If you’re a plumber, electrician, builder, landscaper, or any other tradie trying to keep the calendar full, you’ve probably asked yourself the same question dozens of times: should the marketing budget go into Google Ads or Facebook Ads?
It’s not an idle question. Get it wrong and you can burn through a few thousand dollars in a month with nothing to show for it except a handful of confused clicks from people who were never going to hire you. Get it right, and paid advertising becomes the most reliable lead source in the business — busier than word of mouth, and a lot less unpredictable.
The honest answer is that Google Ads and Facebook Ads solve two different problems. One captures people who already need a tradie right now. The other builds awareness and trust with people who will need one eventually. Most trade businesses only need one of them to start — and a lot of trades eventually benefit from both, run properly, working together rather than competing for the same budget.
This guide breaks down exactly how each platform works for trade businesses, what they cost in Australia in 2026, which trades tend to win with which platform, and how to think about combining the two once you’ve got the basics sorted.
Why Tradies Can’t Afford to Ignore Digital Advertising Anymore
For a long time, a trade business could survive comfortably on word of mouth, a Yellow Pages listing, and a ute with the logo on the side. That era is over, and the data backs it up plainly.
ServiceTitan’s 2025 Australian Tradies Report, which surveyed over 1,000 tradespeople and trade business owners nationally, found that roughly 70% of Australian tradies still rely on word of mouth as their primary marketing channel. Meanwhile, fewer than three in ten use Google Ads, and less than one in five invest in SEO. That’s a strange gap, because the same research (and plenty of other consumer studies) consistently shows that around 89% of Australians now search Google before they contact a local service business — even when they’ve already had a name recommended to them by a mate or a neighbour.
Read that again: even a referral gets Googled. If your business doesn’t show up when it’s searched, doesn’t have reviews, or looks like it hasn’t been touched since 2016, you can lose a job you were basically handed. That’s the quiet cost of skipping digital marketing — not that you never get found, but that you lose warm leads to a competitor who simply looks more credible online.
The flip side of that low adoption rate is opportunity. When under a third of your local competitors are running paid ads, the auction isn’t as brutal as it is in retail or e-commerce, and a modestly funded, well-managed campaign can dominate a suburb. That window won’t stay open forever — as more trade businesses catch on, costs will rise and competition will get sharper. Tradies who get their Google Ads campaigns and social presence sorted now are the ones who’ll own that position later.
How Google Ads Works for Tradies
Google Ads is built around intent. Someone searches “emergency plumber Melbourne” or “hot water repair Frankston” because they have a leaking pipe right now, not because they’re mildly curious about plumbers. That’s the single biggest advantage Google Ads has over almost every other channel: you’re not creating demand, you’re capturing it at the exact moment it exists.
For trade businesses, this typically plays out through two main formats:
Search Ads — text ads that appear above the organic results when someone searches a service-plus-location term. These work best for specific, high-intent phrases like “blocked drain [suburb]” or “switchboard upgrade [suburb],” rather than broad terms like “plumber,” which attract a lot of unqualified clicks and burn budget fast.
Local Services Ads (LSA) — Google’s pay-per-lead product built specifically for trades and home services. Instead of paying per click, you pay per verified lead (a call or message), and eligible, Google-Screened businesses get the “Google Guaranteed” badge, which sits above regular search ads and organic listings. LSAs are currently available for a growing list of Australian trade categories, and because you’re only charged when someone actually contacts you, the cost-per-lead economics are often more forgiving for smaller operators. You can check current eligibility and requirements directly through Google’s Local Services Ads program.
What Google Ads costs for trades in 2026
Cost expectations matter here, because “home services” is one of the more expensive categories on the platform — you’re competing against businesses with genuinely high job values, so the auction reflects that.
Industry benchmark data from WordStream’s 2026 Google Ads Benchmarks report puts Home and Home Improvement among the highest cost-per-click categories in the entire platform, and LocaliQ’s home services search advertising benchmarks show average CPCs for the category sitting well above the cross-industry average, with cost per lead figures that vary significantly by trade — emergency and high-ticket categories like roofing and remodelling generally cost more per lead than routine maintenance callouts.
In practice, most Australian trade businesses running a properly structured campaign can expect leads to land somewhere in the $30–$90 range, with emergency-intent keywords sitting toward the top of that band because of how competitive and valuable those searches are. That’s not cheap, but compare it to a shared lead-generation platform, where a $30–$80 lead is often sent to two or three other tradies at the same time. A Google Ads lead that comes through your own ad, to your own number, is exclusive to you — you’re not racing two competitors to call the customer back first.
The catch with Google Ads is that it rewards precision. A campaign with no negative keywords, broad match terms, and a generic landing page will absolutely spend money on people searching “how to become a plumber” or “plumber salary Melbourne.” A tightly built campaign, with proper location targeting, exact and phrase match keywords, call extensions, and a fast, mobile-optimised website behind it, is a completely different result. This is where a lot of DIY campaigns go wrong — not because Google Ads doesn’t work for trades, but because the setup was never dialled in.
Local Services Ads vs standard Search Ads
It’s worth understanding the difference between these two, because they’re not interchangeable. Standard Search Ads are click-based — you pay whether or not the person who clicked ever contacts you, which means a compelling ad and a strong landing page matter enormously. Local Services Ads flip that model: you only pay when a genuine lead comes through (a call or a message), and Google vets participating businesses through licensing and insurance checks before granting the “Google Guaranteed” badge.
For newer trade businesses without a large budget to test with, LSAs are often the more forgiving entry point, since a slow week doesn’t cost a cent in wasted clicks. For established businesses with a proven, high-converting landing page, standard Search Ads give far more control over targeting, messaging, and scale. Many trades end up running both side by side once budget allows — LSAs for reliable, exclusive leads, and Search for broader coverage across every service and suburb they operate in.
How Facebook Ads Works for Tradies
Facebook (and Instagram, which runs through the same Meta Ads platform) works on a completely different principle. Nobody searches Facebook for “electrician near me.” Instead, Meta shows your ad to people based on their interests, behaviours, location, and demographics — which means you’re not capturing an existing search, you’re interrupting someone’s scroll with something relevant enough to stop them.
For trade businesses, that makes Facebook Ads especially useful for:
- Visual, portfolio-driven trades — builders, landscapers, kitchen and bathroom renovators, painters, and anyone whose finished work photographs well. A striking before-and-after carousel does more to build trust than almost any block of ad copy.
- Retargeting — showing ads to people who’ve already visited your website or engaged with your social media but didn’t request a quote. These warm audiences convert far more cheaply than cold traffic because the trust-building has already started.
- Brand and reputation building — staying visible to past customers and their networks so you’re the first name that comes to mind (and gets recommended) next time a job comes up.
- Planned, non-urgent projects — renovations, landscaping, solar installs, and other considered purchases where the customer is browsing ideas weeks or months before they’re ready to commit, rather than needing someone in the next hour.
What Facebook Ads costs for trades in 2026
Facebook Ads are, on average, considerably cheaper per click than Google Ads. Cross-industry benchmark data compiled by WordStream and other industry sources puts the average Facebook CPC across all sectors in the vicinity of $1.50–$2.00, a fraction of what most trades pay per click on Google Search. Lead generation campaigns specifically tend to run a little higher than pure traffic campaigns, since you’re asking for more from the user (filling out a form rather than just clicking through).
That lower cost per click is the appeal, but it comes with a trade-off: the person clicking wasn’t actively looking for a tradie, so conversion rates from click to genuine, ready-to-book enquiry are typically lower than what you’d see from a Google Search click. Facebook is brilliant at generating cheap attention and warm leads for future work; it’s a much blunter tool for capturing someone with an urgent problem in the next 30 minutes.
Google Ads vs Facebook Ads: The Head-to-Head Comparison
| Google Ads | Facebook Ads | |
|---|---|---|
| How it targets | Search intent — what someone types | Interests, behaviours, demographics |
| Best for | Urgent, high-intent jobs | Visual, considered, or planned jobs |
| Buyer mindset | “I need this fixed now” | “I might need this eventually” |
| Typical cost per click | Higher (home services averages well above $5–$8) | Lower (often under $2) |
| Typical cost per lead | $30–$90+ depending on trade and urgency | Varies widely; often cheaper per click but lower intent |
| Speed to results | Fast — can generate calls within days | Slower to convert to booked jobs; builds a pipeline over time |
| Creative demands | Minimal — text ads, some ad extensions | High — needs strong photos, video, and consistent posting |
| Ideal trades | Plumbers, electricians, locksmiths, HVAC, pest control | Builders, landscapers, renovators, painters, pool builders |
Neither column is objectively “better.” They’re built for different stages of the customer journey, and the trade you’re in has a lot to do with which one deserves your first dollar.
Which Platform Wins for Your Trade?
Trades where Google Ads usually wins
If your business gets called for emergencies or same-day jobs, Google Ads is almost always the better starting point. Plumbers, electricians, locksmiths, pest controllers, garage door repairers, and HVAC technicians all benefit from the fact that someone with a burst pipe or a dead switchboard doesn’t scroll Facebook looking for help — they Google it, and they call whoever answers fastest with the most trustworthy-looking listing. In this scenario, Google Ads (backed by a solid Google Business Profile) puts you directly in front of demand that already exists, at the exact moment it matters most.
Trades where Facebook Ads usually wins
If your work is visual and the decision takes weeks rather than minutes — kitchen and bathroom renovations, landscaping, decking, pool installation, custom builds, painting — Facebook and Instagram give you something Google Search simply can’t: the ability to show, not just tell. A well-run Facebook campaign showing real before-and-after transformations, paired with retargeting to people who’ve visited your site or your quote page, keeps you top of mind through a longer decision cycle. These jobs also tend to have a wider consideration set — homeowners compare a few options before committing — so staying visible in the feed, not just in search, matters.
The trades that genuinely benefit from both
Plenty of trade businesses don’t fit neatly into one category. A builder might need Google Ads for people actively searching “extension builder [suburb]” while also running Facebook to nurture people who are still in the “thinking about renovating” phase. A well-rounded SEO and content strategy alongside both paid channels compounds the effect further, since organic search builds long-term visibility that ads alone can’t replicate.
Budgeting: What Should You Actually Spend?
Most established Australian trade businesses allocate somewhere between 3–7% of revenue to marketing, with growth-focused businesses generally sitting at the higher end and established businesses with a strong referral base sitting lower. Within that, a workable starting split for a business that gets a meaningful volume of emergency or urgent calls might look like:
- 60–70% to Google Ads / Local Services Ads — capturing existing demand, generating calls quickly
- 20–30% to Facebook and Instagram Ads — building the pipeline of future, higher-value, or planned work
- The remainder to retargeting and creative production — photos, before-and-afters, and short videos that keep both channels performing
For a visual trade with fewer emergency call-outs, that split often flips, with more weight going toward Facebook, Instagram, and organic content.
Whatever the split, the number that actually matters isn’t cost per click — it’s cost per booked job, once you account for your close rate. A $9 click that converts at 8% and closes at 40% is a far better investment than a $1 click that converts at 1% and closes at 15%. This is exactly why so many DIY campaigns look “cheap” on paper but quietly lose money: nobody’s tracking the number all the way through to a job on the calendar.
Common Mistakes Tradies Make With Both Platforms
Running broad match keywords with no negative keyword list. On Google Ads, this is the fastest way to burn a budget on people searching for apprenticeships, DIY guides, or a completely different suburb. A properly built negative keyword list should be one of the first things set up, not an afterthought.
Sending paid traffic to a slow, outdated, or non-mobile-friendly website. Well over half of tradie-related searches happen on a phone. If your website takes more than a few seconds to load or doesn’t have a click-to-call button front and centre, you’re paying for clicks that bounce straight back out.
Treating Facebook like a billboard instead of a conversation. Static, generic ads with no real photos of actual jobs rarely perform. The trades winning on Facebook post real before-and-afters, real crews, and real reviews — not stock imagery.
No conversion tracking. Without tracking which calls, form fills, or messages actually came from which platform, you can’t tell whether Google or Facebook is doing the heavier lifting, and budget decisions end up based on guesswork rather than data.
Setting and forgetting. Both platforms need ongoing management — pausing underperforming keywords or ad sets, refreshing creative before it fatigues, and adjusting targeting as the seasons and job types shift. A campaign built once in January and never touched again will almost always decay in performance by winter.
Ignoring reviews as part of the equation. Paid ads can put your business in front of the right person, but reviews are often what actually convinces them to click your ad instead of a competitor’s. A business with 150+ solid Google reviews consistently outperforms a similar business with 20, both in ad click-through rate and in the organic listings sitting right next to the ads. Building a simple, consistent review request process should run alongside any paid campaign, not after it.
Chasing the cheapest lead instead of the best one. It’s tempting to judge a campaign purely on cost per click or cost per lead, but a $15 lead that never answers the phone or was never a realistic customer is worse than a $60 lead that turns into an $8,000 job. Whichever platform you use, judge it on cost per booked job, not the number that looks best on the dashboard.
The Case for Running Both, Eventually
The businesses getting the best return from digital advertising rarely treat Google Ads and Facebook Ads as competitors for the same dollar. They treat them as two stages of the same funnel. Google Ads catches people the moment they raise their hand and search. Facebook Ads (and organic social) keeps the business visible and top-of-mind for everyone who isn’t ready to search yet — building the reputation and recognition that eventually turns into a direct Google search for your business name instead of a generic category term.
That combination also feeds your organic presence. Consistent social activity and a steady stream of positive reviews support the same trust signals that help your SEO and Google Business Profile ranking — something we’ve covered in more detail in our piece on why your website isn’t showing on Google. Paid and organic aren’t separate strategies competing for attention; done properly, they reinforce each other.
None of this means every trade business needs to launch both channels on day one. If budget is tight, start with whichever platform matches how your customers actually find you — urgent-intent trades start with Google, visual and considered-purchase trades often get more traction starting with Facebook and Instagram. Expand from there once you can see, in the numbers, which leads are actually turning into booked jobs.
How Nova Edge Marketing Helps Tradies Get This Right
At Nova Edge Marketing, we work with trade and home service businesses across Melbourne to build Google Ads campaigns and social media management strategies that are actually built around how your customers search and scroll — not a generic template dropped into every account we touch.
That means proper keyword and negative keyword research so your budget goes toward people who are ready to book, not window shoppers. It means Facebook and Instagram creative that uses your real work, your real reviews, and your real crew instead of stock photography that could belong to any business in the country. And it means transparent, regular reporting so you can see exactly which platform is producing which leads — instead of guessing where your marketing dollars are actually working.
If your website isn’t converting the traffic you’re already paying for, or your SEO foundations need work before ads can do their job properly, we handle that too — because paid advertising performs best when it’s supported by a site and a search presence that can actually close the sale once the click happens.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I run Google Ads and Facebook Ads at the same time on a small budget? Yes, though if the budget is genuinely tight (under roughly $800–$1,000 a month total ad spend), it’s usually better to fund one platform properly rather than spread a small amount too thinly across both. A well-funded single channel with good tracking will almost always outperform two under-funded ones.
Which platform is better for a brand-new trade business with no reviews yet? This is a case where Facebook and Instagram can have an edge early on, since you can build an audience and start showing real work before you’ve accumulated a large review base. That said, setting up a Google Business Profile and actively requesting reviews from day one should happen regardless of which ad platform gets the budget first — it’s free, and it compounds the effectiveness of everything else.
Do Facebook Ads actually work for trades, or is it mostly hype? They work well for the right trades and the right goal. Facebook and Instagram are genuinely strong for visual, considered-purchase trades and for retargeting people who’ve already shown interest. They’re a poor fit if the expectation is “someone will see my ad and call me in the next hour” — that behaviour belongs to Google Search, not the Facebook feed.
How long before I know if a campaign is working? Google Ads campaigns typically show early signal within one to two weeks, with more reliable performance data after 30 days once there’s enough click and conversion volume to judge properly. Facebook Ads often need a similar window to move past the learning phase, plus additional time for retargeting audiences to build up before those ads start performing at their best.
Should I manage my own ads or use an agency? Plenty of tradies run basic campaigns themselves successfully, particularly with Local Services Ads, which have a simpler setup. Standard Search campaigns and Facebook Ads have a steeper learning curve, and the cost of getting the structure wrong (wasted clicks, poor targeting, no tracking) often outweighs the cost of proper management. If ad spend is meaningful and time is limited, working with a team that manages these accounts daily usually pays for itself.
The Bottom Line
Google Ads wins when someone needs a tradie right now and is actively searching for one. Facebook Ads wins when the job is visual, considered, or still weeks away from being booked. Most trade businesses are better served starting with whichever platform matches their typical customer’s urgency, then expanding into the other once the fundamentals — tracking, a fast website, and a steady flow of reviews — are actually in place.
Ready to work out which platform (or combination) makes sense for your trade business? Get in touch with the Nova Edge Marketing team for a free strategy session, and we’ll show you exactly where your ad dollars should be going.