Google Ads can put a landscaping business in front of people at the moment they decide to get the job done.
They can also burn money quickly. “Landscape” is a word people use for photography and screen settings, so loose targeting pulls in a lot of the wrong clicks.
This page covers how to set up Google Ads for a Perth landscaping business. For the wider picture, see our landscaping marketing guide and the main landscaping marketing page.
What to target
Build your campaigns around services, not around the word “landscaper”. Each service has its own searches, budget and profit margin.
- Retaining walls: “limestone retaining walls Perth”, “retaining wall builders Ellenbrook”.
- Turf: “synthetic turf installers Perth”, “instant lawn laid Rockingham”.
- Reticulation: “retic repairs near me”, “reticulation installation Joondalup”.
- Paving: “paving contractors Perth”, “alfresco paving Canning Vale”.
- Design and construct: “landscape design Perth”, “garden makeover Dalkeith”.
Keep each service in its own ad group, so the ad and landing page match what was searched. Suburb searches often show strong intent, so add them for the areas you most want to work in.
Use phrase and exact match for your main terms. Broad match can work later, once you have conversion data and a solid negative list.
What to exclude
Landscaping attracts more irrelevant searches than most trades. Start with a negative keyword list along these lines:
- Art and screens: photography, painting, wallpaper, mode, orientation, print.
- Jobs and training: jobs, apprenticeship, TAFE, course, salary, labourer.
- Do-it-yourself: DIY, how to, ideas, Bunnings, cheap, free.
- Supplies only: garden centre, nursery, soil delivery, limestone blocks for sale. Leave these out only if you supply materials.
- Services you do not offer, such as tree lopping or pool building.
Check the search terms report every week for the first couple of months. New negatives will show up quickly.
Location and schedule settings
Target the suburbs or regions you will actually travel to. A crew based in the northern suburbs may not want a job in Mandurah, however good the lead looks.
In the location options, choose to show ads to people located in or regularly in your target areas. The default setting can also show ads to people outside Perth who are only interested in it.
Homeowners often research gardens in the evening and on weekends. Start with ads running at those times as well as business hours, then adjust based on when calls and forms actually come in. If nobody answers the phone after hours, lean on form enquiries in those hours.
Ad wording
Good landscaping ads are specific. Name the service, the area and something concrete about how you work.
Useful points include free on-site quotes, how quickly you can start, the materials you use or how long you have been trading. Use sitelinks for each main service and image assets with photos of your own finished work.
Only claim what you can back up. Google rejects unsupported superlatives, and Australian Consumer Law applies to ads just as it does to your website.
The landing page
Send each ad group to the matching service page, not the home page. Someone searching for limestone walls should land on a page about limestone walls.
That page needs photos of your own work, a phone number at the top and a short quote form. Include the suburbs you cover and recent reviews.
If the page is slow to load on a phone, fix that first. Our web design team can build pages for this.
Call and form tracking
Most landscaping enquiries come by phone. Use call assets in your ads and a tracked number on your website so calls from ads are counted.
Count calls over a sensible length, such as a minute, as conversions. Short calls are often wrong numbers.
Track form submissions on the thank-you page or with a confirmed event. Then compare the leads from Google Ads with the jobs you actually won. Ten enquiries about mowing are not worth the same as one enquiry for a full backyard.
Budget thinking
Start from the value of a typical job and how many enquiries you can handle. A business that can take on two new builds a month needs a different budget from one that wants fifty retic repairs.
Put more budget behind the services with the best margins and the highest close rates. Spend a little more in late winter and spring, when people plan their gardens, and less when you are booked out.
Give a new campaign enough time to collect data before judging it. A few weeks is rarely enough in a seasonal trade.
Common mistakes for landscapers
- Bidding on “landscape” or “landscaping” alone with broad match.
- Sending every click to the home page.
- Advertising services the crew is too busy to take on.
- Counting every phone call as a lead, including suppliers and existing clients.
- Pausing ads in winter, then starting from scratch in spring.
- Using stock photos that look nothing like Perth gardens.
Ad policies and claims
Landscaping has fewer ad restrictions than health or legal services. The main issues are accuracy and the rules for regulated work.
Do not advertise plumbing, electrical or building work you are not licensed for. If you use subcontractors for that work, word your ads carefully. Google also verifies advertisers, so make sure your business details match your ABN and your Google Business Profile.
Policies change, so check Google’s current advertising policies before you launch.
Getting help
If you’d like help setting up or reviewing your campaigns, our Google Ads management service is run by senior people in Perth, with no lock-in contracts. Ask for a free quote and we will look at your current account or help you start one.
