Landscaping has the widest value spread of any home service. A weekly mow and a full garden design and build are the same industry and nothing like the same business. One is worth tens of dollars a visit, the other tens of thousands once.
Put them in one campaign and Google will buy you mowing customers all day, because they convert cheapest. That is the single most common reason landscaping accounts underperform.
What do Google Ads cost for a landscaping company?
Around the all industry average on cost per click, with a wide spread in what a lead is worth.
Across 13,474 US search campaigns the all industry benchmarks were $5.42 per click, $66.69 per lead and an 8.18% conversion rate, per WordStream.
| Service | Value | How to run it |
|---|---|---|
| Mowing and maintenance | Low, recurring | Bid on lifetime value, not first visit |
| Clean ups and one off tidies | Low | Seasonal filler, gateway to contracts |
| Hardscaping, patios, decking | High | Own campaign, needs a portfolio page |
| Full design and build | Highest | Own campaign, long close, proof heavy |
What this means for you: maintenance should be judged on the annual contract value, not the first cut. A customer at $150 a month for two years is worth $3,600, which supports a far higher cost per lead than most operators allow.
Separate the design work or lose it
This is the structural fix that matters most here.
Design and build enquiries are fewer, slower and enormously more valuable. They need their own campaign, their own budget and their own target, because in a shared campaign they will always lose the auction for budget against a mowing enquiry that converts the same day.
They also need a different landing page. Nobody commissions a $30,000 garden from a page listing hourly rates. That page needs photographs of finished work, a clear process, and an indication of the investment range so you are not quoting people whose budget is a tenth of the job.
The quote problem
Landscaping runs on site visits, and site visits are expensive. An hour driving to quote a job you were never going to win is a real cost that never appears in the ads account.
Two things reduce it:
- Put a range on the page. Saying design and build projects typically start from a figure filters out the people who wanted a gardener. You lose enquiries and gain jobs.
- Ask one qualifying question on the form. Budget band or project type. One extra field costs some volume and saves a lot of driving.
Expect conversion rate to drop when you do this. That is the point. Judge on quotes attended and jobs won, not on enquiry count. Our post on high converting landing pages covers the rest of the page.
Seasonality cuts both ways
Maintenance demand rises in spring and falls in winter. Design and build enquiries often come earlier than people expect, because a garden someone wants finished by summer gets commissioned in late winter.
So the two campaigns peak at different times. Budget accordingly rather than treating the whole account as seasonal in one direction. And in the quiet months, lower budgets rather than pausing, so Smart Bidding is settled when demand returns. Our post on bidding strategies covers why restarts cost you.
Local Services Ads and tracking
Home services is a core Local Services Ads category and Google lists it as eligible, so it is worth running alongside Search for the maintenance side particularly.
One current detail: Google discontinued the Google Guarantee badge and its money back guarantee, replacing it with a single Google Verified badge, with reimbursement claims closed on 7 December 2025. Our comparison of Local Services Ads and Google Ads covers the trade offs.
On tracking, send won jobs and their values back into Google Ads rather than counting enquiries, so bidding learns the difference between a mowing lead and a build. From 15 June 2026 Google moved offline conversion imports to the Data Manager API and blocked them in the Google Ads API, so check any older integration. Our guide to conversion tracking covers the setup.
The negatives that matter
- DIY. How to lay turf, build a raised bed, plant, prune, design your own garden.
- Plants and materials. Turf prices, paving slabs, gravel, seeds, unless you sell supplies.
- Careers. Landscaper salary, jobs, courses, apprenticeship.
- Commercial and grounds maintenance if you are residential only, and the reverse.
- Free. Free garden clearance, council collections, unless that is your work.
Set location targeting to presence, not presence or interest. Our post on negative keywords covers the list.
How to choose a landscaping marketing agency
- “How will you separate maintenance from design and build?” One campaign means design loses.
- “What will we bid against for maintenance?” Annual contract value, not the first visit.
- “How will you reduce wasted site visits?” Qualifying copy and form fields, not just more leads.
- “How will won jobs get back into the account?” Values matter more here than counts.
- “What would make you tell us to stop?” No answer means they are selling.
Our post on choosing a Google Ads agency covers contracts and management pricing covers fee models.
Common questions
How much should a landscaper spend?
Split the answer. Set a maintenance budget against annual contract value and a separate design budget against project value. A single blended number hides which one is working.
Should we show prices?
A starting range for project work, yes. It costs you enquiries from people who were never going to buy and saves the site visits those enquiries would have consumed.
Is it worth advertising in winter?
For design and build, yes, because that is when summer projects get commissioned. For maintenance, reduce rather than stop.
Why do we get so many time wasters?
Usually because the page never signals scale or price. A page that could equally describe a $200 tidy and a $30,000 build attracts both.
How long before it works?
Maintenance enquiries arrive within weeks. Design and build enquiries take longer and close later, so judge that campaign across a season rather than a quarter.
Where to go from here
Pull the last twelve months and split revenue from ads into maintenance and project work. If project work is a small share, check whether it ever had its own budget. Usually it did not.
Our Google Ads management page explains how we work, our case studies show the results, and you can get in touch for a straight read on your account.
