Last updated 21 October 2026
Google Ads for electricians.
Short version: Google Ads work for an electrician when each kind of job gets its own campaign, because the auctions are priced very differently. "emergency electrician near me" averaged £15.18 a click in UK keyword data pulled August 2026; "electrician near me" averaged £6.90. Landlord EICRs, EV chargers and rewires bid lower again, and they are planned work you can book into the diary.
Four things are specific to electricians. Power-cut searches sit right inside Google's own electrician keyword ideas and outnumber almost every job search, so they have to be blocked. Local Services Ads are open to you in the UK. Scheme claims in an ad are a policy matter, not just a trust badge. And the EV grant only fits some of the people searching.
What a click costs
Emergency is dear. Planned work is cheaper.
Google's Keyword Planner, UK, pulled October 2026. These are the top-of-page bid ranges the planner gives, low to high, which is what it estimates you need to appear above the free results:
| Search | Job | Searches a month | Top-of-page bid |
|---|---|---|---|
| emergency electrician near me | Emergency | 4,400 | £2.69 to £13.38 |
| emergency electrician | Emergency | 4,400 | £3.16 to £15.02 |
| 24 hour electrician near me | Emergency | 480 | £1.91 to £13.08 |
| same day electrician | Emergency | 110 | £3.38 to £24.32 |
| electrician near me | General | 74,000 | £1.34 to £7.45 |
| electrician | General | 49,500 | £2.00 to £10.57 |
| local electricians | General | 5,400 | £1.33 to £6.80 |
| commercial electrician | General | 1,600 | £3.93 to £20.20 |
| eicr | EICR and landlords | 22,200 | £1.70 to £6.90 |
| eicr certificate | EICR and landlords | 18,100 | £1.44 to £5.96 |
| landlord electrical safety certificate | EICR and landlords | 1,600 | £1.48 to £7.08 |
| eicr certificate cost | EICR and landlords | 3,600 | £1.08 to £5.41 |
| ev charger installation | EV chargers | 18,100 | £1.56 to £5.72 |
| ev charger installers near me | EV chargers | 2,900 | £1.72 to £5.67 |
| ozev installer | EV chargers | 320 | £1.86 to £5.21 |
| ev charger installation cost | EV chargers | 2,900 | £0.74 to £2.64 |
| house rewire | Rewires and consumer units | 1,600 | £1.43 to £4.47 |
| rewire house cost | Rewires and consumer units | 1,300 | £0.74 to £3.52 |
| consumer unit replacement | Rewires and consumer units | 140 | £0.99 to £5.62 |
| consumer unit replacement cost | Rewires and consumer units | 880 | £0.59 to £2.50 |
Two patterns are worth acting on. The emergency searches carry the highest top-end bids, so they belong in their own campaign with their own budget. And in every planned group the search with "cost" in it is the cheapest click: people pricing a rewire, an EICR or a charger are researching, and they are cheap to reach if your website shows a real price or range. They are not automatic negatives; they are only wasted if the website hides the answer they came for.
On cost per lead: a different pull of UK keyword data (August 2026) put the average click on "emergency electrician near me" at £15.18 and "electrician near me" at £6.90. At 7.33%, a US benchmark for home-services search ads and the only published one we have, that works out at roughly £207 and £94 a lead. Emergency demand also moves with the season: "emergency electrician" peaked in Nov at about 6,600 searches and dropped to 3,600 from Apr to Jul (Google Ads keyword data, pulled September 2026, rounded bands). For the full working on budgets, see how much to spend on Google Ads and are Google Ads worth it.
The biggest leak
Block the power cuts before anything.
Ask Google's Keyword Planner for electrician search ideas and it hands back a whole cluster of power-cut searches (UK, October 2026). "power cut" alone is more than 9 times "emergency electrician":
| Search | Searches a month |
|---|---|
| power cut | 40,500 |
| power cut in my area | 40,500 |
| check for power cuts in your area | 27,100 |
| national grid power cut | 22,200 |
| power outage | 14,800 |
| sse power outage | 8,100 |
| nie power cut | 6,600 |
| reporting a power cut | 6,600 |
None of these people want an electrician. Their street is dark and they want to know when the power comes back. The free 105 number puts them through to their local electricity network operator in England, Scotland and Wales. Yet "power cut" shows a top-of-page high bid of £12.56 in the same pull, so somebody is paying to appear for it. A panicked caller in a power cut can look like an emergency lead right up until you answer.
How you block them matters. Google says negative keywords "won't match to close variants", and that you need to add "synonyms and singular or plural versions" yourself; misspellings and capitals are handled for you. So a single "power cut" negative is not enough. Add power cut, power cuts, outage and outages as negative broad match, which blocks any search containing all the words in any order, and the energy network names you see in your search terms report.
The other searches worth blocking for most electricians:
| Search | Searches a month | Why it is not your job |
|---|---|---|
| mark electric | 49,500 | A named business, not a job |
| octopus ev charger installation | 1,900 | An energy company's own install |
| checkatrade electrician | 1,000 | Looking for the directory |
| becoming an electrician | 210 | A career search |
Course, salary and DIY searches, which every trade should block, are covered in why Google Ads are not working.
Unlike locksmiths
Local Services Ads are open to you.
"Electricians" is on Google's UK list of Local Services Ads categories, the pay-per-lead boxes with a badge above the normal ads. Locksmiths are not, which is why the Google Ads guide for locksmiths reads so differently. Here is what Google's UK screening page lists for an electrician:
| What Google checks | What its UK page says |
|---|---|
| Business | A business check |
| Insurance | Public liability insurance |
| Licence | A business licence on a country level, where applicable by local law |
| Scheme membership | Not listed: no NICEIC, NAPIT or Part P check appears |
| How long | 3 to 4 weeks on average after you submit your documents |
You may read that verification for electricians needs NICEIC proof, or that it earns a Google Guaranteed badge. Google's UK page lists neither, and the Guaranteed badge was folded into Google Verified in October 2025. Your scheme is still a trust signal for the customer; it is not something the badge vouches for. How the leads, the badge and the costs work is in Google Local Services Ads. Standard Search ads still earn their place alongside them, because Search is where you control the job, the area and the hours.
What the ad can claim
Name the scheme that covers the job.
A scheme name in a headline is a strong ad, and it is also a claim Google polices. Its misrepresentation policy bans "misleading statements or obscuring or omitting material information about your identity, affiliations or qualifications", and offering services "including not having the right licences or qualifications". UK law goes further: the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 lists displaying a trust mark without authorisation, and claiming an approval whose terms you are not complying with, among the practices that are unfair in all circumstances.
The trap is that one scheme name can mean different things. NICEIC's Approved Contractor scheme covers commercial and industrial work, domestic installations excluding Part P, and inspection and testing. Its Domestic Installer scheme covers Part P notifiable installations. Notifiable work includes a new circuit and replacing a consumer unit. So:
| Ad for | What to check before you name a scheme | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer unit or new circuit | Your registration covers Part P notifiable work | You self-certify it and the customer gets a certificate within 8 weeks |
| EICR | Your registration covers inspection and testing | The national register lists inspectors separately from installers |
| EV charger | You are OZEV authorised, if the ad mentions the grant | Only authorised installers can claim the grant |
| Any job | The name in the ad matches the name on the register | gov.uk tells homeowners to search the Electrical Competent Person Register |
The certificate is worth putting in the ad for notifiable work: gov.uk tells homeowners a registered installer gives one within 8 weeks and that it shows up in solicitors' searches when they sell. What the website itself should show is in websites for electricians. That is a summary of the rules, not advice on your own scheme membership.
The planned auctions
EICRs come round on a clock.
Private landlords in England must have every electrical installation inspected and tested by a qualified person at intervals of no more than 5 years, and give each existing tenant the report within 28 days. That makes "eicr" (22,200 a month, £1.70 to £6.90) and "eicr certificate" (18,100, £1.44 to £5.96) a steady planned auction rather than a spike, and a landlord with several properties is repeat work. The legal side and what the job pays are in electrician leads.
One setting is different here. Google's default location option uses where people are and where they are interested in, and it suggests Presence when you only want people physically in your area. That is right for a fault or a call-out. It is wrong for a landlord who lets a flat in your town and lives somewhere else, because Presence would hide your ad from the person who books the EICR. Put EICRs in their own campaign on the default option.
Advertise the grant only where it applies.
"ev charger installation" is 18,100 searches a month at £1.56 to £5.72. gov.uk says the OZEV chargepoint grants have been extended for a final year, to 31 March 2027, at up to £500. Flat owners and renters with their own private off-street parking can apply, and so can landlords; someone who lives in a house they own cannot. Only an OZEV-authorised installer can claim it.
Google bans "promising products, services or promotional offers in the ad that are unavailable". A "£500 grant" headline on every EV search promises every homeowner in a house they own a discount they cannot have, and the call starts with a let-down. Keep the grant for an ad group aimed at flats, renters and landlords, and take it out after 31 March 2027. The order of work and the network rules are in EV charger installation leads.
The settings that matter
One account, settings per job.
| Setting | What Google says | For an electrician |
|---|---|---|
| Location option | The default shows ads to people in an area and people interested in it; consider Presence when you only want people physically there | Presence for call-outs and faults; the default for landlord EICRs |
| Radius | Google will not go below 1 km, and a tiny area can stop the ads showing reliably | For call-outs, the distance you can cover quickly; for EICRs and EV, wider |
| Call button schedule | You can restrict the call asset to set days and hours | Hide the number during the hours nobody can answer it |
| Ad schedule and budget | Campaigns pace towards 30.4 times the average daily budget a month, however many days they run | An evenings-only emergency schedule still spends the month's budget |
| Smart Bidding | Hour-by-hour bid tweaks are overridden, but the ad schedule is obeyed | Turn hours off in the schedule rather than bidding them down |
| Call tracking | A Google forwarding number records connected calls, duration and the caller's number for calls over 15 seconds | Pick a minimum call length that filters out the power-cut callers who ring by mistake |
One more date for older accounts: Google stopped new call-only ads in February 2026, and existing ones stop showing in February 2027. The replacement is a normal search ad with a call asset. The account setup itself is covered in how to set up Google Ads.
The bigger picture
Your ads, your account, your calls.
A lead bought from a directory can be sold to several electricians at the same time. Your own ads, landing on your own website with your own number, mean the landlord, the EV owner and the homeowner with a tripping fuse board ring you and nobody else. When we run Google Ads for a trade, it is in the trade's own Google Ads account, in their name, paid to Google on their own card, and the account and its history stay with them if they leave.
For why shared leads cost more than they look, read the shared lead trap.
Straight answers
Questions electricians actually ask.
- Are Google Ads worth it for an electrician?
- They can be, because people search for an electrician when they need one. Emergency work is the dear end: "emergency electrician near me" averaged £15.18 a click in UK keyword data pulled August 2026, against £6.90 for "electrician near me". EICRs, EV chargers and rewires bid lower. Run them if you answer the phone, block the searches that are not jobs (power cuts above all), and count calls as conversions so you can see what each job costs.
- Can electricians use Google Local Services Ads in the UK?
- Yes. "Electricians" is on Google's UK list of Local Services Ads categories, unlike locksmiths. Google's UK screening page lists three things for an electrician: a business check, public liability insurance, and a business licence on a country level where local law requires one. It lists no NICEIC, NAPIT or Part P check, and says screening takes 3 to 4 weeks on average once documents are in. The badge is now Google Verified; Google Guaranteed was folded into it in October 2025.
- Can I put NICEIC or NAPIT in my ad?
- Yes, if it is true and it covers the job the ad is for. Google's misrepresentation policy bans misleading statements about your qualifications or affiliations, and offering services without the right licences or qualifications. UK consumer law treats displaying a trust mark without authorisation as unfair in all circumstances. NICEIC's Approved Contractor scheme covers domestic work excluding Part P, while its Domestic Installer scheme covers Part P notifiable work, so name the scheme you actually hold.
- What negative keywords should an electrician use?
- Power cuts first. Google's own keyword ideas for electricians include "power cut" at about 40,500 searches a month, more than 9 times "emergency electrician", and those people need their network operator on 105, not you. Google says negatives do not match close variants, so add plurals and synonyms too: power cuts, outage, outages. Then other businesses' names, directory searches and career searches.
- Can I advertise the EV charger grant?
- Only to the people who can get it. gov.uk says the OZEV grants run for a final year to 31 March 2027, at up to £500 for flat owners and renters with private off-street parking, and that someone who lives in a house they own cannot apply. Only an OZEV-authorised installer can claim it. Google bans promising offers in an ad that are unavailable, so a grant headline shown to every EV search promises homeowners in their own house something they cannot have.
- Should I advertise EICRs to landlords?
- It is one of the steadiest planned jobs there is. Private landlords in England must have every electrical installation inspected and tested by a qualified person at intervals of no more than 5 years, so the work comes round on a clock. "eicr" is searched around 22,200 times a month in the UK at a top-of-page bid of £1.70 to £6.90, well under the emergency auction. Keep Google's default location option on that campaign, because the landlord may not live near the property.
Want a diary full of the jobs you want?
See what it costs, then tell us about your business and we'll show you a website and ads, in your own account, that send the call-outs, the EICRs and the charger installs to your phone and nobody else's. Got a question first? Just message us.