Are Google Ads worth it?
Are Google Ads worth it for a small business?
Short answer: yes, if three things are true. A customer has to be worth enough to cover the cost of a lead, you have to send the click to a website that actually turns visitors into calls, and you have to track what comes back. Get those right and, for trades and local services especially, ads can pay for themselves fast.
Get them wrong, a thin budget pointed at a weak website, and you will hand Google money for nothing. This is the honest version: how they work, what they really cost in the UK, when they are worth it, and when they are not.
How it works
How Google Ads actually work.
When someone types what they want into Google, the paid results at the top are ads. You pick the searches you want to show up for, and you pay when someone clicks, not when your ad is simply seen. That last bit matters: you are buying visits from people already looking for what you do, at the moment they are looking. That is the whole appeal, and why it beats being shown to people who were not searching for anything.
- Someone searches"emergency electrician near me"
- Your ad showsat the top, for that search
- They clickand you pay for that click
- Your website convertsthe visit becomes a call
The bit most people miss
Google only sells you the click. Your website does the selling.
This is where most money is won or lost. Google gets the right person to your door, but if the website they land on is slow, vague, or has no clear way to call you, they leave and you have paid for nothing. A clear website with your number, your reviews and one obvious next step is not a nice-to-have, it is the difference between ads that pay and ads that drain. It even lowers what you pay per click, because Google charges relevant, useful advertisers less.
The money
What it actually costs.
In the UK, most small businesses pay somewhere around £1.50 to £2.50 for a click, though it swings with your trade and area. Trades tend to sit higher, roughly £2 to £8, and the urgent stuff is dearest of all: a search like "emergency plumber" can cost £8 to £15 a click. London runs pricier than the rest of the country.
But the price per click is not the number that matters. What matters is the cost per job you actually win. A £2 click that never calls is dearer than an £8 click that books a £3,000 bathroom. Most small local campaigns land somewhere around £50 to £100 for each genuine lead, which is a bargain if your average job is worth a few hundred pounds or more.
Do the maths
Judge it on cost per won job, not cost per click.
Add up what you spend in a month, then divide it by the jobs it actually won you. That number, against what a job is worth to you, tells you in one line whether ads are paying. If a lead costs £60 and one in three becomes a £2,000 job, the maths is not close.
What to budget
- About £300 to £500 a month is a testing budget, enough to learn, not to rely on
- £500 to £1,000 a month is where results tend to become steady for a local business
- Below roughly £30 a day, you often will not get enough clicks to tell what is working
- Whatever you spend, expect a few weeks of tuning before you judge it
The case for it
When they are worth it.
Ads earn their keep when these hold true. The more of them you can tick, the safer your money is.
- A customer is worth real money to you, so one won job pays for a lot of clicks
- You have a website that converts, with your number, proof and one clear next step
- You can track your leads, so you know your cost per call, not the click price on its own
- People are actually searching for what you sell, with intent to buy, not to read up on it
- You need work coming in now, this week, not in six months
The case against it
How the money gets wasted.
Ads get a bad name mostly because they are easy to run badly. Nearly every horror story is one of these.
Sending clicks to a weak website
You pay for the visit, then a slow or vague page loses them. The most expensive mistake there is.
No tracking
If you cannot see which searches turn into calls, you cannot cut the waste. You are guessing with real money.
Too broad, too thin
A small budget spread across loads of loose keywords and areas never gathers enough to work. Nothing gets a fair go.
Paying for the wrong searches
Without negatives you pay for "jobs", "salary", "free" and "how to" searches from people who will never hire you.
Set and forget
Ads are not a slow cooker. Leave an account alone and it drifts, waste creeps in, and costs climb.
Renting, not owning
The honest downside: stop paying and the leads stop that day. Ads bring work now, they do not build you an asset.
vs everything else
Ads vs the alternatives.
Ads are not the only way to get work, and they are not always the right first move. Here is the honest comparison.
| Option | What you get | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Google Ads | Leads now, from people searching, and the lead is yours alone | You pay per click, and it stops when you stop paying |
| SEO | Traffic that keeps coming once it builds, without paying per click | Slow to build, often months, and no guarantee |
| Lead sites (Checkatrade, Bark) | Work quickly, no setup | The same lead is sold to several trades, so you fight over it |
| Facebook / Instagram | Cheap reach, good for getting your name out | You interrupt people who were not looking to buy |
| Google Business Profile | Free local listing and map pin, every business should have one | On its own it only gets you so far |
The honest bit
Ads are the microwave. SEO is the slow cooker.
Ads get your phone ringing this week. SEO is slower but keeps giving once it lands, if you have the time and the patience to wait for it. They are not rivals, they do different jobs. We run the ads, and we will say it plainly: we do not sell SEO. If the slow cooker is the better fit for where you are, we will tell you that too.
The sweet spot
Made for local trades.
If there is one type of business Google Ads were built for, it is a local trade. Someone typing "emergency plumber Leicester" is not browsing, they have a leak and they want it fixed today. The intent is as hot as it gets, the jobs are worth real money, and there is no waiting for a directory to shuffle you up a list.
The multiplier is sending that click to a website built for exactly what they searched. A "boiler repair Leicester" ad that lands on a website about boiler repair in Leicester, with your number, your guarantee and real photos, converts far better than one dumped on a generic homepage, and it costs you less per click into the bargain.
Why us
Why take our word for it?
Fair question, since running Google Ads for trades is what we do. Honestly? Because we will tell you when not to. If your website is not ready, or your budget is too thin to do anything useful, we will say so rather than take your money and watch it burn. We only do well when your phone actually rings.
Straight answers
Questions people actually ask.
- Are Google Ads worth it for a small business?
- They can be, if three things are true: a customer is worth enough to cover the cost of a lead, you send the click to a website that actually converts, and you track what comes back. For high-value or urgent services they often pay for themselves quickly. For a low-margin product with no proper website behind it, they usually do not.
- How much should I spend on Google Ads per month in the UK?
- Most small businesses spend somewhere between £500 and £5,000 a month. Around £500 to £1,000 is where results tend to become steady, and £300 to £500 is really just a testing budget. Below roughly £30 a day it is often hard to get enough data to know what is working.
- Is £10 or £20 a day good for Google Ads?
- Ten pounds a day is a testing budget, not a lead machine. It is enough to see whether people are searching and where you are wasting money, but usually too little to optimise properly. It stretches further where clicks are cheap, and disappears fast in pricey trades. Twenty pounds a day is more workable for most local trades.
- How much do Google Ads pay per 1000 views?
- This is a common mix-up. Google Ads is something you pay to advertise, not a way to earn money. You are thinking of Google AdSense or YouTube, where website owners and creators earn roughly £1 to £8 per 1,000 views depending on their audience. With Google Ads you pay, and normally per click, not per view.
- What are the disadvantages of Google Ads?
- The main ones: you pay for every click and the leads stop the moment you pause, so it is rented, not owned. Clicks can be dear in competitive trades, there is a real learning curve, a small share of clicks are junk or fraudulent (mostly filtered out by Google), and it needs ongoing management rather than set and forget.
- How long before Google Ads work?
- Clicks usually start within a day or two of your ads being approved, but steady, profitable results take longer. There is a learning period of a week or two while Google settles, and it is fair to give a campaign roughly eight to twelve weeks of tuning before you judge it properly.
- Can I run Google Ads myself?
- Yes, anyone can, and doing it yourself saves the management fee. The catch is that it is easy to burn money early on broad keywords, missing negatives and no tracking. Plenty of businesses start themselves to learn, then hand it over once the spend is big enough to justify it.
- Do Google Ads work for local businesses?
- Very well, because someone searching "electrician near me" wants to hire now, not later. The trick is to pair your ads with a free Google Business Profile and send every click to a website that matches the exact job and town they searched for.
Want your phone ringing this week?
Tell us a bit about your business and we'll tell you straight whether ads are the right move for you. Got a question first? Just message us.