The biggest search in this trade is looking for a builder. The licensed part of your job costs half as much and nobody bids on it.
What your clicks actually cost, which searches are wasting money, and what your cost per booked job looks like. Fifteen minutes, and you keep it either way.
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Less than half the price, and the one part of the job that legally has to be done by somebody licensed.
Bathroom renovation is the biggest search in this trade at 18,100 a month, and at $9.52 a click it is also the dearest. Most of those people are looking for somebody to manage the whole job, which is not you. Waterproofing costs $4.32 on 5,400 searches, it is licensed work with real liability attached, and the tiling usually follows it. Tiler near me sits in between at $6.29.
Average cost per click across Australia, from Google Keyword Planner. What your account pays will differ with location, competition and quality score. The gap between these rows is the argument, not the exact figures.
The expensive end is expensive because bathroom renovation is a builder search, and builders and renovation companies with much bigger job values bid it up. A tiler competing there is paying builder prices to reach somebody who wants to hire a builder.
The bottom three rows are cheap for a reason worth understanding. Bathroom tiles, floor tiling and kitchen splashback are around a dollar a click because the people typing them are shopping for tiles, not hiring a tradesman. Cheap clicks are not automatically good clicks.
Three numbers, and only the last one decides anything. It is the same chain our Brisbane digital marketing agency works through in every industry, only the dollar figures change.
We work it right to left. What a job is worth sets what a lead can cost, which sets what a click is worth bidding.
Cost per click is the easiest number to improve and the least useful one. Bid on cheaper searches and it drops immediately, whether or not those searches ever turn into work. That is why we will sometimes tell you to pay more per click rather than less.
Google Ads is the fastest of the three and the only one you pay for by the click. Here is what the other two do, and where the expensive clicks eventually stop.
THE SLOW ASSET
A real page per job type instead of a Services list, a gallery organised by room rather than by date, a Google Business Profile built properly, and a review process after every job. Slow to arrive, and the only thing that eventually takes the expensive renovation clicks off your bill.
THE FAST LEVER
Campaigns split by job type so waterproofing never competes with splashbacks for the same budget. Negative keywords so you stop paying for tiling courses, tiler wages, tile shops, tile prices per square metre and the enormous volume of people buying tiles. Call tracking, because bathrooms are quoted by phone.
THE ONE MOST TILERS SKIP
The cheapest reach available, and the right channel for a trade that sells on finished photographs. A bathroom is decided over months of looking at other people’s, which is a social process long before it is a search.
We start from what a job is worth, not what a click costs. A tiler chasing splashbacks and one chasing full bathroom waterproof and tile packages cannot afford the same cost per click. Google Ads does the fast work, SEO eventually takes the expensive clicks off your bill, and Meta Ads is where finished work does the selling. We will tell you if one is not worth running.
Not a strategy document. These are the three campaigns we would build first for a Brisbane tiler, and what each one is actually for.
Built around “waterproofing”
5,400 searches a month at $4.32 a click, less than half the renovation search. Waterproofing is licensed, it carries real liability, and it is almost always followed by tiling on the same job. The page has to name your licence, show the membrane going down, and say what your warranty covers.
Built around “tile removal”
$5.57 a click on 1,000 searches, and the least glamorous campaign we would build you. Somebody searching this has a job that has already started and a deadline attached to it. They are ringing for a price and a date, and most tilers do not advertise the removal at all.
Built around the searches we exclude
Tiling courses, tiler wages, apprenticeships, tile shops, tile prices per square metre, DIY guides, and the enormous number of people choosing tiles rather than choosing a tiler. On broad match you pay full price for every one of them.
Send us access to your Google Ads account and we will come back with what it is wasting, which searches are costing you the most for the least, and what we would change first. Fifteen minutes, no obligation, and you keep it either way.
Two clicks can cost the same and be worth completely different amounts. That gap, not the click price, is what decides whether an account works.
Four dollars and change for the click, licensed work at the end of it, and the tiling on the same job more often than not. Waterproofing is the cheapest way into a full bathroom in this trade, and it is the search most tilers never think to run.
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.
A dollar for the click and 9,900 searches a month on bathroom tiles alone, which looks like the bargain of the trade until you ask what those people want. They are picking a colour. They will pick a tiler months later, if at all, and probably not from an ad they saw while shopping.
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.
Three things come up in nearly every Google Ads account we audit for a tiler.
Bathroom renovation is the obvious buy so it takes the whole budget, at $9.52 a click, against renovation companies quoting the entire job. A tiler pays builder prices there to reach somebody who wants to hire a builder, and then quotes for a fraction of the work.
Waterproofing is $4.32 a click and tile removal $5.57. Both are jobs a tiler does and a renovation company subcontracts out. Cheaper clicks, a buyer who wants specifically what you do, and far fewer people bidding against you.
The dollar clicks look irresistible on a report. Bathroom tiles, floor tiling and kitchen splashback have 19,700 searches a month between them and produce almost no work, because the people typing them are shopping for materials.
Cost per click, then cost per lead, then cost per booked job by job type. A four dollar waterproofing click that books a bathroom beats a hundred one dollar clicks from people choosing a colour, and only the last number shows it.
Bathrooms are quoted on site, and a tiler who drives to every enquiry spends the week in the car. Most accounts we audit have nothing in the ad or on the page about minimum job size or how far you will travel.
Minimum job size stated up front, service radius held to what you would really drive, and enough on the page that somebody wanting a single cracked tile replaced knows not to call. Fewer enquiries, more of them worth having.
We start with what a job is worth and work backwards to what a click can cost.
A splashback and a full bathroom waterproof and tile package cannot carry the same cost per click. We work out your average job value by type first, and how often waterproofing turns into the tiling as well, because that is what decides which searches are affordable.
Waterproofing, bathrooms, floors, removal and commercial each get their own campaign, budget and landing page, so the cheap material searches never eat the budget that should be buying licensed work.
Search terms reviewed weekly and negatives added, because tiling attracts an enormous volume of product and DIY searches. Then monthly reporting on cost per booked job by job type, not clicks and impressions.
Worth saying before you enquire, because it saves everyone three months.
If your work already comes through builders on repeat, this will mostly buy you domestic enquiries that take three times the admin for a fraction of the job. And if you are not licensed to waterproof, the best campaign on this page is not available to you, which changes the maths considerably.
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.
Bid on it, but not as the whole account. At $9.52 a click you are in an auction with renovation companies quoting the entire job, and most of those searchers want somebody to manage the lot. You pay builder prices and then quote for the tiling only. Waterproofing costs $4.32 and the person wants exactly what you do.
Because it is licensed, it carries liability, and the tiling almost always follows it on the same job. It costs less than half the renovation search, it has 5,400 searches a month, and very few tilers advertise it as its own thing. It is the cheapest way into a full bathroom in this trade.
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.
No, and it is the clearest trap on this page. Bathroom tiles, floor tiling and kitchen splashback have 19,700 searches a month between them at around a dollar each, and they produce almost no work. Those people are choosing a colour, not hiring a tiler.
Enough that the data means something. At $4.32 a click that is a lower bar than most trades on this hub, which is another argument for starting with waterproofing rather than renovation. We would rather run one job type properly than four thinly.
It varies too much by job type for a single honest number. A splashback enquiry and a full bathroom are not comparable. We report cost per booked job by type, and we track how often a waterproofing job turns into the tiling as well, because that is where the real return sits.
Three places, in this order. Material and DIY searches, which tiling attracts more of than almost any trade. The renovation term, where you are outbid by companies quoting the whole job. And driving to quote small jobs, because nothing in the ad sets a minimum.
Add waterproofing as its own campaign with its own page. In nearly every tiling account we audit it is not being bid on at all, which means the cheapest route to a full bathroom is sitting unused while the budget goes to the renovation search.
Yes. A waterproofing page needs your licence number, photos of the membrane going down and what the warranty covers. A bathroom page needs finished rooms, a price range and how long you will be on site. They are different buyers and one of them is checking whether you are legally allowed to do the work.
We look at what it is wasting, how many material searches you are paying for, whether waterproofing is being bid on at all, and what your cost per booked job looks like by type. You get it in writing and you keep it whether or not you hire us.
