The low end sets the price
Craigslist crews and the gig apps make every homeowner think landscaping should cost $50. Ads that do not signal quality draw exactly those shoppers, at $8 to $20 a click.
Every guy with a trailer is a landscaper on Google. Your ads have to say why you are not.
“Landscaping near me” is a coin flip. Half the people want a $200 mulch job from whoever is cheapest. The other half want a $40k backyard or a year-round commercial contract. The ad that tries to serve both ends up winning the first half.
We split the account by what the customer wants to buy, bid hard on design-build and maintenance contracts, keep the low-ticket calls to a trickle, and track every estimate to a signed job or contract.
Projects from $5k to $75k, maintenance contracts $3k to $50k a year. The upside is real. So is the waste, and here’s where it usually comes from.
Craigslist crews and the gig apps make every homeowner think landscaping should cost $50. Ads that do not signal quality draw exactly those shoppers, at $8 to $20 a click.
“Landscaping ideas”, “front yard design”, “cost of landscaping”. Pinterest traffic with a credit card still in the drawer.
A maintenance account across town costs you drive time 30 times a year. Project work that is not geo-targeted sends crews and trailers in every direction.
Campaigns by service line: Landscape design and installation, hardscape and outdoor living, commercial maintenance, residential maintenance programs, drainage and grading, irrigation. Each with its own budget tied to the ticket.Ads that signal the price tier: “Design-build landscaping from $15k” or “Commercial grounds maintenance for HOAs and office parks”. The right people lean in; the mulch shoppers scroll past.Negatives for the $200 jobs: Mulch delivery, “cheap”, “one time”, jobs, supply, ideas, “how to”, plus every nursery and big-box name. Reviewed weekly.Contracts fed back to Google: Call tracking plus Aspire, LMN, Jobber or Service Autopilot so bidding learns from signed projects and maintenance contracts.Examples from landscaping accounts. The real lists run to hundreds of terms and get reviewed every week.
Your account is run by two PPC pros with 20+ years each. No handoff to a coordinator juggling 35 accounts.
Not quarterly. Not “when the algorithm settles”. Every week, by hand, so the junk never gets a chance to pile up.
Your Google Ads account, your data, your tracking, from day one. Leave anytime and take it all with you.
Who likes 12-month contracts? We don’t. We earn the next quarter by making the last one pay.
For a design-build or commercial maintenance company, $3k to $8k a month during the season. Maintenance-only companies can run lower. We tie the budget to how many crews you can actually put on new work.
No. One landscaping company per metro. We would rather turn down the second one than explain to you why your cost per lead went up.
Yes. Property managers and HOA boards search differently (“commercial grounds maintenance”, “HOA landscaping contractor”) and they want a bid, not a phone call. They get a separate campaign and a page built for that buyer.
Fuel, labor and dump fees eat the margin. Clicks have to bring jobs worth the drive.
How we run it →A bucket truck and a crane cost money whether they move or not. Keep them moving.
How we run it →Trucks, crews and a short summer. Every click has to earn a booked date.
How we run it →Plows, salt and overtime are fixed costs. Contracts are how you cover them.
How we run it →Talk to a senior PPC expert who has run landscaping accounts. Never a junior.