What keywords should my plumbing Google Ads target?

For plumbing owners building or cleaning up a Google Ads keyword list, who want their money going to people ready to book a plumber, not people looking up how to fix it themselves.

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Which searches should a plumbing company's Google Ads show up for?

Target the searches people make when they’re ready to hire a plumber: urgent problems like a burst pipe, leak or sewer backup, specific services you want more of like drain cleaning, water heater replacement or sewer line repair, and general hiring searches like “plumber” or “plumber near me”. Group them by job type, use location targeting for your service area instead of stuffing town names into every keyword, and leave out do-it-yourself and research searches. Then check the search terms report every week, because the keywords you pick and the searches they actually match are not the same list.

Picking and pruning keywords is a big part of the Google Ads management in our local ads work, and every package includes call tracking and source tagging, so calls from your ads don’t get lumped in with everything else. How that fits a plumbing shop is on our plumbing marketing page, and the rest of the plumbing marketing questions library goes question by question.

What kinds of plumbing searches are worth paying for?

In our judgement, four groups of searches are worth testing for most plumbing companies:

• Urgent problems: emergency plumber, burst pipe repair, water leak repair, sewer backup, no hot water. These people want someone today.
• Specific services you want more of: drain cleaning, water heater replacement, tankless water heater installation, sewer line repair, repiping, slab leak repair, gas line repair. Each of these can carry its own ads and its own landing page.
• General hiring searches: plumber, plumbing company, plumber near me, 24 hour plumber. Broad, often busy, and usually the most competitive.
• Your own business name: cheap protection, so the first thing a returning customer sees is you.

Start with the job types that pay you best and that your crews have room for. A keyword list that mirrors your price book, not a generic list of everything plumbing, is easier to judge by booked jobs. Which plumbing services to advertise first covers that choice.

What's the difference between a hiring search and a research search?

The words people add tell you what they’re doing. In our judgement, searches with words like repair, replace, install, fix, emergency, near me, company or service usually come from someone looking to hire. Searches with how to, why is my, DIY, parts, diagram or video usually come from someone trying to do it themselves or learn about it.

A few gray areas need judgement:

• Cost searches (water heater replacement cost) can be early shoppers or close to hiring. Worth testing, then judging by booked jobs.
• Brand searches for a fixture or water heater brand can be a buyer or someone looking for a manual.
• Jobs and careers (plumber jobs, plumbing apprenticeship) aren’t customers at all.

The searches you don’t want are a list of their own, kept out with negative keywords. Which negative keywords stop wasted plumbing ad spend covers that list.

How do I find the right keywords for my area?

Google’s Keyword Planner suggests related keywords and shows estimates of monthly searches and the cost to show up for them. Two ways in: enter words that describe your services, or enter a website and let Google find keywords related to its content. Google notes that a keyword plus your website can give more ideas than the website alone.

Google’s best practices for finding keywords fit plumbing well:

• Describe the service the way customers think of it (“water heater replacement”), not as a full question someone might type.
• Be specific, but not too specific: “plumber” alone is broad, and a long phrase may barely get searched.
• Start with the service, then try adjectives (“emergency”, “24 hour”) as variations.

Set the planner’s location to the area your trucks cover. Google says very low-volume keywords aren’t shown or forecast, and forecasts are less accurate for small areas, so in a small market, don’t drop a service just because the planner shows little for it. Your own search terms report will tell you more after a few weeks.

Should I put my town names in my plumbing keywords?

Usually not. Google’s guidance is to leave the location out of keywords if you’re using location targeting, and to include it only when your customers aren’t in the same place as your service. Location targeting already limits your ads to the area you choose, so “water heater replacement” targeted to your service area covers the person typing “water heater replacement [your town]” too.

The exception plumbers do run into is people searching from somewhere else for a property in your area, like a landlord or an adult child arranging a repair at a parent’s house. Google’s default location setting covers part of this: it reaches people who are in your targeted area and people who have shown interest in your targeted locations, for example through the terms they search. You can switch to reaching only people physically in or regularly in the area. In our judgement, most plumbing companies should watch where their clicks come from before narrowing it.

Which match type should I use for plumbing keywords?

Google Ads has three keyword match types:

• Broad match (the default): ads can show on searches related to your keyword, including ones that don’t contain its exact meaning. Google says it’s critical to use Smart Bidding with broad match.
• Phrase match (“drain cleaning”): ads show on searches that include the meaning of your keyword.
• Exact match ([drain cleaning]): ads show on searches with the same meaning or intent. The most control, the fewest searches.

Google also notes that broader match types capture everything the narrower ones do, plus more. In our judgement, a plumbing company with a modest budget and call tracking that isn’t yet reliable is better off starting with phrase and exact match on its best services, then testing broad match once conversion tracking reliably reports calls and booked jobs for Smart Bidding to learn from. Broad match with nothing to learn from tends to find a lot of related searches you didn’t want.

How many keywords does a plumbing campaign need?

Fewer than most people think. Google’s advice for organizing ad groups is to give each ad group a narrow theme with keywords related to that theme, and to mention at least one of those keywords in the ad’s headline. It also says adding near-duplicates like “drain cleaning” and “cleaning drain” isn’t recommended, because only one keyword would match both searches.

So a water heater ad group might hold a handful of keywords about water heater replacement and installation, not every variation you can think of. The work isn’t adding more keywords; it’s reading what the ones you have matched and pruning. How campaigns and ad groups fit together is covered in how to structure plumbing Google Ads campaigns.

Should I bid on "plumber near me"?

In our judgement, usually yes, as long as your location targeting matches where your trucks go. Someone typing “near me” is telling you they want a local business, and your location targeting decides where your ad can show. Because “near me” searches tend to be broad about the problem, put them in their own ad group, send them to a page that makes it easy to call, and judge them by booked jobs rather than clicks.

The same goes for “24 hour plumber” and “emergency plumber”: bid on them only for the hours you actually answer and can send a truck. A click from someone with water on the floor is worth a lot to the plumber who picks up and nothing to the one who doesn’t.

How do I see which searches my keywords actually matched?

The search terms report in Google Ads lists the actual searches that triggered your ads and how each performed. Depending on your match types, those searches can be quite different from your keyword list. Two columns help most:

• Keyword: which of your keywords matched the search. It’s not shown by default; you turn it on under columns.
• Match type: how closely the search related to your keyword.

Google notes that some low-volume searches are left out of the report for privacy, and its search terms insights group searches into themes, including low-volume ones, as “other queries”. For a plumber, a weekly look at the report shows two things: hiring searches worth adding as keywords of their own, and DIY, jobs or out-of-area searches to block.

Do Local Services Ads and Performance Max use my keywords?

Not in the same way. Local Services Ads, now moving into Google Ads as Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals, are managed through settings for budgets, bidding, locations, service types and business categories, and you pay per lead rather than per click. Google says these campaigns stay keywordless, targeted by the service categories and areas you choose, so there’s no keyword list to build the way there is in a Search campaign.

Standard Performance Max campaigns can also show on searches, and Google explains how they share searches with your Search campaigns: if a search is identical to an eligible exact match keyword in a Search campaign, the Search campaign is prioritized over Performance Max. That’s one reason to keep your most important plumbing searches as exact match keywords in a Search campaign if you run both. Google also notes that a Search campaign limited by budget can lose searches to Performance Max.

How often should I change my plumbing keywords?

Look weekly, change carefully. In our judgement, the rhythm that works for most plumbing companies is:

• Weekly: read the search terms report, add negatives for searches you’d never want, and note hiring searches worth adding.
• Monthly: compare keywords and ad groups by booked jobs from your job software, and pause the ones that spend without booking.
• Seasonally: before winter, check frozen and burst pipe searches; before summer, check outdoor and irrigation work if you do it.

If keywords are getting clicks but the phone isn’t ringing, the keyword list may not be the problem. Why plumbing ads get clicks but no calls walks through the other suspects.

What's different about keywords for plumbing companies

Do-it-yourself searches are everywhere. Plumbing problems are things people try to fix themselves first, so many searches with plumbing words in them come from someone holding a plunger and watching a video. That makes the line between hiring and research searches more important for plumbers than for most trades.

Urgency changes the value of the same words. “Water heater” at 7 a.m. with no hot water and “water heater” from someone comparing tankless models are different customers. Urgent searches belong where the phone is answered fast; planned-replacement searches can go to a page that explains options.

Your price book should shape the list. A sewer line replacement and a faucet repair can both come from Google Ads, but they aren’t worth the same to you. Keywords for high-value work deserve their own ad groups and budgets so they don’t get crowded out.

Plumbing words overlap with jobs and supplies. Searches for plumbing jobs, licenses, supply houses and parts all look like plumbing keywords and none of them are customers.

A worked example: a starter keyword list for a small plumbing shop

This is an illustration of the approach, not a list to copy. Say a three-truck shop wants more water heater and drain work, answers the phone until 10 p.m., and covers a set of towns around its shop.

• Ad group: water heater replacement. Phrase and exact match keywords like “water heater replacement”, “water heater installation”, “tankless water heater installation” and “no hot water”. Ads mention water heaters in the headline and go to the water heater page.
• Ad group: drain cleaning. “drain cleaning”, “clogged drain”, “main line clog”, “sewer backup”. Ads go to the drain page.
• Ad group: plumber near me. “plumber near me”, “plumber”, “plumbing company”, running only during the hours the phone is answered.
• Ad group: business name. The company’s own name, exact match.

Left out on purpose: town names (location targeting covers the service area), “how to” and DIY searches, jobs and apprenticeship searches, and services the shop doesn’t offer. After two weeks, the owner reads the search terms report, adds the hiring searches that showed up as new keywords, and blocks the rest. A free visibility audit can show which of these searches your competitors already show up for in your area.

Frequently asked questions

Should I bid on competitors' business names?

Some advertisers do, but it often brings expensive clicks from people looking for someone else. In our judgement, most plumbing companies get more from their own services and their own name first.

Do I need separate keywords for commercial plumbing?

If you want commercial work, yes, in its own ad group or campaign with its own landing page, because property managers and facility buyers search differently from homeowners. If you don’t do commercial work, it belongs on your negative list.

Will Google add keywords to my account on its own?

Google Ads may recommend new keywords through its Recommendations feature. Read each one before you apply it, and check that it’s a search you’d want to pay for.

Why does my ad show for searches that aren't in my keyword list?

Broad and phrase match let ads show on related searches and searches that include your keyword’s meaning. The search terms report shows exactly which searches matched.

Can I find keywords without spending money on Google Ads first?

Keyword Planner is free to use, but Google says you need to complete your Google Ads account setup, including billing information, to get keyword ideas.

Should I use the same keywords in Spanish?

If you serve Spanish-speaking customers and can take those calls, test Spanish keywords with Spanish ads. Google notes that people may see ads in a language different from their search when it’s confident they understand it.

Key takeaways

• Pay for hiring searches: urgent problems, specific services you want, and general plumber searches.
• Keep DIY, research, jobs and supply searches out with negative keywords.
• Use location targeting for your towns instead of adding town names to every keyword.
• Start with phrase and exact match on your best services; test broad match once tracking is reliable.
• Give each job type a narrow ad group and judge keywords by booked jobs, not clicks.
• Read the search terms report weekly; it shows what your keywords really matched.

More in this section

• How should I structure my plumbing Google Ads campaigns?
• How much should a plumbing company spend on Google Ads?
• Why are my plumbing Google Ads getting clicks but no calls?
• Should my plumbing company start with LSAs, Google Ads or SEO?
• Are LSAs or Google Ads better for emergency plumbing calls?

Sources

1. About keyword matching options — Google Ads Help
2. Best practices for finding new keywords — Google Ads Help
3. Use Keyword Planner — Google Ads Help
4. About Keyword Planner forecasts — Google Ads Help
5. About the search terms report — Google Ads Help
6. About advanced location options — Google Ads Help
7. Organize your account with ad groups — Google Ads Help
8. Local Services Ads transition to Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals — Google Ads Help