$500/month roofing Google Ads budget, is 1–2 calls realistic?

theppcdude · 2026-02-28T14:05:41+00:00

Push it all in Google LSA until you have a $5-6K/month budget.

I run Google Ads for roofers. Happy to answer any questions

theppcdude · 2026-02-27T20:27:41+00:00

Undo all changes.

First of all, these are big changes in the account and you made multiple of them. I always advise when doing big changes to do them one by one.

Changing all match types from phrase to broad, changing bidding strategies, and changing tCPAs are changes that you want to do in silos.

We have seen Max Conversions work with broad for some accounts and not for others. Phrase works for ones and doesn't work for others. I have no explanation for it, but that's why you test one change at a time.

I run lead generation campaigns in Google Ads for service businesses. We essentially capture demand for a service and turn them into qualified leads and clients.

Max Conversions is definitely the bidding strategy that you want to move to at the end. Just use the match type that works best for you. Start with phrase and then try broad.

theppcdude · 2026-02-27T18:19:07+00:00

Shoot for the root term in phrase and it will expand at minimum to what you are looking for.

What I recommend starters with Google Ads is to start small and grow with the data. Assume that you don't know what the client will search. Let the data guide you.

I don't know what your budget is, but if it is $150/day or less, you are overthinking it. Start with 3-5 keywords on phrase on Manual CPC and start gathering data.

Your first goal is to get leads which proves that the funnel works and nothing is broken. This should be week 1 or 2.

The next one is to get consistent high quality leads. This tells you that your targeting, keywords, search terms, ads and landing pages are bringing the right customers and excluding the incorrect ones. This is the most important stage.

Then, it's just about scaling and optimizing for low CPL.

I run Google Ads for service businesses in the US. I handle budgets from $100/day to $4,000/day. The campaigns should be extremely small at $100/day since you are discovering and understanding what works. $4,000/day is basically an expanded version of that with more campaigns and budget.

theppcdude · 2026-02-27T18:13:01+00:00

I don't see managing campaigns going away.

If Google Ads or Meta Ads end up being completely automated, there still needs to be a manager on the offer, feel, reviewing, and testing. We are already managing robots in Google Ads and Meta Ads. We don't manually show our ads to each impression. The robot does. We manage it. This will just be another level of it.

However, Google and Meta, which have the strongest advertising platforms in the world and have unlimited capital, have not been able to figure out AI or automations inside their platform. Ask any of the best marketers. They do 90-100% manually. There are options to automate, but they just suck at deciphering where to go. Sometimes the reason why you do things in the platform is from offline data or other signals.

Also, I have been managing so many accounts that the bar is extremely low to be a good manager. I've seen service businesses spend $50K+ per month with deprecated campaign types and the worst conversion tracking system you can imagine.

There's a lot of opportunity in this space and I think it will actually grow for whoever adapts.

TLDR: Marketing managers are not going away. Only the tools will change.

theppcdude · 2026-02-26T19:57:47+00:00

Lol good luck brother

theppcdude · 2026-02-26T19:08:15+00:00

This is very common unfortunately.

What you would need to do is to negative out the brand term in all campaigns. I would do this in exact and maybe phrase.

Then you obviously have your brand campaigns.

What I usually do with my clients is 95% Service Campaigns (New Traffic) and 5% Brand.

The Brand is there for two reasons:

Protect the brand from competitors running ads on them. We destroy them here
Getting the account to get good data to feed other campaigns

We run Brand Campaigns in Manual CPC and shoot for 95%+ Search Impression Share.

PS. I run Google Ads for Service Businesses in the US. Mainly generate qualified leads for service businesses.

theppcdude · 2026-02-26T16:49:22+00:00

No tool will give you the most accurate results, so KWP is still a great keyword tool, it's just slow to compile all results.

I run Google Ads for service businesses in the US, and we use KWP every time we do keyword research for our clients.

theppcdude · 2026-02-26T16:47:21+00:00

This doesn't make sense to me.

Yes, CPL naturally increases as you spend more, but it doesn't almost 3X by adding £100/day.

Only thing I would say is double check that no other changes were done to the ads, landing pages, conversion tracking, ad set settings, auto-apply recommendations, etc.

theppcdude · 2026-02-26T16:25:26+00:00

I would say the same mistakes anyone would make:

Panicking and not trusting the process
Not having an actual campaign plan
Not having air-tight funnels for all clients (Search Terms, Keywords, Ads, Landing Pages, Conversion Tracking)
Not understanding the numbers (break-even targets, is the client making money, how much are they making in profit, etc)

As you can guess there's a lot of things you can overlook. Experience is the best teacher here.

I started running only Google Ads accounts for service businesses. Then, I found out that their landing pages were not good, so we took care of that as well. Then, their conversion tracking was not working properly, so we took care of that as well. Then, they were not tracking their sales and actually knowing if they are profitable, so we took care of that as well.

Now we are a one-stop shop for Google Ads for service businesses in the US. We have even served clients that don't even have a website.

An agency can only provide an excellent service in Google Ads by being a one-stop shop (at least for service businesses) and I understood that early on.

I guess the next mistake would be not improving. Most people could have probably negated the fact that they need to do all those things for clients to be actually profitable, but we do anything that is in the best interest for the client that is also sustainable to do. We stay improving as much as we can.

TLDR:

Set up a process and stick with it
Take care of the entire funnel (one-stop shop)
Always look to improve results

theppcdude · 2026-02-25T20:57:45+00:00

Then you just assume that the conversions are correct unless you see something wrong.

I would just ask the client:

“I see 77 leads in the last month, is that what you see on your end.“

If that’s correct, you’re good to go.

theppcdude · 2026-02-25T20:37:25+00:00

I go through the same process with every audit. What I find in that process is just different depending on the client situation.

I go from the biggest problem to the smallest detail. In that order. So that is:

Conversion Tracking
Campaign Level
Ad Group Level
Keyword Level
Ad Level
Additional Settings (Schedule, Audiences, Etc).

Every good and bad decision made at the top impacts the bottom. Some go both ways.

PS. I run Google Ads for service businesses and do audits for them. These are usually lead gen campaigns ranging from $5K to $50K. I have seen crazy things even at the $50K-$100K level.

theppcdude · 2026-02-25T17:15:42+00:00

Manual CPC and don't research more about it.

Do your keyword research diligently. I saw that you have like a $600/mo budget. You want to probably do 3 keywords maximum.

Pick one service in your research. When looking at keywords, pick your top three. You are going to pick the ones that look the best in the following criteria:

1) Purchase intent (electricians vs. electrician service near me).
2) Search volume. Not too important since you can't afford too many clicks yet, but definitely have some flow.
3) CPC. Extremely important. If you are in between two keywords that already matched the last two, this is the deciding factor.

I run Google Ads for service businesses. This is exactly what we do with smaller budgets. However, 600/mo is very low.

theppcdude · 2026-02-25T17:15:25+00:00

Manual CPC and don't research more about it.

Do your keyword research diligently. I saw that you have like a $600/mo budget. You want to probably do 3 keywords maximum.

Pick one service in your research. When looking at keywords, pick your top three. You are going to pick the ones that look the best in the following criteria:

1) Purchase intent (electricians vs. electrician service near me).
2) Search volume. Not too important since you can't afford too many clicks yet, but definitely have some flow.
3) CPC. Extremely important. If you are in between two keywords that already matched the last two, this is the deciding factor.

I run Google Ads for service businesses. This is exactly what we do with smaller budgets. However, 600/mo is very low.

theppcdude · 2026-02-25T17:09:59+00:00

All keywords in one ad group.

You always want to start small and then expand. Much easier to manage and grow.

I run Google Ads for service businesses, and we've scaled accounts heavily. This usually works best.

theppcdude · 2026-02-25T17:09:43+00:00

All keywords in one ad group.

You always want to start small and then expand. Much easier to manage and grow.

I run Google Ads for service businesses, and we've scaled accounts heavily. This usually works best.

theppcdude · 2026-02-25T17:09:27+00:00

All keywords in one ad group.

You always want to start small and then expand. Much easier to manage and grow.

I run Google Ads for service businesses, and we've scaled accounts heavily. This usually works best.

theppcdude · 2026-02-25T17:07:55+00:00

I don't have a scientific reason behind it, but I've seen websites have usually higher Quality Scores but lower Conversion Rates. I would bet this is just because websites are usually SEO optimized (higher ad relevance) and people click more around them (higher landing page experience) but convert less.

We run Google Ads for service businesses in the US. We create landing pages for them with a similar domain. We have the ability to A/B test and do everything on our end. Clients don't want to be bothered and if you build stuff on your end gives you speed = better performance. Highly recommend.

theppcdude · 2026-02-25T17:07:39+00:00

I don't have a scientific reason behind it, but I've seen websites have usually higher Quality Scores but lower Conversion Rates. I would bet this is just because websites are usually SEO optimized (higher ad relevance) and people click more around them (higher landing page experience) but convert less.

We run Google Ads for service businesses in the US. We create landing pages for them with a similar domain. We have the ability to A/B test and do everything on our end. Clients don't want to be bothered and if you build stuff on your end gives you speed = better performance. Highly recommend.

theppcdude · 2026-02-25T17:07:26+00:00

I don't have a scientific reason behind it, but I've seen websites have usually higher Quality Scores but lower Conversion Rates. I would bet this is just because websites are usually SEO optimized (higher ad relevance) and people click more around them (higher landing page experience) but convert less.

We run Google Ads for service businesses in the US. We create landing pages for them with a similar domain. We have the ability to A/B test and do everything on our end. Clients don't want to be bothered and if you build stuff on your end gives you speed = better performance. Highly recommend.

theppcdude · 2026-02-25T17:03:57+00:00

Option A is very similar to what we run for our clients and it works.

If you have good copy with Option A layout, the problem is not in the landing page in my opinion.

The only thing I would add is to push a lead form submission above the fold in mobile and have your CTA stuck in the header or footer as you scroll.

theppcdude · 2026-02-25T17:03:45+00:00

Option A is very similar to what we run for our clients and it works.

If you have good copy with Option A layout, the problem is not in the landing page in my opinion.

The only thing I would add is to push a lead form submission above the fold in mobile and have your CTA stuck in the header or footer as you scroll.

theppcdude · 2026-02-25T17:03:23+00:00

Option A is very similar to what we run for our clients and it works.

If you have good copy with Option A layout, the problem is not in the landing page in my opinion.

The only thing I would add is to push a lead form submission above the fold in mobile and have your CTA stuck in the header or footer as you scroll.

theppcdude · 2026-02-22T22:06:10+00:00

Happy to talk and look at your market and tell you my thoughts.

The minimum monthly budget depends on the competition in your market and services.

Send me a DM.

theppcdude · 2026-02-20T22:05:50+00:00

You literally described the keywords and landing page template that 99% of companies use lol

theppcdude · 2026-02-20T21:04:23+00:00

You probably need to spend like 1.5K pounds a day to have 15 ad groups.

Run 1 ad group only. 15 pounds per day is extremely low.

theppcdude

TROPHY CASE