Case study 01
BG Plumbing
Bathroom renovations
- Clicks
- 3,280
- Conversions
- 871
- Conv. rate
- 26.55%
- Cost / conv.
- A$36.33
Marketing for tradies that makes the phone ring
Google Ads, Meta ads, websites and landing pages for plumbers, electricians, builders and every trade that turns up, fixes things and sends an invoice. Built by people who have run ads for 100+ trade businesses across Australia.
- No lock-in contracts
- Month to month
- Perth based, Australia wide
Trades and Home Services
Who this page is for
If you run a trade or home service business and you are tired of paying hipages for leads that four other blokes also got, this is for you. Most of our clients came to us after a bad run with a big agency, a lead marketplace, or a mate's cousin who does websites. They wanted more of the jobs they like, fewer of the ones they do not, and a straight answer on what the spend is producing.
Marketing for tradies is not the same as marketing for a cafe or a software company. The job is urgent, the buyer is on a phone, and the decision is made in about ninety seconds. Everything we build is shaped around that: the ad has to answer the question, the page has to load in two seconds, and the number has to be tappable.
Who we help
Trades and home services we work with
We have run campaigns and built sites across most of the trades. Each one gets its own approach because a blocked drain search behaves nothing like a search for a new ducted system.
Trades
- plumbers
- electricians
- builders and renovators
- roof plumbers
- bricklayers
- carpenters
- cabinet makers
- painters
- concreters
- tilers
- glaziers
Home and property
- pest control
- locksmiths
- garage door repair
- fencing
- landscapers
- arborists
- pool builders and servicing
- solar installers
- air conditioning
- gutter cleaning
- building and termite inspections
Cleaning and removals
- cleaners
- window cleaners
- carpet cleaners
- pressure cleaners
- removalists
- junk removal
Restoration
- water damage
- mould remediation
- asbestos removal
Not on the list? Give us a bell. If your business lives or dies by the phone ringing, we have probably run ads for someone just like you.
What we do
What we do
We do five things and we do them for businesses whose phone has to ring.
Service 01
Local SEO.
Showing up on Google Maps and in the organic results when someone in your area searches for the job you do. It takes longer than ads to build, but the calls it brings do not cost you a click. For most trades it is the first thing we fix. Local SEO.
Service 02
Google Ads management.
Search campaigns built around the jobs you actually want, not the ones that fill the calendar with tyre kickers. Call tracking, form tracking and a weekly look at what the clicks turned into. Google Ads management is the core of most engagements.
Service 03
Meta ads.
Facebook and Instagram campaigns for the work people are not searching for yet: renovations, seasonal services, big-ticket installs. Run alongside search, not instead of it. Meta ads.
Service 04
Websites.
WordPress sites built to convert, not to win design awards. Fast, mobile first, with the phone number, the offer and the form where a thumb can reach them. Websites.
Service 05
Landing pages.
One page, one job, one action. Every campaign we run points at a page built for it, because sending paid traffic to a homepage is the fastest way to waste a budget. Landing pages.
stack up?
ROI calculator
Does Google Ads actually work for your business?
Plug in your numbers. Budget, your average sale, a realistic close rate. We'll model three scenarios (conservative, moderate, optimistic) and show you what the return really looks like on paper.
- Projected leads, sales & revenue
- Cost per enquiry across 3 scenarios
- Real ROI and ROAS, no fluff
- Full PDF report, emailed to you
Check if we're a fit Takes 60 seconds · See if the numbers stack up
go on. run it.
Fill in your parameters and hit Calculate to see projections.
The process
How it works
01
A fit call, not a sales call
Twenty minutes on the phone. What jobs make you money, what jobs you would rather not do, where you work, what you have tried. If we are not the right fit we will tell you, and we will usually tell you who is.
02
Research before anything is built
We pull real search data for your trade and your area: what people type, what it costs per click, what your competitors are bidding on and where they are weak. You see the numbers before you spend a dollar.
03
Build
Campaign structure, ad copy, negative keywords, call and form tracking, and a landing page built for the campaign. The first month is mostly build. It is where the result is decided.
04
Launch and tune
Live within 7 days of sign off. The first few weeks are about cutting what does not convert and feeding what does. You get a plain English report, not a dashboard you need a degree to read.
05
Month to month
No lock-in. One monthly invoice that also covers landing page changes and testing.
Trades and Home Services · results
Results
Numbers from real trade accounts, with the client's permission. Cost per lead, calls per month, and what changed when we took over.
01 / 13
Case study 02
Suburban Splits
Air conditioning
- Clicks
- 14,621
- Conversions
- 3,180
- Conv. rate
- 21.74%
- Cost / conv.
- A$28.64
Case study 03
Phil Haddock Painting
Painting
- Spend
- A$29,499
- Conversions
- 772
- Conv. rate
- 18.67%
- Cost / conv.
- A$38.21
Case study 04
2 Brothers Roller Shutters
Roller shutters
- Clicks
- 17,767
- Conversions
- 2,047
- Conv. rate
- 6.60%
- Cost / conv.
- A$30.52
Case study 05
Papas Plumbing
Plumbing
- Clicks
- 5,660
- Conversions
- 511
- Conv. rate
- 8.42%
- Cost / conv.
- A$52.14
Case study 06
Everlast Painting
Painting campaign
- Clicks
- 12,985
- Conversions
- 1,277
- Conv. rate
- 9.69%
- Cost / conv.
- A$63.43
Case study 07
Applied Physiotherapy
Physiotherapy
- Clicks
- 5,182
- Conversions
- 619
- Conv. rate
- 11.87%
- Cost / conv.
- A$44.23
Case study 08
Hypaforma Podiatry
Podiatry
- Clicks
- 4,820
- Conversions
- 489
- Conv. rate
- 9.61%
- Cost / conv.
- A$50.49
Case study 09
Certified Pest Management
Pest control
- Spend
- A$9,446
- Conversions
- 226
- Conv. rate
- 12.71%
- Cost / conv.
- A$41.80
Case study 10
Perth Power Wash
Pressure cleaning
- Clicks
- 1,474
- Conversions
- 163
- Conv. rate
- 10.98%
- Cost / conv.
- A$35.92
Case study 11
Complete Roof Plumbing
Roofing and gutters
- Clicks
- 5,494
- Conversions
- 704
- Conv. rate
- 12.80%
- Cost / conv.
- A$54.40
Case study 12
Elite Gutter Guards
Gutter guards
- Spend
- A$7,379
- Conversions
- 111
- Conv. rate
- 10.35%
- Cost / conv.
- A$66.48
Case study 13
Pressure Cleaning Perth
Pressure cleaning
- Clicks
- 1,022
- Conversions
- 115
- Conv. rate
- 10.76%
- Cost / conv.
- A$68.40
Account screenshot, spend blurred. Numbers match the card.
Social proof 
What tradies say about working with us
The dudes
Who you will be dealing with
Founder · AU
Garo
Founder
Garo started Online Creative Dudes in 2017 and has 13 years of experience building websites and running ads for Australian trades and service businesses. He still runs the strategy on every account. He is Perth based, works with clients around Australia, and has a low tolerance for agencies that hide behind reports.
Strategy · AU
Danny
Senior Digital Strategist
Danny (Daniel Bridgewater) is OCD's Senior Digital Strategist. He owns tracking and conversion measurement across every account, which means when we say a campaign produced 41 calls last month, that number is real and you can see where each one came from. Before OCD he worked at leading ad and media agencies, including OMD.
There is no account manager between you and the people doing the work. You call, one of us answers.
Why us
Why tradies pick us over the big agencies
01
You are not locked in.
Month to month on direct debit. Pause whenever you like and we simply do not raise the next invoice.
02
One invoice covers the lot.
Ads management, landing page changes, testing and the small website updates that other agencies bill by the hour.
03
Referrals pay you.
Send us another trade and you get a month of management free. No cap.
04
We know the trades.
100+ trade and home service businesses since 2017, most of them still with us. We know what a plumber's Tuesday looks like.
FAQ
Questions we get, a lot.
How much does marketing for tradies cost?
It depends on the trade, the area and what you want the campaign to do, so the ad spend is set with you, not read off a chart. Run your own numbers through our ROI calculator to see what a budget could return. On top of the ad spend there is a flat management fee. We publish the fee on the call, not after three meetings. The question that matters more is cost per job: a plumber paying $40 a lead on $300 jobs is doing well, a builder paying $200 a lead on $60,000 jobs is doing very well.
Is hipages worth it, or should I run my own ads?
Hipages and the other lead marketplaces sell the same lead to several tradies and charge you whether you win it or not. They can work when you are starting out and have no reviews. Once you have a track record, your own Google Ads campaign brings you leads that nobody else got, at a cost you control, with your name on the ad. Most of our clients run both for a month and then drop the marketplace.
Do tradies need a website, or is Google Business Profile enough?
A Google Business Profile gets you into the map pack. A website gets you the click when someone wants to check you are real, see your licence number and read what you actually do. For paid ads you need a landing page regardless, because sending clicks to a profile or a Facebook page converts badly. A simple, fast, mobile first site is enough; it does not need to be big.
Google Ads or Facebook ads for a trade business?
Google first. Someone searching blocked drain Joondalup at 7am wants a plumber now. Meta ads reach people who are not searching yet, so they suit renovations, solar, new air conditioning and anything with a longer decision. We usually start with search and add Meta once the search campaign is paying for itself.
How long before I see leads?
Search campaigns usually produce calls within the first week of going live. The first month is about building the structure and tracking properly; months two and three are where the cost per lead comes down as we cut what does not work. If you want leads tomorrow, Google Ads is the right tool. If you want to rank organically, that is a six to twelve month job and we will tell you so.
What is a good cost per lead for a tradie?
It depends entirely on job value. As a rough guide from our own accounts, most trades land between $25 and $55 a lead. We would rather show you numbers from a comparable account on the call than publish a figure that does not apply to your trade.
Also see
Also run businesses outside the trades? We do automotive marketing for mechanics and workshops, allied health marketing for clinics, and law firm marketing for legal practices.
Final word
Leave it to us. Check if we're a fit.
Twenty minutes, no pitch deck.
Contact
Drop us a line.
Send a quick note. We'll get back same day, usually within an hour. No automated replies, no sales sequence, just Garo.
- Emailhello@onlinecreativedudes.com
- Phone0424 180 755
- Hours8:30–5pm AWST · but I'm checking emails 24/7
- BasedPerth / Remote AU
Always happy to chat.