Google Ads works for electricians because electrical demand is explicit: people search for exactly the job they need, and a large share of it cannot wait. It also burns budget faster than most trades, because electrical keywords sit beside a huge volume of DIY, parts, apprenticeship and manufacturer searches. Almost all of the difference between the two outcomes is structure, and this is the build we use for Australian electrical accounts.
Split campaigns by job type
One campaign covering "electrician" is the most common and most expensive mistake. Job types have different values, different urgency and different competitors, and they need separate budgets and messaging.
- Emergency and fault finding — no power, tripping safety switch, burning smell. Highest urgency, decided on the phone.
- Switchboard upgrades and safety switches — semi-urgent, often triggered by a failure or a compliance requirement.
- EV charger installation — a research-led purchase tied to a new vehicle, with questions about single versus three phase, load and cable runs.
- Solar and battery-adjacent electrical work — inverter faults, switchboard changes for solar, EV and battery integration where you hold the relevant accreditation.
- Rewiring and renovation electrical — high value, long consideration, usually quoted against two or three competitors.
- Brand — a small, cheap campaign defending your own business name.
Separating them lets emergency budget stay with emergency demand instead of being consumed by people researching charger costs.
After-hours schedules
The most valuable hours in electrical work are the ones your competitors switch off. Overnight, weekends and public holidays carry less competition and far higher urgency, and callers at those times do not compare quotes.
One condition applies and it is absolute: only bid in hours you will answer. An after-hours schedule with an unanswered phone buys clicks and produces nothing. Set the schedule around real availability, then adjust once you can see which hours produce booked jobs rather than enquiries.
Call-only ads and call assets
For emergency campaigns the objective is a phone call, not a website visit. Call-only ads remove the landing page entirely, which suits overnight traffic where nobody is reading an about page. Run them alongside call assets on standard search ads during business hours, when some buyers will still want to check the site first.
Turn on call reporting and set the duration threshold at a length that reflects a genuine booking conversation in your business, so wrong numbers are not counted as conversions.
The negative keyword list
Build it before launch, then extend it weekly from the search terms report. Electrical accounts need exclusions across:
- DIY intent — how to, wire it myself, replace a light fitting, YouTube, wiring diagram
- Parts and products — cable, circuit breaker, downlights, Bunnings, extension lead, spare parts
- Training and employment — apprenticeship, course, licence renewal, jobs, salary, TAFE
- Manufacturer and retailer searches where the person wants the brand, not an installer
- Adjacent trades you do not offer — air conditioning, plumbing, antenna, data cabling, unless you genuinely do them
- Suburbs and regions outside your service area
- Free and cheap modifiers if you do not compete on price
A weekly ten-minute search terms review does more for cost per booked job than most bidding changes.
Match types, budgets and bidding
Start tighter than feels comfortable. Exact and phrase match on the terms you know convert, with broad match introduced only once you have a mature negative list and enough conversion data to guide it. Broad match on an electrical account with no negatives is the fastest way to fund apprenticeship and DIY searches.
Set budgets by job type rather than pooling them, so the emergency campaign cannot be starved by a busy month of charger research. On bidding, manual or maximise clicks with a firm cap is usually the right starting point while conversion volume is low; move to a conversion-based strategy only once calls are tracked properly and there is enough weekly volume for the system to learn from. Switching to automated bidding before call tracking is in place teaches the algorithm to optimise towards the wrong outcome.
Ad copy that pre-qualifies
The best-performing electrical ads do some filtering before the click. Naming the licence, the suburbs covered, the response window and whether there is a call-out fee costs a few characters and removes people who were never going to book. Sitelinks should point to the specific job-type pages rather than the homepage, and callouts are the right place for insurance, after-hours availability and years in the trade if that is a genuine differentiator.
Location targeting
Use presence targeting rather than presence-or-interest, so you pay for people physically in your service area. Set the radius by job type: emergency work has a tighter economic radius than an EV charger installation, because drive time destroys the margin on a callout.
Review location reports monthly and exclude the outer suburbs producing clicks and no booked work.
Landing pages that match the ad
Each campaign should land somewhere specific. An emergency ad should not arrive on a homepage listing twelve services. It should land on a page with the phone number visible without scrolling, the suburbs covered, the response commitment, licence number, insurance and recent reviews.
An EV charger ad needs the opposite: single versus three phase explained, what affects the cable run and cost, brands installed, what is involved on the day, and indicative pricing if you can give it. Speed matters everywhere — the traffic is mobile and often impatient, so test on a phone on mobile data rather than office wi-fi.
What to review each week
Paid search rewards a short, regular routine more than occasional deep work. Ten minutes on the search terms report adding negatives, a look at which job-type campaigns produced calls, a check of the location report for suburbs spending without booking, and a scan of the call log for wrong numbers and out-of-area enquiries. Anything beyond that can wait for the monthly review.
Call tracking and what you actually measure
Most electrical enquiries arrive by phone, so an account measured on form submissions is reading a fraction of the picture. Use dynamic number insertion so calls are attributed to campaign, keyword and suburb, and record which calls became booked jobs.
The number that matters is cost per booked job by job type. Clicks, impression share and even cost per lead can all look healthy while the account loses money, and only the booked-job figure tells you which campaigns to fund.
For how paid search fits with the rest of the plan, see our electrician marketing and SEO page and the trades marketing hub. Your organic and map pack work should share the same suburb data — Google Business Profile for electricians covers that side — and if you are still setting the budget, what electrician marketing costs in Australia explains what drives the number.
