Google Ads for flooring companies: budgets, the campaigns that book estimates and the ones that waste money
Which search campaigns book in-home estimates for a flooring company, what a lead really costs by product, the negative keywords that save half the budget, and a budget that can be judged.
Most flooring companies that "tried Google Ads and lost $3,000" ran one campaign on broad match "flooring", at every hour, with every click sent to a home page that said "quality flooring at affordable prices". That account was buying searches for "flooring jobs", "vinyl flooring Home Depot" and "how to install laminate" and had no way to know, because no call was tracked.
Here is the account that books estimates instead.
Start with the product, not the trade
A homeowner searching "flooring company near me" is early and vague. A homeowner searching "hardwood floor refinishing cost" or "LVP installation" has a room and a product in mind. Build the campaigns around products:
- Hardwood refinishing: "hardwood floor refinishing", "refinish hardwood floors", "sand and refinish floors", plus the town names. Clicks run $4 to $12 in most metros. Tracked calls land at $40 to $110.
- LVP and laminate installation: "vinyl plank installation", "LVP installer", "laminate flooring installation". Clicks $5 to $14, leads $50 to $130.
- Hardwood installation: "hardwood floor installation", "engineered hardwood installers". Clicks $6 to $16, leads $60 to $150. Bigger tickets, longer decision.
- Tile and carpet: lower intent and more competition from big box stores. Run them only if they are a real share of your revenue.
Each campaign gets its own ad group per product, its own landing page with that product's per-square-foot range, and its own tracked phone number.
The campaign that wastes money
Broad match on "flooring" or "floors" is the first. It buys "flooring store", "flooring sale", "flooring installer salary" and every DIY question. If you use broad match at all, use it only with a conversion goal that has at least thirty tracked calls behind it, and never in the first month.
"Flooring store near me" is the second. Unless you have a showroom with stock, that searcher wants to walk in and look at samples today. You pay $8 for a click that bounces.
Performance Max with no conversion data is the third. It will spend the budget. It will report "conversions" that are page views. Keep it off until Search has produced a few dozen real calls to learn from.
Running 24 hours a day is the fourth. Flooring is not an emergency trade. Schedule ads for the hours someone answers the phone, and add 20 to 30 percent to bids between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. on weekdays and all day Saturday, when couples are planning.
Negative keywords: the list that saves half the budget
Add these on day one, at the account level: jobs, careers, salary, hiring, DIY, how to, install yourself, Home Depot, Lowe's, Lumber Liquidators, LL Flooring, Floor and Decor, free, cheapest, wholesale, liquidation, rental, apartment, Craigslist, repair kit, cleaner, polish, Amazon, used, scratch remover. Then read the search terms report every week and add the new ones. In a typical new account, this list alone cuts 30 to 50 percent of wasted clicks in the first fortnight.
Local Services Ads for flooring
Local Services Ads, the "Google Guaranteed" units above the regular ads, are available for flooring in most of the US. You pay per lead, $25 to $80 in most metros, not per click. Ranking depends on reviews, response time and a background check. The leads are mixed: more price shoppers than Search, but a flooring company with 40 or more reviews usually gets a steady flow. Dispute the bad leads inside the window; the credits add up. Run it alongside Search, not instead of it.
Landing pages and call tracking
Every ad goes to a page about that product, not the home page. The page needs the per-square-foot range at the top, five photos of that product installed, three reviews that mention it, a tap-to-call button and a short form (name, phone, town, approximate square footage). The website guide covers the pages.
Call tracking is not optional. Use a forwarding number on the ads so every call is logged with its keyword and recorded. Count a conversion as a call over 60 seconds or a submitted form. Listen to ten calls a week. You will hear which keywords bring the renter asking about a 10 by 12 bedroom and which bring the homeowner with 1,800 square feet and a deadline.
A budget you can judge
For a company doing 8 to 15 installs a month, $1,500 to $3,000 a month across Search and Local Services Ads is a real test. At $80 per lead that is 20 to 35 leads a month; at a 30 percent close on in-home estimates that is 6 to 10 jobs, and at a $4,000 to $6,000 average ticket the math works. Under $800 a month you do not get enough data to judge in two months, and you will quit before the account has learned anything.
What "working" looks like at two weeks: 10 to 20 tracked calls, a search terms report you have pruned twice, a cost per lead you can say out loud, and at least one booked in-home measure you can trace to a keyword. Not a lower cost per click. Clicks are not the business.
Seasonal adjustments
Raise budgets in September and October for the holiday deadline season, and in March and April for spring sellers refinishing before listing. Drop them in mid-January and in late July. The slow-season plan covers what to run in the quiet weeks. Check the missed-call calculator before raising any budget: if a quarter of calls go unanswered, more ad spend buys more unanswered calls.
Frequently asked
Should the ads go to my phone or the office? Whoever answers in three rings. If that is you on a job site, use a text-back so the ones you miss get a reply within a minute. An ad call to voicemail is money gone.
Do I need to run ads if I rank in the map pack already? Fewer, but not none. The ads sit above the map and take 20 to 30 percent of the clicks on commercial searches. A small Search campaign on your best product protects the position.
Can I just use Google's "smart" campaign? It is broad match with no search terms report. It spends well and reports badly. Build a regular Search campaign instead; it takes an afternoon.
Google Ads management is one of the services on the free 14-day trial, set up inside your own account with your own card for the ad spend. No card to us, text or call.
Steven has spent the last several years running growth campaigns for local service businesses, flooring companies among them, and builds the benchmark datasets on this site from public Google listings. About the editor