Google Ads can be complicated to learn, optimise and master — especially if you’re in the home improvement industry and wearing multiple hats in your business. If you have no specialist knowledge about how to make Google Ads work for you, it can feel like hitting your head against a brick wall.
If you’re trying to break into the competitive world of Google Ads while juggling job site deadlines and client demands, it might seem impossible to see results, especially when your competitors seem to be thriving. But before you throw your hands up in the air and declare that Google Ads “just doesn’t work for me” take a look through my five reasons Google Ads isn’t working for you, and how to change it.
Just in case you’re a true beginner, a short tail keyword is a search term like “contractor services”, whereas a long tail keyword equivalent of this would be “luxury home renovation contractor London”. So, if you’re going straight for the most simple, easy-to-think-of keywords and phrases these are often too broad and conversion costs too much to see satisfactory results.
The best way to choose keywords is to choose terms that people search for when they are specifically looking for something. If you’re a general building contractor specialising in luxury home renovations, for example, a long-tail keyword like “luxury home renovation contractor in London” or “high-end kitchen remodel service” will attract more targeted traffic and they may cost less and will convert at a higher rate.
This is often where beginners fail because they go straight for the obvious and see no results. You want to go directly to your ideal audience by narrowing the net you cast.
Another common problem for new marketers is that they jump into Google Ads, create a few Google-recommended campaigns and sit back for weeks or even months to see what works with no real thought to what they’re doing, and then wonder why they aren’t seeing results.
The thing is, setting up and running Google Ads online is easy, but doing it well still requires the strategy and thought of any other marketing campaign. Google Ads is great because it makes it easy for contractors to market to a very specific group of people they otherwise wouldn’t be able to, but the problem is that the ease of it sometimes stops people from taking it seriously until they’ve lost money, by which point they’ve been burned and don’t want to try again.
It’s critical you take your Google Ads campaigns seriously. Spend time before you set up any campaigns to ensure you know your perfect customer inside out, know what terms are being searched for that relate directly to your offer, and what they search for in relation to the problem you solve. When you do set up your campaigns do it thoughtfully and give them a couple of days/weeks to settle in before you tweak them.
Often, people new to Google Ads set CTR (click-through-rate) and ROI (return on investment) goals way before they actually know what’s possible and when they get disappointing results, they believe Google Ads is a waste of money. You need to make sure you are optimising your campaigns and settings whenever possible and working to keep conversion costs down.
The great thing about Google Ads is that it lets you track your leads and sales directly or through Google Analytics, so you can measure what is working. You should know what kind of return you need from all your sales and understand that one customer, if they return to you, will offer you a better ROI though it may not be obvious to you at first glance, so set up conversion tracking properly.
You want everyone who clicks on your ad to convert once on your site. A 100% conversion rate is, likely, impossible, but it’s important to remember that it’s not just the ad doing the hard work.
It’s also the job of whatever page they land on to complete the sale and you should test this page as much as possible to find what works. We often give people a reason to bounce, especially if we’re not sending them directly to a relevant, engaging landing page
If someone clicks on an ad about your roofing services but lands on a generic homepage, they may quickly leave without taking action. Instead, create tailored landing pages for specific services—like pitched roofing, flat roofing, or roofing repair. These landing pages should address the customer’s pain points and show why your company is the best choice for their project.
It’s not just about the ad—it’s about ensuring the journey from ad to action is seamless and persuasive.
In construction, landing big projects often requires a longer sales cycle. Property owners and homeowners rarely make decisions after seeing an ad once. That’s why retargeting is critical.
Retargeting allows you to stay top of mind with those who have visited your site but haven’t taken action yet. For example, if someone clicks on your ad for “home extension builder” they may not be ready to hire right away, but with retargeting, you can ensure they see your ads again while they’re researching online, making it more likely they’ll choose you when they’re ready to move forward.
Google Ads is an awesome tool when you take the time to learn how to use it, optimise it, and tweak and test it continuously to get the very best results for your business. The time you put in will increase your CTR and eventually, your bottom line, so don’t give up just yet.
Struggling with your Google Ads campaigns for your home improvement business? Does trying to compete with your competitors on your budget and keywords feel like hitting your head against a brick wall? Before you throw your hands up in the air, book a free Google Audit with Krisz and discover actionable steps that can be implemented to improve campaign performance.