You are one of the most expensive audiences in Australia to advertise to. Software companies pay eighteen dollars a click to reach you and insurers pay fourteen. Worth knowing, because it tells you how much of what lands in your inbox is a sales pitch.
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Cost per click, Australia, Semrush.
Three channels, three jobs. A business usually needs all three, staggered rather than launched at once. It is the same model our Brisbane digital marketing agency runs across every industry we work in, only the numbers underneath it change.
META ADS
For trades with thin search demand this is the main channel rather than the extra one. If only a few hundred people a month are searching for your trade, you cannot capture your way to a full calendar. You have to create demand that does not exist yet, and photographs of finished work in your suburbs is how that is done.
GOOGLE ADS
Catches people the moment they search, including the ones Meta warmed up. Fastest of the three to produce a booked job, and the honest test of whether the demand is really there. If a paid campaign cannot find enough searches to spend a modest budget, that is your answer about the trade rather than about the campaign.
SEO
Takes over the same job searches Google Ads is paying for, permanently and for free. Slowest to arrive, cheapest to keep, and worth doing properly only once you know there is real demand underneath it.
Google Ads tells us within about six weeks which searches actually produce booked jobs, so SEO gets aimed at those instead of guessing for six months. Meta retargeting picks up everyone who read a job page and did not call. And as SEO ranks for a job type, we pull the paid spend off it and move it to the next one. That order matters more on a trade with thin demand, because it stops you spending a year ranking for something nobody searches.
The work behind each one, so you can tell whether a proposal is describing effort or just naming a platform.
THE SLOW ASSET
A real page per job type rather than a Services list, because in almost every trade we have measured the named job outsells the trade name. Google Business Profile built properly, categories right, and a review process that runs after every job. Suburb pages for the areas you actually service.
THE FAST LEVER
Campaigns split by job type, not one campaign named after your trade. Negative keywords so you stop paying for apprenticeships, wages, courses and the DIY crowd, which in most trades is a surprising share of the volume. Call tracking above everything, because trades are booked by phone and lost to voicemail.
THE ONE MOST TRADES SKIP
The one most trades skip, and the one that matters most if your trade has thin search demand. Photographs of finished work, in the suburbs you service, reaching people who have not started looking yet.
We start from how much demand your trade actually has, because that decides everything else. A trade with thousands of searches can live on Google Ads and SEO. A trade with a few hundred cannot, and needs Meta Ads doing the heavy lifting. We will tell you on the call which one you are, with the numbers.
Not a strategy document. These are the three things we would look at first for any trade business, and the numbers behind why.
Built around your actual demand
The first question is not which channel. It is how many people are actually looking for what you do. A locksmith has 22,200 a month searching, a mechanic 49,500, a bricklayer 480. If demand is high the job is capturing it before someone else does. If demand is low, no amount of Google Ads spend will fill your week and you have to create demand instead. Nobody can tell you which without checking, and almost nobody checks.
Built around what people actually type
The pattern that surprised us most. Almost nobody searches for the trade, they search for the thing they want done. Pergola beats carpenter six to one. Gyprock beats plasterer five to one. Granny flat beats home builders three to one. Retaining wall beats landscaping three to one. It held in nine of the first twelve trades we measured, which makes it a rule rather than a coincidence, and it means the most common word on your website is usually the one fewest people type.
Built around your reviews
Every near me search in every trade is decided in the map box on reviews and proximity, and nothing you write outranks it. If your review count is in single figures, that is the first job in any trade, ahead of content, ahead of a new website, ahead of everything. It is the least exciting recommendation we make and the one that changes the most.
Tell us your trade and your suburbs. We will come back with the real search numbers, an honest view of whether search can fill your week, and the three pages we would start with. Fifteen minutes, no obligation, and you keep the research either way.
Your Google Business Profile, suburb pages, and local listings optimised so customers in your area find you first.
Technical fixes and service-focused SEO that make your site easy for Google to understand and trust.
Build your reputation through reviews, with monthly reports tracking rankings and leads from organic search.
Site speed, crawlability, schema markup, and Core Web Vitals sorted so Google can index and trust your site.
Service pages and suburb landing pages written to rank and convert, not just fill space.
Backlink building and on-page optimisation that compounds month over month.
Worth saying before you enquire, because it saves everyone three months.
Fast answers, clear decisions.
Spend, leads and trends at a glance.
Your data, your accounts.
Budget goes to what converts.
4+ years average client retention.
Specialists across each platform.
Because it is the clearest way to show you what is going on. Job management software pays $18.15 a click to reach you, insurers $14.20, accountants $8.43. You are an expensive audience, which means most of what lands in your inbox is a sales pitch written by someone who has never quoted a job. Worth knowing before you read the next one.
Agency fees usually work one of three ways: a percentage of ad spend, a flat monthly retainer, or a base fee plus a percentage above a threshold. Percentage models get expensive as you scale and quietly reward the agency for spending more of your money. Ask which model an agency uses and why before you ask for a number.
Someone has to check, and it takes about fifteen minutes. The spread across the trades we have measured is roughly thirty one to one: a mechanic has 49,500 people a month searching, a bricklayer has 480. If nobody has shown you that number for your trade, nobody has done the work.
A website built around the trade name. Pergola beats carpenter six to one, gyprock beats plasterer five to one, granny flat beats home builders three to one. It held in nine of the first twelve trades we measured. The most prominent word on most trade websites is the one fewest customers type.
Then search will not fill your week and we will say so. Those trades live on relationships, photographs of finished work and creating demand that does not exist yet, which is Meta and word of mouth rather than Google. It is a smaller engagement and it is the honest one.
Reviews, in almost every case. Every near me search in every trade is decided in the map pack on reviews and proximity, and nothing you write outranks it. If your count is in single figures, that is the first job ahead of content, ahead of a new website, ahead of everything.
No, and anyone who says yes without checking your numbers is guessing. High demand trades can run on capture alone. Thin demand trades need Meta doing the heavy lifting. Most sit in between and get the best result from all three, staggered rather than launched at once.
Ask how much search demand exists for your trade, in numbers, and what they would do if the answer is not much. The ones who cannot answer are guessing, and the ones who say every trade needs the same package are selling a product rather than a plan.
Paid channels produce enquiries in the first few weeks. SEO takes three to six months to move and six to twelve to become a real part of your lead flow. Anyone promising organic results in thirty days is either targeting terms nobody searches or about to do something that gets your site penalised.
We pull the real search numbers for your trade and your suburbs, check your review count against whoever is ranking above you, and tell you honestly whether search can fill your week or whether you need a different approach. You get it in writing and you keep it either way.
