Playbook · Electricians · Paid advertising
The complete guide to electrician Google and Meta ads
How a residential electrical contractor sets up ads so the breaker and outlet calls stay profitable, panel, EV charger and generator projects get their own budget, and storm weather finds you ready. For owners who run their own account or want to check their agency’s work.
The short version
How should an electrician run Google and Meta ads?
Give service calls and project work their own campaigns. Service call campaigns cover the towns your vans reach quickly, run when someone answers the phone and send clicks to a page built for calling. Panel upgrade, EV charger and generator campaigns aim for estimate requests, on pages that cover cost factors, permits and your current lead time. Keep storm campaigns built and paused until the weather turns, filter out DIY, parts and apprenticeship searches, and judge it all on booked jobs. Meta won’t book service calls, but it can run generator offers before storm season and remind homeowners comparing panel or charger estimates. The median Google lead for electricians costs about $94 (LocaliQ, 2025), cheap against a panel upgrade and steep against a single outlet.
The search terms report
Where electrician ad budgets get wasted
Every month we read the actual searches your ads showed up for. In electrical, the wasted spend is predictable: DIYers, parts shoppers, apprenticeship seekers and people outside your service area.
Cut: never going to book
| Search term | Why it’s cut |
|---|---|
| Job seeker | |
| DIY | |
| Shopping for equipment | |
| Wants free | |
| Outside your area |
Keep: searches that book
- “electrician near me”Ready to book
- “panel upgrade [suburb]”Big ticket
- “ev charger installer [city]”Project work
Example search terms. Yours come from your account.
Step by step
Setting up electrician ads that book
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01
Put a value on a service call and on each project
A breaker repair and a panel upgrade can cost the same to win from an ad and pay back very differently. Work out what each is worth before you set any budget.
- Pull average ticket and booking rate for service calls from your dispatch software
- Pull average sale and close rate for panels, chargers, generators and rewires
- Decide what you can pay to win one of each
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02
Run repairs and projects as separate campaigns
A homeowner with no power in the kitchen calls whoever answers first. A homeowner adding an EV charger collects two or three estimates over a few weeks. Put them in one campaign and the quick repair clicks take the money your project ads need.
- A service call campaign for breakers, outlets, fixtures and power loss
- Separate campaigns for panel upgrades, EV chargers, generators and rewires, each with its own budget
- Repair ads that say you answer now and what the trip fee is, if you charge one
- Project ads that show your license and that you handle the permit
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03
Ask for a call on repairs and an estimate on projects
The service call is won on the phone. Project work is won at the estimate visit. Set each campaign’s goal and landing page around the action that actually starts the job.
- Call ads and a tap-to-call page for service campaigns
- An estimate request page for each project, with room to attach a photo of the panel
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04
Draw the map around drive time
A small outlet repair across the metro can lose money once the drive is counted. A panel upgrade or generator install can be worth the longer trip.
- A tight area for service calls, around where your vans already work
- A wider area for panels, generators and rewires
- Locations set to people in or regularly in your area
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05
Match project spend to your install backlog
If panel and generator installs are booked out, ads that bring in more estimate requests mostly bring in frustrated homeowners. Turn project budgets up and down with your schedule.
- Check the project backlog before raising budgets
- Lower project spend when crews are booked out, and keep service calls running
- Promise a date for the estimate visit, and save install dates for after it
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06
Keep storm campaigns built and paused
When storms knock out power, searches for generators, surge protection and an emergency electrician jump in the hardest-hit towns. Campaigns built in spring can switch on by area the same day.
- Build outage, storm repair and generator campaigns in spring, then pause them
- Turn them on only in the towns that lost power and that your crews can reach
- Run them only when someone on your on-call schedule can answer
- Run generator offers on Meta in your service area ahead of the season
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07
Filter out DIYers, parts shoppers and apprentices
Electrical searches attract people who want to do it themselves, buy a breaker or charger, or get into the trade. Read the search terms report every month and block them.
- Add negative keywords like “how to,” “wiring diagram,” “apprenticeship” and “for sale”
- Block shoppers looking to buy a charger or generator to install themselves
- Block towns outside your area and requests for free inspections
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08
Use Meta for generators and project shoppers
Someone with a dead circuit searches Google, not Facebook. Meta works for generator offers in your service area before storm season, and for reminding homeowners who looked at your panel or charger pages while they compare estimates.
- Run generator offers a few weeks before storm season
- Show panel and EV charger installs to people who viewed those pages
- Pause it if it isn’t adding projects
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09
Track every ad to the booked job, test, then improve
On lead counts alone, a question about a light fixture looks the same as a sold panel upgrade, and bidding can’t tell which searches pay. Send booked jobs back with their revenue, then test one change at a time.
- Count only a service call that books or a sold panel, charger, generator or rewire project as the conversion
- Save the click ID (gclid), the tag Google adds to every ad click, with each estimate request and online booking, and send booked jobs and revenue from your CRM back to Google and Meta as they’re booked
- Judge keywords and campaigns on cost per booked job, and check your estimate-to-sale rate before raising any project budget
- Test one change at a time, like the ad, the estimate page, the offer or the bid, and keep what books more
Free PDF
Get the full electrical playbook as a PDF
All three guides, every checklist and the marketing calendar in one file you can print or hand to your office manager.
- Local SEO, ads and website, step by step
- Printable checklists
- A month-by-month marketing calendar
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What not to do
Where electrical ad budgets go wrong
Letting outlet repairs eat the panel budget
In one shared campaign, quick repair clicks win the spend, and the panel and charger searches never get enough to work with.
Advertising installs you can’t schedule
Pushing generator or panel ads while crews are booked out fills the phone with people you’ll make wait, and some will say so in a review.
Building storm ads mid-outage
Writing campaigns, ads and pages from scratch while the power is out means going live as the searches drop off. Build in spring, switch on by area.
Counting every lead as equal
A light fixture question and a sold rewire can cost the same to get. Judge campaigns on service calls booked and projects sold, by type.
Your monthly report
How to read your electrical ad results
If it doesn’t tie back to a booked job, it’s a leading indicator at best. Track these every month.
- Cost per booked job, repairsSpend on repair campaigns divided by service calls that booked
- Cost per booked job, projectsSpend on each project campaign divided by panels, chargers or generators sold
- Estimate to sale rateShare of project estimate requests from ads that turned into a sale
- Storm campaign returnWhat generator and outage ads brought in during weather events against what they cost
Questions
Electrical Google and Meta ads questions
How should an electrician split ad budget between repairs and projects?
Set each one separately. Service call budget follows how many extra repairs your crews can fit in a week. Project budget follows your install backlog and what a sold panel, charger or generator is worth. The median Google lead for electricians costs about $94 (LocaliQ, 2025), and not every lead books, so start from a target cost for each and raise spend once it holds.
Should electricians run ads for EV charger installs?
If you want the work, yes, as its own campaign with its own page. Charger shoppers ask whether their panel can handle it and who pulls the permit, and the page that answers that wins the estimate. A separate campaign also shows what charger installs bring in once the estimates are done.
When should an electrician turn on generator ads?
Build them before storm season and keep them paused or on a small budget. When outages hit, turn them up in the towns that lost power and that your crews can reach. Some homeowners keep comparing generator quotes after the lights come back, so don’t switch everything off the day power returns.
Why are my electrician leads bad?
Usually one of three things. DIY, parts and apprenticeship searches are getting through because nobody reads the search terms. Repairs and projects share a campaign, so outlet questions eat the budget. Or Google is bidding toward form fills because booked jobs never get sent back to it. Check all three before you raise the budget.
Do Facebook ads work for electricians?
Not for service calls. Someone with a dead circuit searches Google. Meta can work for generator offers in your service area before storm season, and for reminding homeowners who looked at your panel or charger pages while they compare estimates.
Rather not do it yourself?
Every electrical company we work with gets its own plan
This playbook covers what works for most companies in your trade. We start from your market, crews and numbers, then test and adjust month to month, reported in booked jobs and revenue. Tell us your service area and the services you want to grow.