Playbook · Landscaping · Paid advertising
The complete guide to landscaping Google and Meta ads
How a landscaping company runs maintenance and design-build ads side by side without one eating the other’s budget. Written for owners.
The short version
Do Google and Meta ads work for landscaping companies?
Yes. They work best when maintenance and design-build run as separate campaigns. Maintenance ads should target recurring-service searches in tight areas around your existing routes. Project ads should target design, hardscape and outdoor living searches across a wider area, and land on gallery pages that match the search. Meta ads sell project work with before-and-after photos, and remarketing keeps you in front of homeowners while they compare quotes. Both should filter out job seekers and DIY searches and be judged on booked jobs and the revenue they bring.
The search terms report
Where landscaping ad budgets get wasted
Every month we read the actual searches your ads showed up for. In landscaping, the wasted spend is predictable: job seekers, DIYers, people shopping for materials and searches from outside the area you serve.
Cut: never going to book
| Search term | Why it’s cut |
|---|---|
| Job seeker | |
| DIY | |
| Shopping for materials | |
| Wants software | |
| Outside your area |
Keep: searches that book
- “landscape maintenance company [suburb]”Signs a contract
- “paver patio contractor near me”Hardscape project
- “landscape design and installation [city]”Design-build project
Example search terms. Yours come from your account.
Step by step
The playbook
-
01
Split the budget between routes and projects
A maintenance lead and a patio lead behave differently, cost differently and sign on different timelines. Give each its own campaigns and budget so you can see what each one costs.
- One set of campaigns for maintenance and cleanups
- One set for design, hardscape and outdoor living
- A separate budget for each, set from how much work you want each line to sign
- Launch in late winter for spring and late summer for the fall install window
-
02
Set targets from what each job is worth
Google landscaping leads have a median cost of about $118 (LocaliQ, 2025), and the study doesn’t split maintenance from design-build. Your own numbers matter more.
- Work out what a maintenance contract is worth over a season
- Use your average project size for design-build
- Set a target cost per recurring customer for maintenance and a target cost per signed contract for projects
- Check how many more contracts and installs your crews can take
-
03
Draw two different maps
Maintenance campaigns stay tight around your routes, because a yard across town adds drive time to every visit. Project campaigns can reach further, because a big install is worth the extra drive.
- Maintenance: zip codes or a tight radius around your route clusters
- Projects: the wider area you’ll travel for an install
- In Google Ads, set location options to people in or regularly in your area
-
04
Match every search to its own page
A maintenance search should land on pricing and a sign-up. A patio search should land on patio photos and a consultation request. One page that tries to do both usually loses both.
- Separate ad groups for patios, retaining walls, outdoor kitchens and design
- A gallery landing page for each project type
- A maintenance page with a pricing framework and a short sign-up
-
05
Cut searches from people who will never hire you
Read the search terms report every week in spring and every month after. In landscaping the wasted spend goes to job seekers, DIYers, material shoppers and people outside your area.
- Add negative keywords like jobs, hiring, how to, for sale and app before launch
- Watch for material searches like pavers, mulch and rock
- Add out-of-area cities as you find them
-
06
Use Meta for projects and remarketing
Landscaping sells on pictures. Before-and-after photos reach homeowners before they search, and remarketing keeps you in front of project buyers while they compare quotes.
- Lead with before-and-after photos of real projects
- Show ads again to people who viewed your galleries
- Run seasonal maintenance offers only in your route zip codes
-
07
Track booked jobs for routes and projects, test, then improve
Set this up before you spend, with every lead tagged as maintenance or project from the first call. Project leads can take weeks to sign, so judge those campaigns over a longer window.
- Count booked jobs as your main conversions, with maintenance contracts and projects counted separately, and calls and consultation requests tracked on the way
- Store the click ID (gclid), the code that ties a lead to its ad, on every request, and send new maintenance customers and signed projects with their value back to Google and Meta as they’re booked
- Judge keywords and campaigns by cost per booked job, keeping maintenance and projects separate
- Test one change at a time, like the ad, the gallery page, the offer or the bid, and keep what brings in more customers
Free PDF
Get the full landscaping 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
Tick it off as you go
Landscaping ads checklist
0 of 12 done
Your ticks save in this browser, so you can come back to it.
What not to do
Mistakes we see
One campaign for everything
Maintenance searches are more common, so they eat the budget, and the patio leads you wanted never show up.
Sending project ads to the homepage
A homeowner who searched for paver patios wants to see patios. Make them hunt and they go back to the search results.
Judging projects in a week
Design-build leads take weeks to sign. Cut a project campaign too soon and you may cut the one that was working.
Targeting the whole metro for maintenance
Weekly maintenance across town adds drive time to every visit, all season.
Your monthly report
How to measure landscaping ads
If it doesn’t tie back to a booked job, it’s a leading indicator at best. Track these every month.
- Cost per recurring customerMaintenance ad spend divided by new recurring customers
- Cost per signed contractProject ad spend divided by signed design-build jobs
- Lead-to-customer rate, by lineHow many leads in each line turned into work
- Wasted search termsSpend on job seekers, DIY, materials and out-of-area searches
Questions
Landscaping Google and Meta ads questions
What’s a good cost per lead for landscaping?
Google landscaping leads have a median cost of about $118 (LocaliQ, 2025). Maintenance leads usually cost less than design-build leads. Judge both by the jobs they bring in, because a project lead that costs more and signs a backyard renovation is still the better buy.
Do Facebook ads work for landscaping?
They work well for project work, because landscaping sells on pictures. Before-and-after photos and project stories reach homeowners before they search, and remarketing keeps you in front of them while they compare quotes. For maintenance, Google usually comes first because it catches people already looking for a crew.
When should landscaping ads start?
Late winter for spring cleanups, maintenance sign-ups and spring installs. Late summer for the fall install window. Campaigns need a few weeks of data to settle, and by the first warm weekend your competitors are already bidding on the same searches.
How do I track which landscaping ads sign projects?
Track calls, forms and consultation requests, tag each as maintenance or project, and match them to booked jobs in your CRM, so you see revenue by campaign and which leads actually sign. How much you can match depends on what your CRM can connect to.
Why do landscaping ad campaigns fail?
Mixing maintenance and design-build in one campaign, targeting the whole metro for weekly work, starting after the spring rush, and judging results by clicks or lead count. Each one spends money on people who were never going to hire you for the work you want.
Rather not do it yourself?
We run this playbook for landscaping companies
Same plan, run by a senior team and reported in booked jobs. Tell us your service area and the jobs you want more of.