Google Ads for pressure washing companies without wasting the budget
Realistic cost per call, the campaigns that pay, the negative keyword list to load on day one, ad schedules for a one-truck crew, and when to switch it off.
Google Ads works for pressure washing for one reason: the intent is immediate. Nobody types "driveway cleaning near me" out of curiosity. They typed it because the concrete is embarrassing them and they want it gone before a party.
It also fails for pressure washing for one reason: the phrase "pressure washing" attracts equipment shoppers, parts buyers, job seekers, DIY renters and commercial RFP hunters, and broad match will happily spend your whole day rate on all of them. Almost every washer who tells you Google Ads does not work was running broad match on that phrase.
What a call actually costs
In most US metros, running exact and phrase match on residential service terms:
- Driveway and concrete cleaning: $15 to $35 per call
- House washing and soft washing: $20 to $45 per call
- Roof cleaning and roof soft wash: $35 to $80 per call, but the ticket is $500 to $1,100
- Commercial and fleet washing: $40 to $110 per call, with long sales cycles
Multiply by your booking rate. If you close half your calls and your average ticket is $325, a $30 call costs you $60 per booked job, which is fine. If you close a fifth of them because nobody answers the phone, the same $30 call costs $150 per job and the campaign looks broken when the answering is what is broken. Run the calculator before you turn ads on, not after.
Seasonality moves these ranges hard. Cost per click in April and May typically runs 40% to 70% above February in the same account, because every washer in the county turns their budget on at once. That is an argument for being live in February.
The three campaigns that pay
Start with one search campaign, three ad groups, exact and phrase match only. Do not use broad match with the "smart" bidding recommendations until you have 30 conversions on record.
Ad group 1: Concrete. driveway cleaning, driveway pressure washing, concrete cleaning, sidewalk cleaning, patio cleaning, oil stain removal driveway. This carries the volume and the lowest cost per call.
Ad group 2: House wash. house washing, soft wash house, vinyl siding cleaning, exterior house cleaning, mildew removal siding. Bigger ticket, fewer searches, higher intent.
Ad group 3: Roof. roof cleaning, roof soft washing, black streaks on roof, algae removal roof. Lowest volume, biggest ticket, and the ad group most worth a dedicated landing page.
Add your city or a neighborhood name to the keywords if you are in a metro where "near me" pulls a 40-mile radius. Keep the geographic radius honest: 15 to 20 miles around your shop for a one-truck operation, and set location targeting to "presence" rather than "presence or interest," which stops you paying for people in another state researching a move.
The negative list to load on day one
Add these before the campaign goes live. This list alone typically cuts 25% to 40% of wasted spend in a new pressure washing account.
- rental, rent, hire (equipment rental searches)
- for sale, price of, cost of machine, 4000 psi, gpm, surface cleaner, hose, nozzle, wand, pump, parts, repair
- how to, DIY, diy, tutorial, youtube
- jobs, hiring, salary, career, employment
- business plan, start a, franchise, license, insurance, training, course, certification
- home depot, lowes, harbor freight, karcher, simpson, generac, ryobi
- car wash, self serve, laundromat
- free, cheap, cheapest
Then check the search terms report every Monday for the first month and add what you find. In this niche the terms that leak through are almost always about buying a machine or starting a company, both of which are people who will never hire you.
Ads that pre-qualify
Write the ad to filter, not just to attract. A pressure washing lead that expected $79 wastes 20 minutes of your evening.
Headline set:
- Driveway Cleaning in [City]
- Free Quote Today, Photos Sent
- Concrete Washed From $189
- Licensed and Insured, 6 Years Local
Description: "We clean driveways, walkways and patios across [city] and [city]. Most driveways run $189 to $325 depending on size. Text a photo and we will quote it the same day."
Putting a real starting price in the ad lowers click volume and raises booking rate, which is what you want. Everything about the price philosophy is in the pricing guide.
Turn on call assets and location assets. In this trade something like half of mobile conversions are direct calls from the ad, and a call from the ad skips your website entirely.
Ad schedule: match your answering, not your washing
The most common structural mistake in a washer's Google Ads account is running 24 hours a day while the owner is on a lift with hearing protection on.
Set the schedule to the hours a human, an answering service or a text-back system covers. If that is 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, run exactly that. Add Saturday, because only 28.4% of pressure washing listings even show Saturday hours and the searches are there.
If you refuse to reduce hours, then at minimum turn on missed-call text-back so a $30 click that rings out gets an instant text instead of a voicemail box. That system is covered in the missed calls guide.
Budget, and the honest floor
$30 a day is the working floor for a single metro. Below about $20 a day you will not gather enough data to make decisions and the campaign will sit in a permanent learning state.
A sensible first 90 days:
- Weeks 1 to 2: $30/day, manual CPC or maximize clicks, exact and phrase only, watch the search terms daily.
- Weeks 3 to 6: keep the winners, cut any keyword over $60 per call with no booking, add negatives weekly.
- Weeks 7 to 12: once you have 30 recorded conversions, switch to maximize conversions with a target you set from real data, and only then consider adding broad match on your best two terms with strict negatives.
Track calls with a tracking number that forwards to your cell, and record them. Listening to ten of your own calls will teach you more about your close rate than any dashboard.
When to switch it off
Turn Google Ads off, or down to $10 a day, when the schedule is already two weeks out. In May, a booked-solid one-truck crew paying $35 a call to add jobs it cannot reach for 14 days is buying cancellations and one-star reviews. Shift that money into the slow months. The seasonality guide has the annual shape.
Frequently asked
Should I run Local Services Ads instead? Where they are available for exterior cleaning they are worth testing, because you pay per lead and get the badge. Coverage for this category is patchy by market. Test alongside search, not instead of it.
Do I need a website to run Google Ads? Yes, and Google will approve a thin one but performance will be poor. A three-page site with tap-to-call, real photos and a price range is enough. See the website guide.
Why is my cost per click $9 when the forums say $3? Forum numbers are usually national averages across low-competition markets and off-season months. Coastal metros in April are a different auction.
If you would rather have the account built, the negatives loaded and the calls tracked, Google Ads management is one of the services in the free 14-day trial. Text or call (385) 832-6175.