<aside> 📗 How to build a lead system for a roofing, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, or restoration business. Google Business Profile, Local Services Ads, Google Ads, landing pages, and call tracking, in the order that works.
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Most contractors buy leads in the wrong order. They launch Google Ads first, send the clicks to their homepage, and never install call tracking. Six weeks later they tell you Google Ads does not work.
It usually does work. The system was built upside down.
This playbook gives you the order we use when we take over an account. Each layer feeds the next one.
| Layer | What it does | Why it comes first |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Google Business Profile | Map pack, reviews, and the profile Google reads before it lets you into Local Services Ads | Everything else is checked against it |
| 2. Local Services Ads | Pay-per-lead placement at the top of the page | Cheapest qualified leads, but it only works on a strong profile |
| 3. Google Ads Search | Pay-per-click on the exact searches that book jobs | Scales past what LSA will give you |
| 4. Landing pages | Turn clicks into calls | A great ad to a bad page burns budget |
| 5. Call tracking and pipeline | Tie every call to the source and to a booked job | Without this you cannot tell which spend to cut |
Who this is for. Owners and office managers of home service companies that spend, or plan to spend, real money on Google. We wrote it for roofing, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and water damage restoration, and the same system applies to garage doors, painting, fencing, landscaping, and pest control.
What you will need. Admin access to your Google Business Profile, your Google Ads account (or a fresh one), your website, and a call tracking tool. Budget for each layer is covered inside the chapters.
<aside> 📏 Rule: Every number in this guide is either cited to a public source or labelled as what we see in the accounts we manage. Your market will differ. Use the numbers to sanity check, not to set targets.
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Think of your Google Business Profile (GBP) as a credit score. Google checks it every time it decides whether to show your Local Services Ad, where to rank you in the map pack, and how much trust to give your website. A weak profile drags down every layer above it.
Your primary category is the single most important setting on the profile. It decides which searches you are eligible for and which Local Services Ads category you can verify into.
List the cities and zip codes where you will take a job this week. Not the ones you would drive to if the job were big enough.