Service · Paid Search for the Trades
Google Local Services Ads & PPC for the trades
When a homeowner needs a tech today, the winners are decided at the top of one Google page. We manage that real estate for HVAC, plumbing, electrical and roofing companies — so you pay for real service calls, not clicks from the curious.
The Setup
Two weapons, one page of Google
Local Services Ads (LSA)
The green-checkmark listings at the very top of the page. You pay per lead — usually a phone call — not per click, and the Google Guaranteed badge does trust-building you'd otherwise pay for in reviews and years. But LSA isn't set-and-forget: rank moves with review velocity, response speed and dispute hygiene.
- Full setup: licensing, insurance and background verification
- Review velocity plan to climb and hold rank
- Weekly junk-lead disputes so you don't pay for wrong numbers
- Bid and budget management tied to your dispatch capacity
Google Ads (PPC)
Everything LSA can't do: target specific job types, own specific neighborhoods, push specific offers. This is where "water heater replacement cost" and "generator installer near me" get captured — with landing pages built to convert a phone-in-hand homeowner in under ten seconds.
- Campaigns split by job type and job value
- Negative keyword lists tuned for your trade (no DIYers, no job seekers)
- Landing pages with one job: make the phone ring
- Call tracking and recording on every campaign
Your accounts. Your data. Your spend goes to Google — never through us with a markup.
Why It's Different Here
Price-per-lead skeptics, welcome
Most contractors we meet have been burned by paid leads at least once, and the skepticism is earned. Shared leads sold to five shops. "Exclusive" leads that were neither. Agencies reporting clicks and impressions while the schedule stayed thin. So let's be blunt about how we keep paid search honest.
First, we track to booked jobs, not leads. A lead that doesn't answer twice, lives outside your service area, or wanted a trade you don't run isn't a win, and our reporting doesn't pretend it is. Second, we size budgets to your capacity. If you can't run more than eight calls a day, spending like you can run twenty just buys expensive voicemails. Third, we match spend to Florida's seasons — heavier when AC demand or storm response peaks, tighter when your trade slows — instead of letting one January number ride all year.
And because we only work in four trades, we're not guessing at benchmarks. We know what a booked HVAC call should cost in a mid-size Florida market versus what a roofing replacement lead runs during season. When your numbers drift from what's normal, we see it in days, not quarters.
The Weekly Routine
- Search-term audit: cut waste, add negatives
- LSA dispute filing and credit tracking
- Bid adjustments by day, hour and geography
- Landing page and call-recording spot checks
- Budget pacing against booked-job targets
Everything lives in accounts registered to you.
Junk LSA leads get disputed weekly, every week.
Cost per booked job. Everything else is supporting detail.
Paid Search FAQ
Before you spend a dollar
What is the difference between Local Services Ads and Google Ads?
Local Services Ads sit at the very top of the page, show your reviews and the Google Guaranteed badge, and charge you per lead, usually a phone call. Google Ads appear below them and charge per click, but give you far more control over targeting, messaging and which jobs you chase. For most trades we run both: LSA for cheap, high-intent calls and Google Ads to capture everything LSA misses.
Do I pay TradeCrew for the ad spend, or Google?
Google, directly, from accounts you own. Your ad budget never passes through our hands, so there is no markup hiding in it and no hostage situation if we part ways. Our management fee is a separate, flat, plainly quoted number.
What happens when a junk lead comes through LSA?
We dispute it. Wrong numbers, solicitors, jobs outside your service area or trade can be credited back by Google, but only if someone actually files the disputes and tracks them. That is part of our weekly routine, and recovered lead credits show up in your report.
Paid search works best on a solid organic base — see SEO for contractors. Or jump straight to your trade: HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing.
Pay for service calls, not spectators
Tell us your trade and territory and we'll estimate what LSA and PPC can realistically produce in your market — before you commit to anything.
Get My Paid Search Plan