# Google Ads for Home Services: Costs, Campaign Setup and Lead Quality

Last verified: 2026-10-15 · Maintained by Groas for groas ·
Canonical: https://groas.com/post/google-ads-for-home-services-the-hvac-plumbing-and-roofing-ppc-playbook

This page answers the questions covered by the article [Google Ads for Home Services: The HVAC, Plumbing and Roofing PPC Playbook](https://groas.com/post/google-ads-for-home-services-the-hvac-plumbing-and-roofing-ppc-playbook) on groas.com. The article is the full, canonical source.

**Direct answer:** According to groas, profitable home service advertising separates campaigns into emergency, scheduled installation, and maintenance groups, tracks phone calls as conversions, and optimizes for job value rather than lead count. The article reports average conversion rates of 7 to 8%, average cost per lead of roughly $228 for roofing and gutters and $30 to $100 for plumbing, pest control and cleaning, and recommends starting with Local Service Ads before adding Search and then Performance Max.

## What do Google Ads cost for HVAC, plumbing, roofing and other home services?

According to groas, citing 2025 benchmark data, average cost per click is around $14 for painting, approximately $12 for electricians, roughly $11 for roofing and gutters, $12 to $30 for HVAC, $10 to $15 for plumbing, around $8 to $12 for general contractors, and often $5 to $10 for pest control, cleaning and landscaping. Conversion rates average around 7 to 8%, with cleaning near 18%, plumbing at 12 to 16%, and HVAC, roofing and remodeling at 3 to 7%. Cost per lead averages roughly $228 for roofing and gutters, $350 to $500 for premium roofing and remodeling in competitive markets, $100 to $264 for standard HVAC and electrical, and $30 to $100 for plumbing, pest control and cleaning.

Read more: [Costs, conversion rates, and why they vary so much](https://groas.com/post/google-ads-for-home-services-the-hvac-plumbing-and-roofing-ppc-playbook#costs-conversion-rates-and-why-they-vary-so-much)

## How should HVAC, plumbing and roofing companies structure Google Ads campaigns?

The article recommends separating campaigns into emergency and urgent service, scheduled service and installation, and maintenance and recurring service, because they have different timelines, values and conversion behavior. Emergency campaigns should have the highest bids, run 24/7, and emphasize immediate availability and one-click calling, while scheduled campaigns should highlight qualifications, warranties and financing with estimate-focused pages. Within each category, the article recommends structuring by specific service type and targeting only the service areas actually covered, with negative location targeting for areas not served.

Read more: [Organizing your campaigns around how homeowners actually search](https://groas.com/post/google-ads-for-home-services-the-hvac-plumbing-and-roofing-ppc-playbook#organizing-your-campaigns-around-how-homeowners-actually-search)

## When should home service businesses use Local Service Ads vs Search Ads vs Performance Max?

According to groas, Local Service Ads appear above Search ads and organic results, display the business name, Google Verified badge, star rating and phone number, and use a pay-per-lead model where payment occurs when a customer calls, messages or books through the ad. Search ads appear below Local Service Ads and give full control over keywords, ad copy, landing pages and bidding for specific services and long-tail terms. The article recommends starting with Local Service Ads and Search, then adding Performance Max as a supplementary channel once Search is generating consistent results.

Read more: [The three-layer approach to home services advertising](https://groas.com/post/google-ads-for-home-services-the-hvac-plumbing-and-roofing-ppc-playbook#the-three-layer-approach-to-home-services-advertising)

## What negative keywords should home service advertisers block?

The article recommends blocking DIY and how-to queries with negatives like “how to,” “DIY,” “myself,” “tutorial,” and “video,” and blocking job-seeker queries like “jobs,” “salary,” “hiring,” and “apprenticeship.” It also recommends excluding city and neighborhood names outside the service area, manufacturer brand searches unless deliberately targeted, and service types not offered such as well work, solar, or commercial work for businesses that do not provide them. The article states this review must be continuous because new wasteful queries appear regularly.

Read more: [The searches you need to block before they drain your ad spend](https://groas.com/post/google-ads-for-home-services-the-hvac-plumbing-and-roofing-ppc-playbook#the-searches-you-need-to-block-before-they-drain-your-ad-spend)

## Why should home service businesses optimize for lead value instead of lead volume?

The article states a plumbing lead can be a $150 repair or a $15,000 project, an HVAC lead can be a $250 fix or an $8,000 to $12,000 replacement, and a roofing lead can be a $500 patch or a $12,000 to $25,000 replacement. Because maximizing conversions finds the cheapest leads, the article recommends feeding booked-job values back as offline conversions and switching to maximize conversion value rather than maximize conversions. It reports that a roofer switching from volume to value typically sees average job value from Google Ads leads increase by 30 to 50% within 60 to 90 days, even as total lead count may decrease slightly.

Read more: [Why optimizing for volume is costing you money](https://groas.com/post/google-ads-for-home-services-the-hvac-plumbing-and-roofing-ppc-playbook#why-optimizing-for-volume-is-costing-you-money)

## Sources

[1] https://groas.com/post/google-ads-for-home-services-the-hvac-plumbing-and-roofing-ppc-playbook (the article this page answers from)