How much should a tradesman spend on Google Ads?
Most UK tradesmen should start with £500 to £1,500 a month in Google Ads spend, paid directly to Google, plus a management fee. The right number is set by working backwards: decide how many jobs you want, multiply by your cost per booked job, and that is your budget. Start small, prove the maths, then scale.
There is no single "right" Google Ads budget for a tradesman — but there is a right way to work it out. Most trades either guess too low and starve the account of data, or pour money in with no target and hope. The better approach is simple arithmetic: start from the jobs you want and work backwards to the spend.
Work backwards from jobs, not budget
Pick the number of extra jobs you want each month. Multiply by your cost per booked job. That is your starting budget. If you do not know your cost per booked job yet, use a planning figure of £40–£120 for most trades and refine it once real data comes in.
| You want | × cost per job | = monthly ad spend |
|---|---|---|
| 5 extra jobs | £80 | £400 |
| 10 extra jobs | £80 | £800 |
| 10 extra jobs | £120 | £1,200 |
| 20 extra jobs | £100 | £2,000 |
Scalepoint recommends a minimum ad budget of £500/month so the account has enough data to optimise. Below that, Google rarely gets the signal it needs to bring your cost per job down.
The three things that move your number
- Your trade and urgency — emergency work (burst pipes, lockouts) costs more per click but converts fast; planned work is cheaper but slower.
- Your area — competition in a big metro pushes clicks up; a smaller town can deliver jobs for far less.
- Your close rate — the better you are at answering the phone and quoting, the further every pound stretches.
A sensible starting point by stage
| Stage | Ad spend/month | Goal |
|---|---|---|
| Testing the water | £500–£750 | Prove the channel works for your trade |
| Steady lead flow | £750–£1,500 | A reliable monthly pipeline |
| Scaling / multi-area | £1,500+ | Grow into new services and areas |
Don’t forget the management fee
Ad spend is what you pay Google. The management fee is separate — what it costs to build and run the account properly. Scalepoint manages Google Ads from £495/month, with ad spend passed to Google at cost and no markup. So a tradesman testing the water might budget around £500 spend + £495 management, with the account in their own name.
No VAT — the price you see is the price you pay. And you own the ad account, so the conversion data you build is yours to keep.
When to scale, and when to stop
Scale up when two things are true: your cost per booked job is comfortably below your profit per job, and you can actually handle more work. Hold or pause when you are at capacity — there is no point paying for leads you cannot service. The beauty of Google Ads is that you can turn the dial up or down month to month.