five strategies will put you on the path to success!