What Should an Ad Manager Do for a Trade Business?

What an ad manager should actually manage

For a local trade business, ad management starts before the first campaign is built. The manager should understand your services, job values, capacity, call handling, website and the types of work you want more of. A campaign for emergency repairs should not be planned the same way as one for quotes, maintenance or larger project work.

They should also make sure the account is structured in a way you can understand. That means clear campaign names, relevant search themes, sensible locations inside the platform, useful negative keywords and ads that match the service page people land on.

Google Ads has many settings, but settings are not the strategy. The strategy is deciding which jobs are worth buying clicks for, which searches should be avoided and how the campaign will be judged after real enquiries come in.

• Priority services and jobs to avoid
• Search terms, keywords and negative keywords
• Ad copy that matches the service and page
• Budget settings and pacing checks
• Calls, forms and conversion tracking
• Regular notes on what changed and why

What they should ask before they touch the account

A careful ad manager should ask business questions before platform questions. If they only ask for a login, they do not have enough context yet.

They should ask which services are profitable, which jobs waste time, what a typical customer is worth, how fast calls are answered and whether your calendar can handle more work. They should also ask about licences, regulated work and any claims that should not appear in ads.

For trades, the wrong lead can be expensive even if the click was cheap. A good setup filters out searches from people looking for jobs, training, parts, DIY help or services you do not provide.

• Which jobs do you want more of?
• Which jobs should be excluded?
• What makes a lead qualified?
• Who answers calls and when?
• What page should each ad use?
• What proof, licences or reviews can be shown on the page?

Account ownership and access should stay simple

You should own the Google Ads account. Your business should control billing, history and access. An ad manager can be added with the right level of permission without taking ownership away from you.

If someone insists on running everything inside an account you cannot access, be careful. You may lose visibility into search terms, conversion data, change history and what was learned from your spend.

Google also provides manager accounts, often called MCC accounts, so agencies can work across client accounts without owning them. That is normal. What matters is that your business account, billing and campaign history remain accessible to you.

• Use your own Google Ads account where possible
• Keep billing connected to your business
• Give the manager only the access needed for the work
• Review who has access from time to time
• Do not send passwords through a form or email

Reporting should connect ads to real enquiries

A report that only shows clicks and impressions is not enough for a trade business. Those numbers can be useful, but they do not tell you whether the calls were relevant or whether the form enquiries matched the work you want.

Your ad manager should help separate phone clicks, connected calls, form submissions and qualified enquiries. If possible, they should also collect feedback from your team about which calls were useful and which ones were not a fit.

This does not mean every sale can be perfectly tied back to an ad. It means the account should be managed with better evidence than guesswork. Over time, search terms, ads, landing pages and budgets should be adjusted based on the quality of enquiries, not just the volume of activity.

• Calls and forms should be tracked where supported
• Search terms should be reviewed for waste and fit
• Lead quality notes should inform changes
• Reports should explain actions, not just export metrics

Warning signs when hiring an ad manager

Some warning signs are easy to spot. If the person avoids questions about ownership, tracking, negative keywords or what happens after a lead comes in, the campaign may become hard to judge.

Be cautious with vague claims about cheap leads, instant growth or a campaign that works for every trade. Paid search depends on demand, competition, your website, reviews, budget, response speed and the jobs you choose to advertise.

A better conversation is more practical. The manager should be able to explain what they would check first, what might block a launch and what evidence they would use to decide the next change.

• They do not explain who owns the account
• They focus only on clicks, not enquiry quality
• They skip the landing page review
• They do not ask which jobs to avoid
• They cannot explain recent account changes
• They make broad claims before seeing your business

How to brief an ad manager before launch

You can make the first conversation much more useful by preparing a short brief. It does not need to be polished. A simple list of services, priority jobs, job values, busy seasons and common bad-fit enquiries is enough to start.

Include your website, the page you think ads should use, any current Google Ads access and examples of calls you want more or less of. If you already ran ads, ask for a review of search terms, conversion tracking and change history before changing too much at once.

If you are not sure whether Google Ads fits your trade business yet, start with our Free Google Ads Fit Check at /fit-check?from=blog-ad-manager. We look at your website, services, capacity and budget before recommending the next step.

• Top services you want to advertise
• Services you do not want to buy clicks for
• Typical job value and capacity
• Website or landing page
• Current ads access, if any
• Questions you want answered before spending

Google Ads services for your business

For campaign setup, call and form tracking and a 14-live-day launch review, explore the service that matches your work. Google ad spend is separate from the launch fee; ongoing management is agreed after the review.

• Google Ads for appliance repair companies
• Google Ads for plumbers
• Google Ads for HVAC companies