Key takeaways
- The account, the billing, the tracking numbers and the landing pages should all be in your business's name.
- Maintenance, cleanups, design-build and snow need separate campaigns and a budget calendar that follows your seasons.
- A useful report counts booked recurring clients and their cost, pulled from your CRM, not clicks and impressions.
- Several springs of search terms and results are the most valuable thing in the account. Don't let an agency keep them.
Google Ads management for a landscaping company means building and running the campaigns that bring weekly mowing clients, cleanup jobs, patio projects and snow contracts, then proving which ones signed. Done well, the account is yours, the budget follows your seasons, and the monthly report counts booked recurring clients, not clicks.
What management includes
- Campaigns split by service line: maintenance, seasonal cleanups, design-build and snow, each with its own budget, ads and landing page.
- Keywords in your customers' words, with a negative list that keeps out mower shoppers, mulch buyers, job seekers and other lawn businesses.
- A budget calendar: heaviest from late winter through spring signups, cleanups in the fall, snow contracts before the first storm, and pauses for any service you can't crew.
- Location targeting drawn around your routes, so spend goes to streets where a new client adds a stop, not a drive.
- Landing pages for each service, with what weekly service includes, how to get a price and a click-to-call button.
- Conversion and call tracking (conversion measurement, call tracking), with booked outcomes from Jobber, LMN or your CRM fed back so bidding learns from real signups.
- Local Services Ads alongside search, including the move into Google Ads as it reaches service-area businesses (the transition).
- Monthly work you can see: search-term clean-ups, ad tests and landing page changes, logged in the report.
Who owns what in a managed account
| Part | You own | We do |
|---|---|---|
| The account | Opened in your business name | Work in it as a user |
| Billing | Charged to your payment method | Recommend budgets |
| Changes | Every change visible in the account | Build, test and adjust campaigns |
| Results | History that stays with you | Report calls, booked jobs and cost per customer |
Who should own the account
You should, in your business's name, with your card paying Google directly. The agency gets access you can remove.
| What | Whose name | Why it matters to a landscaper |
|---|---|---|
| Google Ads account and billing | Yours | You can pause spend yourself, and the spend history stays with you |
| Admin access | Yours, with the agency as a user | You decide who sees and changes the account |
| Conversion actions and call tracking numbers | Yours | Tracking numbers end up on door hangers, yard signs and truck magnets. If the agency owns them, they can disappear when you leave. |
| Google Analytics and Search Console | Yours | Years of traffic data move with the business, not the vendor |
| Landing pages and domain | Yours | The pages that convert keep working after any change of partner |
The real asset is history. An account that has run through several springs knows which searches sign weekly clients in your area, what they cost in March versus May, and which towns never book. An agency that runs ads inside its own account keeps all of that when you part ways, and the next one starts the season blind. Ask any current or future agency one question: if we split up tomorrow, what do I keep? The answer should be everything.
How we report
We report in booked recurring clients, because that is what pays for the trucks. The monthly report is one page:
- Spend by campaign: maintenance, cleanups, design-build, snow and Local Services Ads.
- Leads, then quotes, then booked clients, matched in your CRM, so you can see where they drop out.
- Cost per booked recurring client, by campaign, with route fit noted.
- One-time jobs booked: cleanups and plow calls, counted separately so they don't inflate the recurring number.
- What we changed and what we will test next, in plain sentences.
During spring signups, when most of the year's maintenance clients choose a provider, we add a short weekly check-in so a problem costs you days, not the season.
How it works for landscaping companies
- Assess. We read the account, last spring's search terms and your CRM records to see what signed, what it cost and where money leaked.
- Prioritize. We fix tracking first, then rebuild the campaign that matters most for the coming season, usually maintenance before February.
- Execute. We build campaigns, negatives, landing pages and the budget calendar in your account and show you each change.
- Measure. We report booked recurring clients monthly and move budget toward the campaigns and areas that sign them.
The keyword guide for landscapers shows the kind of list we start from.
How VETS Growth Marketing helps
We manage Google Ads for landscaping companies in accounts you own from day one, so every spring's data stays with your business. Each piece of work is scoped as a project with an outcome and a date, and there is no long-term contract. Our reports count booked recurring clients and their cost. Read more about our Google Ads work, or bring your account to a growth consultation for an honest look at what it is doing for you now.
Sources
- About conversion measurement, Google Ads Help
- Set up tracking calls to a phone number on a website, Google Ads Help
- Local Services Ads transition to Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals, Google Ads Help