Google Ads Keywords: Which Ones Are Actually Worth Paying For

I've lost count of the plumbers who've told me Google Ads doesn't work. Then I look in their account and it turns out it was working fine — it was just showing their ad to the wrong people. Google will spend your money on absolutely anything you let it. Point it at the right searches and it's the best salesperson you'll ever hire. Point it at the wrong ones and it's a very polite way to set fire to £600 a month.

So this is really a post about keywords, because that's where nearly every campaign is won or lost.

One question sorts almost everything

Before I add a single keyword I ask myself one thing about the person typing it: are they ready to pay someone today?

Somebody googling "emergency plumber near me" at seven in the morning has water coming through a light fitting. They're getting the wallet out. Somebody googling "how to fix a dripping tap" has a spanner in one hand and no intention of paying you a penny. Same trade, completely different person. You want the first one and you want to stay well away from the second.

The searches I'd happily pay for

The good ones nearly all have a person looking for a person, not for information:

• Anything urgent — "emergency plumber Birmingham", "burst pipe repair", "24 hour plumber". The clicks aren't cheap, but these people ring the first believable number and rarely shop around, so I don't mind.
• A job plus a place — "boiler installation Coventry", "bathroom fitter Leicester". You know exactly what they want and that they want somebody local.
• Named kit — "Worcester Bosch boiler repair", "combi replacement". These people have done a bit of homework and they're choosing an installer.
• Commercial and landlord work — "commercial plumber", "landlord gas safety certificate". Lower volume, but often the start of a customer who keeps coming back.

The searches quietly draining your budget

The ones I want off the list are just as predictable. Anything starting "how to" or "why is my" is a DIYer who'll read and leave. "Cheapest plumber" and "plumber prices" are people ringing five firms to play you off against each other. And a bare one-word term like "plumber" or "boiler" — Google reads those so loosely you'll end up in front of half the internet.

The one that catches everybody out: bidding on jobs you don't even want. If you don't fit bathrooms, don't advertise on bathrooms, no matter how cheap the clicks look. Cheap clicks for work you can't do are still wasted money.

Negatives are half the job, and nobody does them

A negative keyword is you telling Google "never show me for this." Almost every wasteful account I inherit has none set up at all, and it's usually where most of the money's been going.

If you run a plumbing business, start blocking these today: free, DIY, how to, course, training, jobs, salary, apprenticeship, second hand, wholesale, parts, screwfix. Add "jobs" and "salary" in particular — you'd be amazed how much budget disappears on people looking for employment rather than a plumber.

Match types without the jargon

Match type is just how literally Google takes your keyword. Broad match gives it the most freedom and, trust me, it uses every bit of it — leave that one alone until you're actually making money. Phrase match, where you wrap the words in quotes, is a sensible everyday setting. Exact match, in square brackets, is the tightest of the lot and it's where I put the handful of terms I know produce phone calls. Start tight, loosen up later once you can see what's working.

Be honest about your radius

If you wouldn't drive forty minutes for a call-out on a wet Tuesday, don't advertise forty minutes out. Big radiuses feel like more opportunity and they're mostly more waste. Set it to the area you'd genuinely turn out for.

How you actually know it's working

Ignore clicks and impressions. They tell you almost nothing. Count phone calls, and work back from what a customer's worth to you — which I go into properly in working out what a customer is worth.

Here's the maths I care about. If a boiler install puts £400 of profit in your pocket, and it takes twenty clicks at £4 a click to land one, you've spent £80 to make £400. All day long. If it takes a hundred clicks to land one, it's not working, and no amount of clever ad wording fixes a bad keyword list.

If you'd rather not spend three months learning all this the expensive way, that's the bit we do for people. Give us a shout and we'll tell you straight whether it's even worth it for your business.