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PpcAutomate

Google Ads for electricians and PPC for electrical contractors

PpcAutomate runs the daily Google Ads work for electrical contractors: it blocks DIY wiring, apprentice job, and parts searches as they appear, keeps emergency, panel, and EV charger campaigns inside their own budgets, and alerts you when calls or form fills stop.

Try it with your report

Pay for the homeowner with a dead panel, not the person watching a wiring video

An electrician's account collects very different searches under the same broad keywords. Someone typing "electrician near me power out" needs a truck within hours. Someone typing "how to wire a light switch" wants a tutorial, and someone typing "electrician apprenticeship" wants a job. Google charges for all three clicks, and electrician clicks are not cheap in most US metros.

The table shows how PpcAutomate treats common electrical query groups once you mark which jobs you sell. Treat it as a starting map. Your own search terms report decides the final list.

  • Emergency

    Example searches

    emergency electrician, power outage electrician, burning smell outlet

    Typical intent

    Call now

    What the rules do

    Keep eligible, protect from negatives, watch cost per lead

  • Panel and service

    Example searches

    electrical panel upgrade, 200 amp service, breaker box replacement

    Typical intent

    Quote request

    What the rules do

    Keep eligible, compare cost per lead with job value

  • EV and generators

    Example searches

    ev charger installation, whole home generator installer

    Typical intent

    Quote request

    What the rules do

    Keep eligible if you install them, own campaign and budget

  • Repair and install

    Example searches

    outlet repair, ceiling fan installation, recessed lighting

    Typical intent

    Booking

    What the rules do

    Keep eligible, set a lower cost per lead target

  • Job seekers

    Example searches

    electrician jobs, journeyman wages, apprenticeship

    Typical intent

    Employment

    What the rules do

    Add as phrase negatives after review

  • DIY and parts

    Example searches

    how to wire, wire gauge chart, breaker amp rating

    Typical intent

    Self service

    What the rules do

    Add as exact or phrase negatives

  • Out of scope

    Example searches

    electrical supply store, electrician license exam

    Typical intent

    Trade buyer or student

    What the rules do

    Exclude unless you sell to the trade

The table is about speed. An electrical company that reviews search terms once a month pays for three or four weeks of apprentice and DIY clicks before anyone notices. Negative keyword autopilot mines recurring word groups every day, so a pattern like "jobs" or "how to" is caught after a handful of wasted clicks. See the negative keyword automation page for how match types are chosen.

Keep emergency calls, panel upgrades, and EV chargers in separate campaigns

Service area, 14 ZIP codes

Bid +8% · CPL $64

Sample account, demo data

One campaign for every service forces one budget and one cost per lead target on very different jobs. An emergency call is worth a fast answer and a high bid. A panel upgrade or an EV charger install is a bigger ticket that tolerates a higher cost per lead but a slower decision.

Split them so each campaign has its own budget, bids, and negatives. Then the rules can treat them differently: protect emergency terms from aggressive negatives, and pull back bids on low margin repair terms when their cost per lead rises. PpcAutomate applies exclusion and bid rules to the campaigns you select, and it does not rebuild your structure or change your location settings on its own.

  • Run emergency terms during hours someone actually answers, and check the call tracking after any phone change.
  • Give panel and service upgrades their own cost per lead target based on ticket size.
  • Keep EV charger and generator campaigns separate, since both are seasonal and incentive driven.
  • Use the change log to see which budget moved and why.

Keep spend inside the ZIP codes your vans reach on time

Location settings live in Google Ads, and they matter before any negative keyword runs. Set a radius or ZIP codes around the area you can reach with your promised arrival time. Check whether the campaign targets people in the area or also people who show interest in it, because the second option can send budget to someone searching for a house in another state.

Licensing adds a wrinkle. Electrical work is licensed by state and often by county or city, so a campaign that reaches across a border may bring in jobs you cannot legally take. Keep each campaign to the jurisdictions where you hold a license. PpcAutomate does not widen your radius or change your location settings.

A rule set a small electrical crew can read in one minute

These rules show the level of control you keep. Each one says what it checks, where it applies, and how far it can move a setting in a day. You can switch any rule off and undo any change from the log.

  1. 1 When a search phrase containing jobs, wages, apprenticeship, or hiring spends without a conversion, add it as a phrase negative to every service campaign.
  2. 2 When a query starting with how to or diy collects 3 clicks and no conversion, add it as an exact negative.
  3. 3 When cost per lead on panel upgrade keywords rises above $140 over 30 days, lower their bids by up to 10 percent per day.
  4. 4 When the emergency campaign is on pace to spend its monthly budget before the 20th, slow daily budget increases and send an email alert.
  5. 5 When calls or form fills drop to zero for 24 hours while spend continues, send an alert so you can check the phone line and tracking.

The thresholds above are examples. You enter your own numbers based on average ticket size and close rate.

How much should an electrician spend on Google Ads?

Start from the number of jobs you want to book, your close rate, and the cost per lead you can afford, then let the budget follow. Electrical tickets range from a small repair to a full panel or service upgrade, so the right cost per lead differs by campaign. A budget too small to collect a meaningful number of leads each month teaches you nothing.

Run the math before you raise spend. If your target is 20 booked jobs a month, you close 40 percent of leads, and you can pay $60 per lead, the account needs about 50 leads and roughly $3,000 in monthly spend. If that is out of reach, narrow the campaigns to the jobs with the best margin, usually emergency calls and panel work, rather than spreading a small budget across every service.

PpcAutomate's bid and budget rules then hold the account to that plan. Monthly pacing spreads spend across the month, and a daily cap on change size stops any single rule from making a large swing. The bid and budget rules page shows how targets and limits are set.

See what changed in the account while you were on a job

Owners and office managers rarely have time to open Google Ads during the day. The change log lists every negative added, every bid adjusted, and every budget moved, with the rule that triggered it and a one-click undo. Daily email alerts cover spend spikes, conversion drops, disapproved ads, and campaigns that run out of budget.

The monthly report puts cost per lead, spend, and the work done in one place, so you can decide whether to add a service, cut a town, or raise the budget before the next busy stretch. If several people share the account, Starter includes 2 team seats and Growth includes 5.

A flat fee instead of a percentage of your ad spend

Electrician PPC agencies often charge a monthly retainer or a percentage of ad spend, and the routine work behind that fee is mostly search term reviews, bid changes, and budget checks. PpcAutomate does that routine for a flat subscription. Your Google Ads spend is billed by Google separately.

Starter costs $99 per month, or $49 per month billed yearly at $588 per year. It covers 1 Google Ads account and up to $15,000 in monthly ad spend under management. Growth costs $249 per month, or $124 per month billed yearly at $1,488 per year, and adds Microsoft Ads, target CPA pacing, per-rule Approve or Autopilot mode, Slack alerts, and a weekly account audit. Multi-location companies usually start on Growth. Compare all limits on the pricing page.

If you run other trades, the Google Ads for plumbers, Google Ads for HVAC, and Google Ads for roofers pages cover the same workflow, and PPC management for small business covers the general case.

Questions electricians ask about Google Ads

Yes, for electrical contractors who serve a defined area and answer the phone fast. Emergency and panel work have enough margin that a few booked jobs cover a month of clicks. The risk is wasted spend on DIY, apprentice, and parts searches, which daily negative keywords remove.

Work backward from booked jobs. Divide your monthly job goal by your close rate to get leads needed, then multiply by the cost per lead you can afford. For example, 20 jobs at a 40 percent close rate and $60 per lead needs about 50 leads and roughly $3,000 a month.

Start with electrician near me, emergency electrician, electrical panel upgrade, ev charger installation, and electrical contractor, combined with your city. Exclude jobs, wages, apprenticeship, how to, and wire gauge terms from day one, then add negatives from your own search terms report.

Many run both. Local Services Ads charge per lead and suit general service calls, while Search campaigns charge per click and give you keyword, negative, and bid control for higher value panel, EV charger, and generator work. PpcAutomate manages the Search side.

No. Local Services Ads are managed in their own dashboard. PpcAutomate works on Google Ads Search campaigns, and on Microsoft Ads from the Growth plan, adding negatives, adjusting bids and budgets within your limits, and reporting every change.

Yes, from the Growth plan. Each rule can run in Approve mode, where proposed changes wait for your click, or Autopilot mode, where they apply within your daily limits. Starter applies rules automatically and keeps every change in the log with one-click undo.