Horton Taylor runs Google Ads for tradies across New Zealand. We recommend a starting ad budget of $900 to $1,500 a month paid straight to Google, with management quoted on top. Campaigns are split between emergency work and planned work, because the two get searched, priced and booked very differently. A free 15-minute call gets you a straight number.
When someone searches "emergency plumber" or "builder near me", you want to be the first call. We run Google Ads for tradies that put you in front of people ready to hire right now.
Already running ads? Start with a free Google Ads audit and we'll show you where the budget is leaking.
Sound familiar?
Referrals are unpredictable and you need a steadier pipeline
You tried Google Ads yourself and burned money on tyre-kickers
You don’t know which leads are actually coming from where
You’re on the tools all day and have no time to manage campaigns
Are Google Ads really worth it for a trade business?
Yes, for most trades with local demand, because Google Ads is the only channel that reaches someone at the moment they have decided to hire. Someone typing "blocked drain Tauranga" at 7am is not browsing, they are choosing who to ring. You pay for the last click before the phone rings.
It stops being worth it when the plumbing behind the ad is broken: no call tracking, no negative keywords, a page that takes six seconds on mobile data. That is a setup problem, not Google Ads failing. Take the free Google Ads audit before you spend another dollar.
Mitch runs every account personally from Mount Maunganui.
Emergency work and planned work need two different campaigns
Most trade accounts should be split in two, because the two halves behave nothing alike. Emergency work is high urgency and low patience: burst pipe, no power, roof leaking, blocked drain. It converts in minutes on a phone, to whoever answers first, so it gets call-focused campaigns and a tight radius.
Planned work is the opposite. Bathroom renovation, rewire, new build, re-roof. Someone researches for two or three weeks then compares three quotes, so clicks cost more and need a real page with photos of finished work. Each half gets its own budget, which is also how you control how busy you are.
Separate campaigns and budgets for emergency and planned work, so one cannot starve the other
Call-only and call-extension ads on urgent terms, because urgent customers ring rather than fill in forms
Ad scheduling around when you actually answer the phone, not 24/7 by default
Service-area targeting by suburb so you stop paying for jobs outside your run
A tight radius on urgent terms, so you are not driving 45 minutes for a callout you cannot charge for
Flat out on the tools we throttle the planned-work campaign, and quiet three weeks out we do the reverse
Negative keyword lists built for trades: jobs, courses, apprenticeships, DIY, wholesale, salary
What do Google Ads leads typically cost a tradie in New Zealand?
Nobody can honestly promise a cost per lead before the account has run, so here are the ranges. A click on local trade searches costs $2 to $12, and on a page doing its job one in ten to one in fifteen of those clicks becomes a call or a form.
That puts a typical trade lead between $25 and $120. What decides it is cost per job: three leads to win one on a $1,200 job makes a $70 lead cheap, and on a $180 job it does not. How much Google Ads cost in NZ has the detail.
You work directly with Mitch.
Horton Taylor · Tauranga & Mount Maunganui
How to advertise as a tradesman without burning your budget
Start narrow. The instinct is to advertise everything you do across the whole region on day one, and that is the fastest way to spend $1,000 learning nothing. Pick the one or two services with the best margin and clearest demand, prove they produce jobs, then widen out.
Google Ads is not the whole answer either. It captures people already searching. Winning the rest takes a website that converts, follow-up on quotes that go quiet, and a job management system so enquiries stop falling through the cracks. That wider picture is marketing for tradies.
Search terms reviewed weekly, with anything irrelevant added as a negative keyword
Conversion tracking that counts calls over 30 seconds and form submissions, so the algorithm chases enquiries
Location targeting set to people physically in your service area, not people "interested in" it, which is Google’s default
The ad matched to the page, so a roof repairs ad lands on a roof repairs page rather than the homepage
Which trades does this work best for?
It works best where the job is urgent, local and worth more than a couple of hundred dollars. Plumbers, drainlayers, electricians, roofers, glaziers, locksmiths and heat pump installers all have genuine emergency demand. Builders, painters, landscapers, fencers, house washers and window cleaners work too, on a slower funnel.
Where we tell people not to bother is low-value, low-frequency work with no local search demand, or a business with no capacity to answer the phone. Ads generate calls, and if those calls go to voicemail the money is gone. That conversation happens before you sign anything.
More booked jobs, less guesswork.
Horton Taylor · Tauranga & Mount Maunganui
What you get
Campaigns targeting high-intent "ready to hire now" searches, not broad brand terms
Separate emergency and planned-work funnels with their own budgets and ads
Call-focused ads and call tracking so you can hear which keywords produce jobs
Conversion tracking that ties spend to actual enquiries, not clicks
Suburb-level service-area targeting so you don’t pay for jobs you can’t take
Weekly search-term reviews and negative keywords to keep cost per lead down
What that means for you
Leads on tap when you need more work
A clear cost per lead and per job
More control over how busy you are
How it works
Our Google Ads process
01
Free audit or intro call
If you already run ads, we start with the free Google Ads audit and show you where the spend is leaking. If you don’t, it is a 15-minute call about your trade, your service area and what a good month looks like.
02
Split the funnels
We build emergency and planned-work campaigns separately, with their own budgets, ads, hours and service areas, so the urgent searches cannot swallow the whole budget.
03
Wire up tracking
Call tracking, form tracking and conversion values go in before the ads switch on. Without this you are guessing, and guessing is what made ads expensive last time.
04
Cut the waste, scale what works
Weekly search-term reviews, negatives, bid and budget shifts toward the services that are producing quoted jobs. You get your spend, your enquiry count and your cost per lead every month.
Where we work
Areas we serve
Mitch is based in Mount Maunganui, so the Bay of Plenty is the home patch, but Google Ads is run remotely and we manage trade accounts across New Zealand. Targeting is set to the suburbs and towns you actually service.
The team had deep expertise in rideshare tax but no real marketing infrastructure. Revenue was happening, but with no visibility into lead sources, no conversion tracking, and no structured way to scale acquisition.
What we did
Set up end-to-end tracking and attribution via Google Tag Manager so every decision could be data-led.
Rebuilt the Google and Meta campaigns around high-intent targeting and conversion objectives.
Created a niche lead magnet (Tax Guide for Uber Drivers) to capture and qualify prospects.
What happened
250 Facebook lead-form leads at an $11 average cost
200+ website leads at a $12 average cost
900+ tax-guide downloads at $1.50 each
~20% lead-to-client conversion rate
"Mitch gave us real clarity on what to focus on and what to fix. The Tax Guide and Facebook ads strategy especially made a huge difference. It's given us the confidence to grow properly."
"Mitch has been a god send to my window cleaning business! We’ve been working together for just over two months and in that short time we’ve doubled the jobs coming through and implemented software and systems that make admin a breeze. Can’t recommend Horton Taylor enough!"
Hogan Duke, Duke Property Services
"Couldn’t be happier with the results we have been getting from Mitch and Horton Taylor. Our customer rebookings have gone through the roof and our calendar is booked out even in the slow months."
Kyle G, Reflections Window Cleaning
Questions we get about Google Ads for tradies
How much do Google Ads cost for a tradie in NZ?
The ad spend is the bulk of it, and it goes straight to Google on your own card. We recommend starting on $900 to $1,500 a month, roughly $30 to $50 a day, which buys enough clicks to learn from inside the first month. On local trade searches we typically see clicks between $2 and $12, which puts a lead somewhere between $25 and $120 depending on your trade and your area. Management sits on top as a flat monthly fee, quoted to how many services and towns you want covered, and you get that number on a free 15-minute call. There is a fuller breakdown of the market rates in our guide to Google Ads costs in NZ.
Is $10 a day enough to get jobs?
Usually not for a trade, no. At $10 a day you are buying roughly one to four clicks daily on local trade terms, which is not enough data for Google to optimise on and not enough volume to give you a reliable read within a month. It can work for one very narrow emergency service in one small town. For anything broader, $30 to $50 a day is the honest floor, and we would rather tell you that up front than let you drip $10 a day for a year and blame the algorithm.
Will Google Ads work for my trade?
For most trades with local demand, yes: plumbers, drainlayers, electricians, builders, roofers, painters, landscapers, glaziers, house washers and window cleaners all have searchable intent behind them. It works best where jobs are urgent or worth more than a few hundred dollars. If your work is low value with no local search volume, we will say so on the free call instead of selling you a campaign. Paid search is one of five channels worth a trade business's money, and the rest are set out in how to get more leads for a trade business in NZ.
How fast do leads start coming in?
Usually within the first one to two weeks of going live, once tracking and targeting are dialled in. Emergency campaigns produce calls fastest, sometimes on day one. Planned-work campaigns take longer to read properly because people research for two or three weeks before they enquire, so give those a month before judging them.
Does Google Ads charge GST in New Zealand?
Yes. Google charges GST on NZ ad spend and it appears on your Google Ads invoice, so a $1,000 spend month costs $1,150 including GST. Our management fee is also plus GST. If you are GST registered you claim both back as normal, but budget on the GST-inclusive figure so the invoice is not a surprise.
Can you handle the calls or the quoting too?
No, we get you the enquiry and you win the job. What we can do is stop enquiries going cold: email and SMS follow-up on quotes that have gone quiet, and ServiceM8 set up so jobs and quotes stop living in your texts. Mitch is a ServiceM8 Certified Partner, so see ServiceM8 setup and support if that side is the actual bottleneck.
Google Ads or Facebook ads for a tradie?
Google Ads first, almost always. It catches people who have already decided to hire someone, which is the cheapest job to win. Facebook and Instagram ads are better for showing off finished work, seasonal offers and staying in front of past customers, so they suit planned work and visual trades. Most trade businesses end up running both, and the sequencing is covered in marketing for tradies.
Is there a lock-in contract, and who owns the account?
No lock-in, everything is month-to-month, and the Google Ads account is yours. It stays in your name with your billing on it, so if you ever leave you keep the account, the history and the data. We would rather earn the next month than trap you in a twelve-month term.
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Let's talk.
Tell us about your business and we'll get back to you within one business day, or call Mitch on 027 412 1176.
