Google Ads and Local Services Ads, managed to cost per booked job.

We manage Google Search and Local Services Ads for home service companies, clinics and other local businesses that can count a booked customer. Every monthly report starts with one number: what a booked customer cost you, with our fee included.

Who it fits

It fits a local business that can count booked customers and answer the phone.

Good fit

  • Licensed trades and home services, such as plumbing, HVAC, electrical and roofing, where people search when they need help now.
  • Clinics that count booked appointments. No patient information goes to an ad platform.
  • Owners who keep job or appointment records, even in a spreadsheet.

Not a fit yet

  • A market too small for the budget. We price the market first and tell you.
  • More than 15% of calls going unanswered. Fix call handling before buying more clicks.
What we do, week by week

The first month fixes the measurement, then rebuilds Search around the jobs you want.

  1. Week 1

    Access and audit

    You add us as a manager on your accounts and keep ownership. We check auto-tagging, which conversions each campaign really bids toward, location settings, and which search terms spent money and booked nothing.

  2. Week 2

    Tracking and Local Services Ads

    Calls, forms and bookings are set to count once each, and job records are connected where your software allows. If Local Services Ads covers your trade, we tune its profile and budget first, because it usually brings the cheapest leads.

  3. Weeks 3 and 4

    Search rebuild

    One campaign per service, each sending people to a page about that service. Ads shown only to people in or regularly in your area. Negative keywords from day one for searches that never book: jobs, schools, how-to and home remedies.

  4. Every month

    Review, change, report

    We review search terms and booked jobs and move budget toward what books. You get one report: cost per booked job by source, what we changed, why, and what happened.

What you get

You get a monthly report built on booked jobs and a written log of every change.

  • A monthly report that starts with cost per booked job, with and without our fee.
  • Cost per lead without brand searches, so the account is judged on new customers.
  • A written change log, including the months that went badly.
  • Local Services Ads and Search in one view, with one budget plan.
  • Conversion tracking, set up and kept clean. See how we set up tracking.
  • One account manager as your single contact.
How we measure it

We manage to booked jobs, because clicks and leads can rise while booked work falls.

Clicks and impressions show how the ads are serving. They are not results.

We manage to cost per booked job: ad spend plus our fee, divided by booked jobs from your own records, deduped so each job counts once. If you keep no job records, the report shows cost per lead and says so.

What each number is used for
NumberHow we use it
Booked jobs, from your recordsThe result. Everything else is judged against it.
Calls and formsA cost, reported as leads, never as revenue.
Brand searchesReported apart. They convert cheaply and flatter the totals.
Clicks and impressionsDelivery only.
Price

Our fee is 25% of ad spend with a $500 minimum, and the rate drops as spend grows.

Google Ads and Local Services Ads management
Monthly ad spendFeeMonthly minimum
Up to $10,00025%$500
$10,001 to $20,00022.75%$2,600
$20,001 to $30,00021.75%$4,600
Over $30,00020.97%$6,600

The fee is the greater of your ad spend times the rate, or the monthly minimum. Call tracking software, if you need it, is billed to you directly.

Proof

Our planning ranges come from trades accounts. Our tracked revenue results come from online stores.

  • Planning rangesAccounts read Jun to Sep 2026

    For licensed trades, we plan around $60 to $100 per Local Services Ads lead, $150 to $250 per Search lead, and $8 to $22 per Search click.

    A lead is a call or form, not a booked job. These ranges come from trades and home services accounts we have run or reviewed. They are not a quote.

  • Measured: job software revenue12 months of spendAn account we reviewed

    In the largest trades account we have reviewed, Local Services Ads brought back 2.97 times its cost in booked job revenue over 12 months. Search brought back 0.79 times, yet took about 73% of that year’s spend.

    64% of that company’s booked revenue came in with no ad source attached, so each figure is a floor.

  • Measured: store purchasesJul 2025 to Jul 2026

    Our longest tracked revenue result is an online apparel and consumer goods store: 10.03x tracked store revenue per ad dollar over 13 consecutive months, on $131,218 of ad spend.

    No improvement is claimed: there is no before-and-after record. It shows we measure real purchases, not what a local business will see. All four results are on our homepage.

Straight answers

No long contract, no markup on ad spend, and no promised return.

Is there a long contract or a markup?

Neither. Google Ads management is month to month, with 30 days’ notice to cancel. Google bills your ad spend to you directly, with no markup.

Should I run Local Services Ads or Search?

If Local Services Ads covers your trade, usually both, with Local Services Ads funded first. You pay per lead, not per click. In both trades accounts behind our Local Services Ads range, a Local Services Ads lead cost less than half as much as a Search lead.

How much should I spend?

Enough to buy useful volume, so we price your market first. In one small trades market in September 2026, Google’s Keyword Planner put plumbing, HVAC and electrical searches at about 3,790 a month. At $750 a month and the low bids, that buys roughly 65 Search clicks, or about 3 leads at a 5% conversion rate. There, Local Services Ads was the better first dollar, because it charges per lead.

Will you promise a return?

No. Markets shift and competitors bid up. If paid search will not pay for your business, the free audit says so, and we do not take the account.

Start here

Start with a free basic audit of your Google Ads account.

Five short fields, no call needed. It shows where the money went, what a booked customer costs, whether your tracking can be trusted, and what we would change first. The basic audit is free. A deeper audit is paid, and we tell you the price before we start.