When Plumbers Should Outsource Ads Management

Most plumbing company owners I talk to are managing their Google Ads themselves — or more accurately, they set up a campaign two years ago and check it once a month when the credit card statement reminds them. That's not management. That's donating money to Google.

The reality is that PPC for plumbers works extremely well when it's run correctly. Emergency plumbing keywords convert at rates that most industries would kill for. But "run correctly" requires weekly optimization, disciplined negative keyword management, proper call tracking, and campaign structures that match the way people actually search for plumbing services. There comes a point where doing it yourself costs more than hiring someone to do it right.

This article lays out exactly when that point hits, what you should expect from a PPC agency, how much it actually costs, and how to avoid the agencies that will waste your money just as effectively as a neglected campaign.

When DIY Still Makes Sense

Before I tell you to outsource, let me be honest about when you don't need to.

You can reasonably manage Google Ads in-house if:

• Your monthly ad spend is under $2,000. At lower budgets, the waste from suboptimal management is small enough that agency fees don't pencil out. If you're spending $1,500/month and an agency charges $1,000/month to manage it, the math is upside down.
• You serve one service area with one or two core services. A drain cleaning company covering a single city doesn't need complex campaign architecture. A few tightly targeted ad groups with exact and phrase match keywords can work.
• You have someone on staff who genuinely understands Google Ads. Not "took a YouTube course" — someone who can explain Quality Score, knows the difference between search terms and keywords, and reviews the account weekly. If that person exists, you might be fine.
• Your CPL is stable and profitable. If you're consistently getting calls at $35-$60 per lead and those calls convert to jobs, don't fix what isn't broken.

For everyone outside those scenarios, keep reading.

Five Signs You Need to Outsource

1. You're Spending $3,000+ Per Month and Can't Account for the Results

At $3,000/month in ad spend, you're generating enough data and enough risk that sloppy management becomes expensive fast. In unoptimized plumbing accounts, we typically see 25-40% of budget wasted on irrelevant clicks — DIY searches, job seekers, supply store queries, out-of-area clicks. On $3,000/month, that's $750-$1,200 in pure waste every single month.

An agency charging $800-$1,500/month that eliminates even half of that waste and improves your conversion rate pays for itself immediately. At $5,000+ in monthly spend, outsourcing is almost always the smarter financial decision.

2. Nobody Is Optimizing Weekly

Google Ads campaigns decay without attention. New search terms trigger your ads every day, competitors adjust their bids, Google rolls out algorithm changes, and seasonal demand shifts your cost per click. A plumbing account that runs well in January can be hemorrhaging money by March if nobody is watching.

Proper PPC management for a plumbing company requires 5-10 hours per week: reviewing search terms, adding negative keywords, adjusting bids by time of day and device, testing ad copy, monitoring landing page performance, and listening to call recordings to assess lead quality. If you or your office manager can't commit that time every single week, the account is drifting — and drifting costs money.

3. Your Cost Per Lead Is Rising and You Don't Know Why

When CPL creeps up 15-25% over a quarter and you can't pinpoint why, that's a structural problem. It could be Quality Score erosion from stale ad copy, competitor aggression in your market, broad match keywords pulling in garbage traffic, or your landing page conversion rate dropping due to load speed issues.

Diagnosing these problems requires someone who manages multiple plumbing accounts and has benchmarks to compare against. If your CPL for emergency plumbing calls jumped from $45 to $70 and you don't know whether that's a market trend or an account problem, you're flying blind.

4. You're Not Tracking Conversions Properly

This is the most damaging issue in DIY plumbing accounts. If you can't tell me your exact cost per booked job from Google Ads — not cost per click, not cost per form submission, but cost per actual job booked — your tracking is broken or incomplete.

In plumbing, 70-80% of conversions come through phone calls. If you're not running dynamic number insertion with call duration thresholds (we use 60 seconds minimum to filter out wrong numbers and tire kickers), you're missing most of your conversion data. Without that data, Google's Smart Bidding algorithms can't optimize properly, and you can't make informed budget decisions.

5. You're Running the Same Campaign Structure You Started With

If your account has one campaign called "Plumbing" with a handful of ad groups that haven't changed in a year, you're leaving money on the table. Effective plumbing PPC requires separate campaigns for emergency services, scheduled repairs, specific high-value services (water heater replacement, sewer line repair, repiping), and different geographic targets. Each needs its own budget, bid strategy, ad copy, and landing page.

The difference between a single-campaign setup and a properly segmented account is typically 40-60% in cost per qualified lead. That's not an incremental improvement — that's the gap between profitable and unprofitable.

What a Good PPC Agency Does vs. a Bad One

Not all agencies are equal, and in plumbing PPC, the gap between good and bad is enormous.

What a Good Agency Delivers

• Account structure segmented by service type: Separate campaigns for emergency plumbing, drain cleaning, water heater services, sewer repair, repiping — each with targeted keywords, ad copy, and landing pages
• Weekly search term reviews: Adding 20-50 negative keywords per week in the first few months, ongoing refinement after that
• Custom landing pages: Purpose-built pages for each service that match the search intent, load in under 3 seconds, and have click-to-call buttons prominently placed
• Call tracking with recording: Dynamic number insertion, call duration tracking, and regular review of call recordings to score lead quality
• Transparent reporting: Monthly reports showing spend, leads, cost per lead, cost per booked job, and clear recommendations
• Conversion data fed back to Google: Offline conversion imports that tell Google which clicks became actual jobs, enabling smarter bidding
• Bid management by time of day: Increasing bids during peak emergency hours, pulling back during low-conversion windows

What a Bad Agency Does

• Sets up a generic campaign, turns on Smart Bidding, and walks away
• Sends you a PDF with click and impression data but no lead quality analysis
• Uses your homepage as the landing page for all ads
• Doesn't implement call tracking or uses basic call forwarding without recording
• Manages 200+ accounts with a junior team that spends 30 minutes per week on your account
• Locks you into a 12-month contract with no performance benchmarks
• Won't share your search terms report

The difference shows up directly in your numbers.

Tired of guessing whether your Google Ads are working? We manage PPC exclusively for service businesses and know exactly what plumbing campaigns should cost and produce. Get a free account audit and see where you stand.

DIY vs. Agency: The Real Cost Comparison

Most plumbers think in-house is cheaper because they only count the ad spend. That's not the full picture. Here's what each approach actually costs.

The "opportunity cost" line is where most owners undercount. Every hour you spend fighting with Google Ads is an hour you're not running estimates, managing crews, or building relationships that generate referrals. If your time is worth $150/hour (conservative for a plumbing company owner) and you spend 8 hours a week on ads, that's $4,800/month in time cost alone.

Then there's the waste differential. On a $5,000/month budget, an unoptimized account wastes $1,250-$2,000 in irrelevant clicks. A well-managed account keeps that number under $750. The savings in waste alone often cover the management fee.

ROI Comparison: Real Numbers

Here's what we typically see when comparing a DIY plumbing account before and after agency takeover.

Notice that cost per click actually goes up slightly under agency management. That's intentional — we bid more aggressively on high-converting keywords and cut the cheap, low-quality clicks. You pay more per click but get dramatically more jobs because conversion rates climb and lead quality improves.

The difference between 8 booked jobs and 24 booked jobs from the same $5,000 budget is the difference between barely covering your ad spend and adding $30,000-$60,000 in monthly revenue.

Red Flags When Evaluating PPC Agencies

Before you sign with anyone, watch for these warning signs.

They Won't Give You Account Access

You must own your Google Ads account. The agency should connect through their Manager (MCC) account with access to yours. If they create the account under their name and won't grant you admin access, walk away. When the relationship ends — and eventually all business relationships change — you'll lose your entire campaign history, Quality Score data, and conversion history. That data took months to build and has real dollar value.

Long Contracts with No Exit Clause

A 90-day initial commitment is reasonable. It takes 60-90 days to properly restructure, launch, and begin optimizing a plumbing account. After that initial period, the relationship should move to month-to-month or have a 30-day cancellation clause. Any agency that demands 12 months up front with no performance guarantees is telling you they plan to retain clients through legal obligation rather than results.

They Guarantee Specific Lead Numbers

Nobody can guarantee you "50 leads in your first month." Google Ads is an auction influenced by competitor behavior, market demand, seasonal patterns, and algorithm changes. Agencies that guarantee specific volumes either plan to deliver garbage leads to hit their number or are lying outright. What a good agency guarantees is process: weekly optimization, transparent reporting, clear communication, and accountability for the metrics they can control.

No Transparency on Search Terms

If an agency refuses to share the search term report showing exactly which queries triggered your ads, they're hiding something. Usually it's massive waste. The search term report is the most important diagnostic tool in any PPC account, and you should see it in every monthly report.

They Don't Specialize in Service Businesses

An agency that manages ads for e-commerce brands, SaaS companies, and "oh yeah, we also do some home services" doesn't understand plumbing PPC. They don't know that emergency keywords convert differently than scheduled service keywords. They don't know that call-only ads outperform standard text ads for after-hours campaigns. They don't know that plumbing landing pages need license numbers, insurance badges, and "on the way in 60 minutes" messaging to convert. Specialization matters.

What to Expect in the First 90 Days

Setting realistic expectations prevents frustration on both sides.

Week 1-2: Full account audit. The agency reviews your current campaigns, identifies waste, audits tracking, and develops a restructuring plan. If you don't have an account yet, they're doing keyword research and competitive analysis. No meaningful lead changes during this period.

Week 3-4: New campaign structure launches. Custom landing pages go live. Call tracking is implemented or reconfigured. You might see a temporary dip in lead volume as the old campaigns wind down and new ones ramp up. This is normal.

Month 2: Active optimization begins. The agency is reviewing search terms daily, refining negative keyword lists, testing ad copy variations, and adjusting bids based on early data. Lead quality typically improves first, followed by volume. You should start noticing that the calls you get are more likely to convert to booked jobs.

Month 3: Smart Bidding strategies have accumulated enough conversion data to optimize effectively. Landing page A/B tests produce winners. This is where measurable improvement becomes clear — most plumbing accounts see 30-50% reduction in cost per qualified lead compared to their pre-agency baseline.

If an agency promises to transform your results in two weeks, they don't understand the optimization cycle. Real improvement takes 60-90 days. Compounding gains continue through months four through six.

The Decision Framework

Here's the bottom line. If two or more of these apply to you, outsourcing is almost certainly the right move:

• Monthly ad spend over $3,000
• No one on staff with verified PPC expertise
• Cost per lead increasing quarter over quarter
• No call tracking or incomplete conversion tracking
• One campaign with minimal structure that hasn't changed in months
• You're spending more than 5 hours per week on ads and your hourly rate exceeds $100

The cost of managing plumbing PPC poorly — in wasted ad spend, missed calls, and jobs that go to your competitors — is almost always higher than the cost of hiring an agency that knows what they're doing. The plumbers we work with didn't become profitable on Google Ads by spending more money. They became profitable by spending the same money more intelligently.

Ready to find out what your plumbing ads should actually be producing? We'll audit your current Google Ads account for free, show you exactly where you're wasting money, and give you a clear plan — whether you hire us or not. Schedule your free PPC audit here.