WEEK 1
Audit and access.
We get into your Google account (or build one inside yours, not ours) and run a full audit — search terms, spend, conversion tracking, landing pages. You get a written brief of what we find before we touch anything.
Step 1
GOOGLE ADS
Booked jobs from search intent.
Scalepoint is a Melbourne Google Ads agency specialising in trades and local service businesses. Someone types "emergency plumber Brunswick" at 11pm — we make sure your phone rings, not your competitor's. Search ads pay back faster than any other channel for trades and local services, with 66% of plumbing searches in Australia now happening on mobile (Google, Q1 2026).
WHAT IS GOOGLE ADS MANAGEMENT
Google Ads management for trades businesses — what it actually means.
Google Ads management is the ongoing work of running paid search campaigns that show your business at the top of Google when someone in your suburb searches for your trade. For a Melbourne trades business, that means suburb-targeted search campaigns, call tracking wired up from day one, weekly optimisation of keywords and bids, and a plain-English report every week showing cost per job — not vanity metrics. At Scalepoint, everything is built inside your Google account, not ours. You own the campaigns, the data, and the conversion history from day one.
WHY SEARCH INTENT WINS
The person searching is ready to buy.
Google Ads for trades businesses works because the intent is explicit. SEO takes months to compound. Social media interrupts people who were not looking for you. Google Ads puts your business in front of someone who is actively searching for your exact trade, in the exact suburb you work, right now. According to Google's own data for the Australian plumbing vertical (Q1 2026), ad opportunities in this category grew 6% year-on-year with clicks up 15% — demand from trades customers on Google is accelerating, not slowing down. For trades and local services businesses in Melbourne, no paid channel converts faster or more predictably.
66%
of plumbing searches in Australia happen on mobile — your ads need to be there (Google internal data, Q1 2026)
15%
YoY growth in plumbing clicks on Google in Australia — demand is accelerating (Google internal data, Q1 2026)
9
average cost per lead for a multi-location roof plumbing business across all digital channels (Scalepoint client, 2025–26)
MOBILE-FIRST CAMPAIGNS
Two thirds of your customers are searching on their phone.
Google's Australian plumbing vertical data for Q1 2026 shows 66% of all ad opportunities coming from mobile devices, up 10% year-on-year. For trades businesses, this means the person searching "blocked drain Footscray" is standing in their kitchen with their phone. Your ad needs to load fast, your landing page needs to be mobile-optimised, and your phone number needs to be one tap away. We build campaigns with mobile-first bidding, call extensions on every ad, and landing pages that load in under 2 seconds on 4G.
HOW IT WORKS
Week one to booked jobs.
Most Google Ads agencies take weeks to get campaigns live and months before you see a number that means anything. Our onboarding is structured around getting real data fast — because the learning phase is where most budget gets wasted, and the faster we get through it, the cheaper your leads become.
WEEK 2
Campaigns live.
Suburb-targeted search campaigns built around actual search intent, not broad match guesswork. Call tracking and form tracking wired up from day one so every job can be traced back to a keyword.
Step 2
WEEK 3
First numbers email.
Not a dashboard you have to log into. A plain-English email every week: calls, form fills, cost per job, and what we are doing about it. Numbers you can read in 60 seconds.
Step 3
ONGOING
Optimise and report.
Negative keywords tightened weekly. Bids adjusted by suburb performance. Monthly call with you to align on what counts as a quality lead and where to push harder.
Step 4
REAL RESULTS
Numbers from real campaigns.
These are not projections. They are actual results from home services and local businesses running Google Ads.
The numbers below are from real campaigns run for Australian home services and local businesses. Industry, result, and timeline are accurate. Business names are withheld at client request.
Roof Plumbing
71
leads per month (3-month average)
9
CPL across all channels
Starting from zero digital marketing. Hit 155% of monthly lead target by month two and has sustained above-target performance every month since.
Swimming Pool Construction
4
cost per acquisition
165
leads per month average
110% increase in lead volume within the first two months of rebuilding the campaign structure. Client now booked two months ahead and has expanded into WA.
Mortgage Broker
240%
increase in leads in 6 months
2
competitive CPL
Small budget competing against major banks. Social plus Microsoft Search campaign combination delivered consistent 30+ inbound leads per month with high conversion quality.
GOOGLE ADS VS SEO
Which channel is right for you — or is it both?
| Google Ads | SEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to first lead | Days to weeks | 3–12 months |
| Cost per lead | Pay per click — variable | Near zero once ranking |
| Control | Turn on/off instantly | Cannot rank on demand |
| Best for | Immediate job flow, new businesses | Long-term cost reduction |
| Compound over time | No — cost per lead stays similar | Yes — improves month on month |
Most established trades businesses benefit from running both. Google Ads fills the pipeline immediately while SEO builds a parallel channel that earns leads at zero marginal cost over time. Clients who run both through Scalepoint typically see overall cost per lead drop 30–50% within 12 months as SEO matures and reduces reliance on paid spend.
WHY SCALEPOINT
What makes this different.
Most Melbourne Google Ads agencies manage your campaigns inside their own account, report on metrics that do not map to actual jobs booked, and lock you into 12-month contracts. Scalepoint was built around the opposite approach.
YOUR ACCOUNT
Built inside your account.
We never hold your campaigns hostage inside our MCC. Everything is built in your Google account. If you leave, you keep everything — the campaigns, the data, the conversion history.
SUBURB TARGETING
Targeted to where you actually work.
Trades businesses do not need national reach. We build campaigns around the suburbs and radii where your jobs come from, not where Google thinks you should advertise.
CALL TRACKING
Every call traced to a keyword.
Dynamic call tracking tells us which campaigns, ad groups, and keywords are booking jobs — not just generating clicks. We optimise to cost-per-job, not cost-per-click.
WEEKLY REPORTING
Numbers email every week.
Not a 40-slide deck once a month. A short email every week with the numbers that matter: calls, form fills, cost per lead, and what changed. Read it in 60 seconds.
READY WHEN YOU ARE
A one-page audit of your Google Ads and top three suburbs.
No call required. Tell us your trade and service area — we send back a written audit within 3 business days showing where your Google Ads budget is leaking.
FAQ
Common questions about Google Ads
It depends on your suburb, trade, and how many jobs you want per month. A plumber targeting 3-4 suburbs in Melbourne can generate consistent leads from ,500–,500/month in ad spend. We tell you the realistic number for your situation before you commit to anything.
Most clients see enquiries in the first week. The first 30 days is the learning phase — Google's algorithm is gathering data on what converts. By month two, cost per lead typically drops 20–40% as the campaign optimises.
We audit it first — usually free. Most underperforming accounts have three or four fixable issues: too-broad match types, missing negative keywords, no conversion tracking, or campaigns targeting the wrong intent. We tell you what we find before changing anything.
No. Month-to-month always. 30 days notice to cancel. We keep clients by performing, not by paperwork.
Yours. Always. Your account, your data, your conversion history. You own everything we build. This is non-negotiable for us — agency-owned accounts are a red flag.
Yes. For most trades and local services, Search is the primary campaign type because the intent is explicit. We add Performance Max where it makes sense — typically for businesses with multiple service lines or ecommerce components — but we never run it just to spend more budget.
Plumbers, electricians, builders, roofers, HVAC, landscapers, cleaners, pool builders, and most other local service businesses. If someone searches for your service in a suburb, we can make you show up.
Three things: we specialise in trades and local services so we know the search intent, the CPC benchmarks, and the seasonality. We build inside your account, not ours. And we report on cost-per-job, not impressions and click-through rates.