7 Google Ads Mistakes UK Trades Make (and How to Fix Them)

Most UK trades come to me after spending two to five grand on Google Ads with little to show for it. The work isn’t bad. The campaign isn’t broken in some clever way. It’s almost always one of seven straightforward Google Ads mistakes that quietly bleed budget every day.

Here they are in the order I see them most.

1. Broad match keywords without a strong negative list

Google’s broad match has changed a lot in the past two years. Run a search terms report on most trades accounts and you’ll see the campaign showing for “free plumber tutorial”, “DIY boiler fix”, “plumbing apprenticeship Sheffield” and a hundred other queries that will never become a job.

Fix it: tighten match types, set up a recurring negative keyword review (weekly for the first month, monthly after), and add the obvious junk up front: “free”, “DIY”, “course”, “training”, “apprentice”, “wholesaler”, “supplier”, and the local college near you.

2. No call tracking

Trades businesses get most of their leads on the phone. If your conversion tracking only counts form fills, you’re optimising on maybe 30 percent of the actual leads, and Google’s bid algorithm is making decisions on the wrong data.

Fix it: install call tracking with WhatConverts, CallRail or Mediahawk. Set call duration thresholds (a 60 second call usually filters spam from real enquiries). Feed those calls back as conversions in Google Ads.

3. Targeting “people interested in” your area instead of presence

This is the single fastest budget leak I see on small trades accounts. Google’s default location setting is “Presence or interest” which means your ads show to anyone who has even searched for your area at some point. A boiler firm in Bristol can end up paying for clicks from people in Leeds.

Fix it: change every campaign’s location target from “Presence or interest” to “Presence”. This change alone has saved most of my new trades accounts 20 to 30 percent on wasted clicks.

4. Sending traffic to a homepage instead of a service page

A homepage tries to do everything. It explains the company, the services, the team, the area covered, the testimonials, the gallery. By the time someone has scrolled to the call now button they’ve forgotten why they clicked the ad.

Fix it: build a dedicated landing page per service. The header should mirror the search query (“Boiler Replacement in Sheffield” not “Welcome to Smith Plumbing”). Stick a phone number, a one line pitch, three trust signals, a form, and reviews above the fold. Strip everything else.

5. Running search ads when Local Services Ads would convert better

If you’re a plumber, electrician, roofer, locksmith, cleaner, HVAC engineer or appliance repair company, Google Local Services Ads sit above the standard search ads and run on a per lead basis. You only pay when someone calls or messages. They’re often half the cost per lead of regular search.

Fix it: at least run them in parallel. Get the Google Guaranteed badge if you can. Most trades I work with end up running both LSA and search side by side, with LSA picking up the high intent calls and search filling the gaps for the queries LSA doesn’t trigger on.

6. Wrong bid strategy for low search volume

Most trades businesses have between 20 and 200 conversions a month. That’s well below the 30 plus per month threshold Google’s smart bidding wants for tROAS or tCPA to work properly. New accounts in particular get put on Maximize Conversions and the bid algorithm starts hunting in expensive places.

Fix it: start on Manual CPC or Maximize Clicks for the first 30 to 60 days, gather clean conversion data, then move to Maximize Conversions with a target CPA cap once you’ve got at least 30 conversions in the last 30 days.

7. No conversion value attached to leads

If every form fill counts as one conversion, Google can’t tell the difference between someone asking the price of a tap washer and someone booking a £6,000 boiler install. Smart bidding treats them the same and you end up paying the same per click for both.

Fix it: send conversion values into Google Ads. The crude way is a flat estimate per service (boiler install £400, drain unblock £80, callout £30). The better way is to feed actual booking value back via offline conversion uploads or a CRM integration like Zapier or HubSpot.

What this looks like together

When I take over a trades account, the first 30 days is almost always the same: tighten match types, build the negative list, fix location targeting, install call tracking, set up at least crude conversion values, and rebuild one landing page. Cost per lead drops 30 to 50 percent before any clever optimisation even starts.

If you’d like me to look at your account and tell you which of these are costing you most, book a free Google Ads audit. I’ll send you back a written audit with a prioritised list. No obligation to work with me afterwards.