Google Ads for plumbing companies. Is your account booking the big jobs?
Drain cleaning clicks look cheap until you price the job. I audit your Google Ads, show you where the money actually goes, and tell you what I'd change to put more of it on water heater, sewer line and repipe work. No pitch. You keep the report.
Takes 24-48 hours. You keep the report regardless.
Running Google Ads since 2007, with a consulting background at CarMax, Adobe, Citrix, NetApp and Rackspace. Google Partner.
- "Plumber near me" gets about 823,000 searches a month, at the highest click prices
- Water heater installation searches cost less per click, for a much bigger job
- The audit checks whether your account bids differently on the two
Based on market data from Google Keyword Planner, United States, October 2026: the low and high top-of-page bid for each search.
The cheap clicks are the expensive ones.
Plumbing searches range from a quick drain call to a full repipe. An account that treats them the same spends most of its budget on the small jobs.
Click costs are top of page bid ranges from Google Keyword Planner, US data, September 2026.
Four things that decide whether plumbing ads pay off.
Every audit covers the whole account, but these four areas decide how much of the budget reaches the jobs worth having.
Search Terms
"Cheap plumber," DIY, parts, jobs and towns you don't serve. I pull the full search terms report and show you what's recoverable each month.
Emergency vs. Planned Work
Whether emergency calls and planned jobs like water heater replacements share one campaign. When they do, one starves the other.
Service Area and Schedule
Whether the radius matches where your trucks can get to fast, and whether ads and bids are set up to catch night and weekend emergencies.
Calls and Tracking
Whether calls from ads are tracked, whether they're answered, and whether the bidding is steered by real calls and bookings rather than map clicks.
What plumbing clicks actually cost.
US monthly search volume and top of page bid ranges, pulled from Google Keyword Planner in September 2026.
| Search term | Monthly searches | Top of page bid |
|---|---|---|
| plumber near me | 823,000 | $10.01 to $80.29 |
| drain cleaning | 90,500 | $5.98 to $53.50 |
| emergency plumber | 60,500 | $22.50 to $109.66 |
| water heater replacement | 49,500 | $6.21 to $54.77 |
| 24 hour plumber | 8,100 | $19.87 to $97.49 |
| sewer line replacement | 4,400 | $7.70 to $56.37 |
| repiping | 2,400 | $19.98 to $100.00 |
Local Services Ads or Search first?
It's the question every plumber asks me, and the honest answer is that the order is decided for you.
LSA can't start right away
Google requires a verified Business Profile, an active trade license, liability insurance, business registration and background checks. Plumbing is an urgent category with extra screening. Published timelines run three to four weeks, and some take longer.
LSA ranking runs on reviews
Google lists your rating, number of reviews and response time as profile quality factors. A newer company has the thinnest review profile in its market, which is exactly when LSA performs worst.
So Search runs first
Search is the only channel that puts a call in front of you in week one. Those calls become jobs, jobs become reviews, and the reviews make LSA work once verification clears.
Three steps. 48 hours. No fluff.
I keep it simple on purpose. The point is for you to understand what I found, not to sit through a 60-minute presentation.
Share read-only access
You grant read-only access to your Google Ads account. Takes about two minutes. I can't make changes or see billing details. Just the campaign data.
2 minutesI pull the data and build the report
I review search terms, emergency and planned-work campaigns, service area, ad schedule and call tracking. You get a complete written report, not a slide deck with screenshots.
24-48 hoursReview it. Decide what's next.
I walk you through the findings on a video call. If the numbers don't justify hiring me, I'll tell you that. You keep the report either way.
Your callBuilt for residential plumbing companies.
Plumbing companies running Google Ads who want more of the big jobs, not just more calls.
Owner-Run Plumbing Companies
One to a few trucks, where the owner still keeps an eye on the ad spend.
- Busy with drain calls, short on big jobs
- Paying for leads outside your area
- Missing calls at night and on weekends
- Not sure which ads bring booked jobs
- Managing the account yourself at night
Multi-Truck Plumbing Companies
Growing companies with crews to keep busy and a bigger budget to steer.
- Emergency and planned work in one campaign
- Feast-or-famine weeks
- Paying an agency without clear reporting
- Adding a new location or service area
- Deciding between LSA and Search
Cost per lead, month by month.
A multi-location residential cleaning company running Local Services Ads and Search had the same problem most contractors have: too much spend chasing traffic that was never going to book. Lead volume stayed roughly flat on about a third less spend by the third month.
That was an existing account with real problems to repair, so the gains came from fixing what was broken. A brand new build doesn't have that headroom, and its first 90 days look slower.
Common Questions
It depends heavily on the search. Google Keyword Planner data from September 2026 puts top of page bids for "plumber near me" at $10.01 to $80.29, "emergency plumber" at $22.50 to $109.66, and "drain cleaning" at $5.98 to $53.50. The cheapest clicks are often the most expensive ones: a $99 drain call at a 20% close rate needs five clicks before it earns anything, while a sewer line replacement click pays for itself on the first booking.
Start with Search, then add Local Services Ads. Local Services Ads need a verified Business Profile, an active license, insurance, business registration and background checks, and plumbing gets extra screening as an urgent category, so approval typically takes three to four weeks. Local Services Ads also rank on reviews. Search puts calls in front of you in week one, those calls become jobs and reviews, and the reviews are what make Local Services Ads work once verification clears.
Usually because the campaign bids on searches like "cheap plumber near me" and the ad copy does nothing to screen them out. I target searches from people who need help now, such as "burst pipe," "sewer line replacement" and "water heater emergency," lead the ad copy with licensed, insured, premium service, and use negative keywords to block price searches. Most bargain hunters move on before they cost you a click.
Usually not. At $80 a click, a $4,000 monthly budget buys roughly 50 clicks. Spread across an entire metro, that budget is invisible everywhere. Concentrated in the towns your trucks can reach quickly, the same budget can compete.
Yes, if the account is built for it. Plumbing emergencies do not happen 9 to 5, so I set up landing pages and bidding to capture midnight and weekend calls, and I keep emergency work and planned work in separate campaigns so one does not starve the other.
Yes. No credit card, no trial, no catch. I pull your account data, build the report, and walk you through it at no cost. If you want to work together after that, we can talk about it. If not, you keep the report.
It's a fixed monthly fee, quoted up front, never a percentage of your ad spend. The amount depends on your budget and how complex the account is, and the free audit is where I'll tell you honestly whether management makes sense for your budget.
That's fine and more common than you'd think. The audit is independent of whoever is managing your account. You'll get an honest read on what's working and what isn't. What you do with that information is completely up to you.
Read-only access to your Google Ads account. That means you add me as a read-only user. I can see your campaign data but cannot make changes, see your billing, or access anything outside of Google Ads. Takes about two minutes to set up. I'll send instructions when you submit the form.
Find out how much of your budget reaches the big jobs.
Takes 2 minutes to request. Report delivered in 24-48 hours. No cost, no commitment.
No long-term contracts. I work month-to-month, and you can cancel anytime.
"High Priority Marketing consistently outperformed all other agencies, delivering a steady flow of leads at a highly competitive price per lead."
David B.
Bellandi Group
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