Key takeaways
- The account, billing, conversion data and call tracking numbers should all be in your business's name from day one.
- Run residential, commercial and bulk pickup as separate campaigns, each targeted to the routes that can take the work.
- Good management reports new subscribers and cost per subscriber, with calls and spend underneath.
- Local Services Ads is moving into Google Ads, so whoever owns the Google Ads account will soon hold your pay-per-lead campaigns too.
Google Ads management for a trash service is the weekly work of buying the right searches, sending them to pages where people can start service, and proving which clicks became paying subscribers. All of it should happen in an account your business owns, so the keyword history, conversion data and call recordings stay with you whoever runs it.
What management includes
Management for a trash hauler covers everything between a search and a cart on the curb:
- Separate campaigns by line of business. Residential start-service, commercial collection and bulk item pickup each get their own budget and ads, because they have different buyers and different values.
- Targeting drawn from your routes. Locations follow the streets and ZIP codes your trucks run on set days, not a radius around the yard.
- Keyword themes and negatives. Bids on starting and switching service; negatives that keep out town schedules, landfill hours and driver applicants. The keywords guide has the starter list.
- Ads that answer the first three questions. Do you serve my street? What does it cost? When can it start?
- Landing pages that convert. An address check, a visible price, and a start-service form with a start date for new movers.
- Tracking to the account, not the click. Call tracking (Google's setup guide), form tracking, and activated accounts from your route and billing platform imported as conversions (conversion measurement).
- Pacing by season. More budget ahead of moving season and before a known town or HOA hauler change; less when routes are full.
- Lead reviews. Call recordings sampled every week, so junk is caught before the next invoice.
- Local Services Ads alongside search, where your category is available in your area.
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 own the account, with your agency added as a user and the billing on your card. In a recurring business this matters more than in most. The data you build, such as which ZIP codes produce accounts that stay for years, is worth something long after any one campaign.
| Asset | Why it must be in your name |
|---|---|
| Google Ads account and billing | Spend history and payment records stay with you if you change partners |
| Conversion actions and imported subscriber data | Bidding learns from them over months; starting over costs money |
| Call tracking numbers | If the agency owns them, ad calls can stop the day you part ways |
| Landing pages and the domain | Your start-service pages keep working without a rebuild |
| Pay-per-lead campaigns | Google is moving Local Services Ads into Google Ads (the transition notice), so they will sit in this same account |
If an agency set up your current account under its own login, ask for admin access now, while the relationship is friendly.
How we report
We report new subscribers and cost per new subscriber first, split by residential and commercial, with calls and spend underneath. A monthly report looks like this:
| Line | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Ad spend by campaign | Where the money went |
| Calls and forms | Raw demand, before filtering |
| Qualified leads | On a route, not a town-service resident, not an existing customer |
| Accounts that started service | The result you pay for |
| Cost per new subscriber | Spend divided by started accounts, by line of business |
| Still active after the first bill | Last month's new accounts that stayed past their first invoice |
| What changed and what is next | The work done, and the next priority with a date |
There are no impressions or click-through rates at the top. They sit in the account if you want them, but they do not pay for a truck. The cost per lead guide shows how to set the ceiling that report is judged against.
How it works
- Assess. We go through your account, search terms, call recordings and how a lead becomes an account in your billing platform today.
- Prioritize. Usually tracking first, then negatives and route-based targeting, then landing pages. Each item gets a date.
- Execute. We make the changes in your account and keep a change log you can read.
- Measure. We report in new subscribers every month and plan budgets for the next moving season and any contract change on the calendar.
How VETS Growth Marketing helps
We run Google Ads for trash haulers in an account that belongs to you, from the first login to the last report. The work is scoped as a project with dates, there is no long-term contract, and every report leads with the subscribers who started service and what each one cost. Bring your account access to a growth consultation and we will audit it with you, including who really owns it.
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