Google Ads for tradies can put a business in front of a ready-to-hire customer at the exact moment they are searching. The problem is that most tradie ad campaigns stop at the click: they pay to send someone to a website, and whatever happens after that is left to chance. Strut runs Google Ads differently, connected to fast follow-up, a proper pipeline and a site built to convert, so the money you spend on a click actually ends in a booked job. The click is the easy part. Winning the work is the point.
This page covers how Google Ads should work for a trade business, why the follow-up matters as much as the ad, and why running ads on their own is where most of the budget leaks.
What are Google Ads for tradies?
Google Ads put your business at the top of the search results when someone looks for the service you provide in your area, and you pay when they click. For a tradie it means appearing the moment a homeowner searches “emergency electrician” or “roof repair near me”, ahead of the competitors relying on being found organically.
Done well, it is the fastest way to get in front of high-intent customers, people actively looking to hire, right now. Done badly, it is the fastest way to burn money. The difference is almost never the ad itself. It is everything that happens between the click and the booked job: where the click lands, how fast you respond, and whether anything catches the enquiry before it goes cold.
Why do most tradie Google Ads campaigns waste money?
Because they treat the click as the finish line when it is really the starting line. A generic agency sets up the ads, sends you a report full of clicks and impressions, and leaves the actual job of converting those clicks to you, usually while you are on the tools and unable to answer.
This is the trap. You pay premium money for a high-intent click, the customer lands on a site that may or may not convert, they fill in a form or leave, and then the enquiry sits unanswered for hours because you are up a ladder. Meanwhile they have contacted three other businesses. The ad did its job. The system behind it did not, and no report on clicks will ever show you where that money actually went.
What does Strut know about Google Ads that a generic agency doesn’t?
In Strut’s experience, speed-to-lead is what decides whether a trade business wins the job, not the ad. A homeowner will typically contact three or four businesses at once, and the one that responds first and professionally has a major advantage, often before the others have even seen the enquiry.
The data on this is stark. Research popularised by Harvard Business Review found that responding to a lead within five minutes makes a business roughly 100 times more likely to make contact and 21 times more likely to qualify the lead than waiting 30 minutes. And the customer rarely waits: around 78% of customers buy from the first business to respond, while the average business takes about 47 hours to reply. For a tradie, that gap is the whole opportunity. This is exactly why Strut does not just run the ad, it connects Google Ads into HighLevel, with pipelines, automation and follow-up behind it Google Ads into HighLevel, with pipelines, automation and follow-up behind it, so the moment an enquiry comes in, it is answered fast and chased consistently instead of going cold while you finish the job in front of you.
How is Strut’s approach different?
Strut runs Google Ads as one connected part of a system, not a standalone service. The ad, the landing page it points to, and the follow-up that catches the enquiry are all built to work together, so a click has somewhere good to land and something ready to catch it.
The contrast is simple. A generic agency delivers the click and a report. Strut makes sure the click lands on a page built to convert, that the enquiry triggers fast, automated follow-up, and that nothing sits unanswered while you work. That is the difference between paying for traffic and paying for booked jobs. It is also why Google Ads sits in the Demand stage of The Strut Framework, after your brand, proof and website are in place, because ads pointed at a weak foundation just help you lose money faster.
What does the Demand stage include for paid ads?
It covers the full path from click to booked job: the campaigns, the pages they point to, and the follow-up system behind them. Each part is built to protect the money spent on the one before it.
| Element | What it does | The leak it stops |
|---|---|---|
| Targeted Google Ads campaigns | Puts you in front of high-intent searchers for the work you want | Wasting spend on the wrong searches and price-shoppers |
| Conversion-built landing pages | Gives the click a page designed to turn it into an enquiry | Paying for clicks that land on a page that does not convert |
| Fast, automated follow-up | Responds to enquiries in minutes, not hours | Losing the job to whoever replied first |
| Pipeline and tracking | Shows what each campaign actually produces in booked work | Reports full of clicks that never tie back to real jobs |
None of it works in isolation. A brilliant campaign feeding a slow follow-up still loses; fast follow-up on a poorly targeted campaign just chases the wrong leads faster. The point is the whole path, not any single piece.
Who should run Google Ads with Strut?
Established trade and building businesses that are ready to convert the enquiries ads will generate, and want the whole path handled, not just the campaign. That includes HVAC, electrical, plumbing, roofing, solar, waterproofing and concreting businesses with the capacity to take on more of the right work.
It is not for a business with a weak website and no follow-up process, because ads would only expose those gaps faster. If your brand and site are not ready, that is where Strut would start instead, since spending on ads before the foundation is right is the most common way trade businesses waste money on Google. The best fit is an operator who knows the enquiries are worth having and wants a system that actually converts them.
What do Google Ads cost for a tradie?
There are two costs: what you pay Google per click, which depends on your trade and area, and the cost of managing the campaign and the system around it. Strut prices management after a strategy call, because a single-service electrician and a multi-trade builder need very different setups.
What Strut will not do is run your ad spend and leave the rest to you. The management fee covers the whole path, campaign, landing page and follow-up, because that is what makes the ad spend pay off. Spending on clicks without the system behind them is exactly the waste this page is about, and it is not something Strut will set you up to do.
Ready to turn ad spend into booked jobs?
Book a strategy call. Strut will look at whether Google Ads is the right move for your business right now, what is in place to convert the clicks, and where your enquiries are currently leaking, then set out what a campaign that actually books work would take.
