Google Ads for landscapers who want quoted projects from their budget

Two kinds of search, and they should never share a budget

A landscaping account has two businesses inside it.

Projects. “Patio contractor near me”, “retaining wall builders”, “backyard renovation company”, “drainage contractor”, “garden design and build”. Few searches, high value, and a buyer who will take weeks to decide.

Maintenance. “Lawn care service”, “lawn mowing near me”, “yard cleanup”, “weekly lawn service prices”. Many searches, low value per visit, worth it only when the customer signs up for the season.

Put both in one campaign and Google spends where the volume is. That means mowing. The project searches get whatever budget is left late in the day. The landscaping page covers this split across all marketing. Here it decides how the account is built.

What the benchmark says about landscaping ads

LocaliQ’s home services report covers 3,211 US search campaigns from April 2024 to March 2025. For landscaping it gives a 4.69% click-through rate, $8.76 a click, a 6.42% conversion rate and $117.92 a lead. The home services averages in the same report are 6.37%, $7.85, 7.33% and $90.92.

Read together, those numbers say something about the trade. Fewer people click a landscaping ad, and fewer of those who click get in touch. Our reading is that a project buyer is browsing. They want to see work like the job they have in mind, and an ad that lands on a homepage gives them a slideshow and a contact form.

A lead in that report is a call or a form. It is not a quoted project, and a mowing lead and a patio lead count the same.

What goes wrong in landscaping accounts

The landing page has no photographs of that job. Someone searching for a retaining wall should land on retaining walls. The landing page guide sets out what that page needs.

The budget is flat all year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics describes grounds work as busier in spring, summer and fall, with some firms offering snow removal in winter. An account spending the same in January and May is wrong in both months.

Job seekers and shoppers click the ads. The same BLS page projects about 162,500 openings a year for grounds maintenance workers. Those applicants search with the same words, and so do people buying gravel and mulch. Google says negative keywords do not match close variants, so the list needs each form of each word.

The form asks nothing. A project form with a budget range and a postcode lets you call the right people first.

Ads show outside the service area. Google’s location setting can include people who are interested in your area as well as people in it. For a firm that drives to every job, presence only is the safer choice.

How a landscaping account is split

Pay-per-lead ads for lawn and landscaping firms

Google’s screened US categories include lawn care and landscaping services. Both list a state-level business license, a state-level owner license and general liability insurance.

Lawn care was in the first group that Google began moving into Google Ads in August 2026, as Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals. You are charged when a customer calls or messages through the ad. These leads suit maintenance well. They suit design-build less, because the customer cannot see your portfolio before calling.

The first season, step by step

Before any spend. Calls and forms are tracked, and each form records which campaign sent it.

First month. Projects and maintenance are separated. Search terms are reviewed every few days and the negative list built.

Second and third months. Budget shifts to the campaigns that produce quotes, not just leads. Photographs and prices on the landing pages are tested.

Ahead of each season. Monthly budgets are set from last year’s quoted work.

What it costs, and how it is measured

The published benchmark above is the only cost figure on this page. Your own cost per lead will sit above or below it depending on your town and what you sell. Try your numbers in the Google Ads ROI calculator. We do not state a management fee here. You get a quote from Mavix after a free review. The ads pricing page sets out how management is charged.

You are shown cost per quoted project, the value of those quotes, and maintenance contracts signed. Each is compared with the same month last year.

When Google Ads is the wrong first move

If you have no photographs of finished projects, project ads will struggle. Build the portfolio first.

If the crew is booked for the season, pause the maintenance campaigns and keep only the work you want more of.

If you want project enquiries every year without paying for each click, the pages have to rank on their own. That is SEO for landscapers. For mowing customers close to base, see local SEO for landscapers. How we manage accounts is on the Google Ads service page.