Google Ads puts your business at the top of search results today, for the searches you choose, in the places you choose. For a Manitoba trade, the hard part isn't switching it on. It is stopping the budget from drifting into towns you don't serve and jobs you don't want.
What it is, in plain terms
There are two types of ad we use most for trades.
- Search ads. Text ads that appear when someone searches a phrase you bid on, such as "drain cleaning Winnipeg" or "roof repair Steinbach". You pay per click.
- Local Services Ads. Google's pay-per-lead format for many home-service categories, shown above the search ads, with a badge where your business qualifies. You pay per lead rather than per click. Categories and screening rules vary, so we confirm what is available for your trade.
Social ads can help outdoor trades book spring work, but for urgent trades we almost always build search first.
Why Manitoba campaigns go wrong
Most of the accounts we audit make one of three errors.
- One campaign for the whole province. Winnipeg holds roughly 56% of Manitoba's people, based on 2021 Census counts in the list of Manitoba municipalities, so a province-wide campaign spends most of its budget there, whether you serve the city or not.
- Radius targeting that crosses a border. A circle drawn around Brandon or Winkler takes in rural areas you may not serve, and near the edges it can reach into Saskatchewan or North Dakota. We target named towns and municipalities instead.
- Broad keywords with no negatives. "Furnace" also brings in people looking for jobs, parts, manuals and do-it-yourself videos. A good negative list is half the work.
A worked example you can check
Say you run a plumbing company in Portage la Prairie. Your average service call is worth $450, about one in two calls from ads books a job, and you are happy to spend up to 20% of revenue to win a new customer.
- Maximum cost per booked job: $450 × 20% = $90
- With half of calls booking, your maximum cost per call is $45
- If about 1 in 8 clicks turns into a call, your maximum cost per click is about $5.60
If the clicks in your market cost more than that, ads alone won't pay for routine service calls, and we would put the budget into higher-value jobs (water heaters, backflow, renovations) or into local search and reviews instead. Run the same sums with your own numbers before anyone spends a dollar.
What's included
- Account audit or a new account in your business's name
- Campaigns split by town and by job type
- Keyword lists, negative lists and ad copy written for each town
- Call tracking so every ad call is counted and recorded with your consent settings
- Ad schedules matched to the hours you can actually answer
- Landing pages, or fixes to your existing pages, so the click becomes a call
- Monthly reporting by town: spend, calls, booked jobs and cost per booked job
Timeline
Week one is the audit and tracking. Campaigns usually go live in weeks two to three. The first month is about learning which towns and searches produce real jobs, so expect changes. By the end of month three you should know your cost per booked job by town, and have cut the searches that don't pay.
Seasonality matters: heating trades should be running and tuned before freeze-up, and outdoor trades should launch in late winter so spring bookings are full before the frost is out of the ground.
How results are measured
Clicks and impressions are only diagnostics. The numbers that matter are:
- cost per call, by town
- percentage of calls that book
- cost per booked job, compared with the maximum you set
- revenue from ad-sourced jobs, where your job software can tell us
Our HVAC work shows what a disciplined account can do: HVACDeal.ca generated 500+ leads at a 12:1 ROI. That is a result from our HVAC work, not a promise for your trade or town. See the results page.
Mistakes to avoid
- Sending ad clicks to your home page instead of the matching service page
- Running ads 24 hours a day when nobody answers after 6 p.m.
- Letting Google's automatic suggestions widen your locations
- Judging the account in week two, before it has enough data
- Turning ads off completely in your slow season, then paying to relearn in the busy one
Ad spend goes to Google, separately from your plan. The pricing page shows our plans, and the contact page explains how to start. We are a marketing service, not a contractor; we bring the calls, your crew does the work.
Frequently asked questions
How much should a Manitoba trade spend on ads?
Work backwards from your job value and close rate rather than picking a round number. The worked example on this page shows how. Ad spend is paid to Google separately from our monthly plan.
What are Local Services Ads?
They are Google's pay-per-lead ads that sit above regular search ads for many home-service categories. Availability and categories vary, so we check what is offered for your trade and towns before recommending them.
Can you run ads only on cold nights?
We can raise budgets and bids around cold snaps and schedule ads to the hours you can answer the phone. Weather-driven planning works best when the campaign is already running and learning before the cold arrives.
Who owns the ad account?
You do. We set up or work inside an account in your business's name, and you keep it and all its history if you leave.