Is your plumbing business growing the way it should? If not, we need to talk. Right now the guy down the street is getting calls that should be yours. In a free 30-minute consultation, we'll show you where they're going and how to win them back.
Home Service Guild is a marketing agency for home service companies, led by Robert Earl. He has 25+ years working with the home service industry and holds Google certifications in Google Ads Search, Conversion Optimization and Google Analytics. He also wrote the book When You Care Enough About Service, You Build a System.
To get more plumbing customers, you have to show up where homeowners look when something breaks, and be a name they already know before it does. On Google, that means five places on one page: Local Services Ads at the very top, the map listings, the paid search ads, the regular results and the AI answers. Facebook and Instagram are where they see you before they ever need a plumber.
A homeowner with water on the kitchen floor on a Saturday is not comparing ten companies. She calls one of the first plumbers Google shows her. If your map listing is thin, your ads are off or your website has one page that just says "plumbing," that call goes to whoever showed up. Every call you miss is a job for the sloppiest plumber in your town.
Robert Earl ran that search the way a homeowner with a Saturday leak would, and recorded it. We won't name anyone, but here is what came up:
Each of those is an opening for a plumber who has it set up right. Here is the measure Robert uses: if you have techs on the road, you should be getting a call or lead a day for each of them, if not more. If you are short of that, the work is going to somebody else.
Plumbing work comes in two kinds, and homeowners find you differently for each. A burst pipe, a backed-up sewer line or a slab leak sends someone to Google right now, and they call whoever answers first. A water heater replacement or a whole-house repipe gets planned. That homeowner looks around for a few days and sees your name more than once before picking up the phone.
We set your Google listings, ads and pages around the jobs you want more of, whether that is drain cleaning, water heaters, sewer lines or repipes, and around the towns your trucks actually reach. Facebook and Instagram keep your name in front of the homeowners planning the bigger work. Call tracking shows which ad, listing or page brought in each call, so your money goes to what books jobs.
Through your Google Business Profile, the listing that shows on the map with your stars, hours and phone number. We set it up with the Plumber category, each service you offer (drain cleaning, leak repair, water heaters, sewer lines), your real service area, your real hours including after-hours if you take emergency calls, and photos from your own jobs. A review request goes out after every job, so your stars keep up with your work.
For most plumbers they are worth a look, because they sit above everything else on a "plumbers near me" search. Local Services Ads are Google's pay-per-lead ads: you pay when a homeowner calls, messages or books, and you are not charged for clicks. We handle the setup and gather what Google's screening asks for in your area, which can include license, insurance and background checks. Google also ranks these ads partly on how fast you answer, so we look at how your calls get picked up too.
Search ads put your company in the results for the searches you choose, like "emergency plumber" or "water heater replacement," and you pay when someone clicks. We set them to the towns your trucks reach and the hours someone can answer the phone, and we keep them off searches from job seekers and do-it-yourselfers. Every call gets tracked, so you can see what each one cost and never end up as the company paying for clicks an hour away.
For the jobs and towns you want more of, yes. That is what "SEO for plumbers" comes down to: pages that tell Google plainly what you do and where you do it, so you show up in the regular results below the ads. A single page that says "plumbing services" has nothing to match a search for slab leak repair in your town. Every town page also has to be true, so if we list a town, your trucks go there.
Nobody can promise you a spot in an AI answer. Those tools build their answers from what is published about you, so we make your name, phone number, services and towns match everywhere they appear. We also put plain answers on your site to the questions homeowners ask, like whether a slab leak can be fixed without tearing up the whole floor, which gives the tools something to use.
They do a different job from Google. Google catches the homeowner with water on the floor today. Facebook and Instagram keep your name, your trucks and your finished jobs in front of homeowners in your towns before the water heater fails, and they show your company again to people who visited your website and did not call. When the day comes, yours is a name they already know.
How to set up search ads that bring in calls from the towns you serve, and keep your money off the searches that never turn into jobs.
Get the Google Ads guideHow to put your trucks and finished jobs in front of homeowners near you, and reach the people who visited your site and did not call.
Get the Facebook and Instagram ads guide
Robert Earl holds three current Google certifications. Here is what each one means when it is your money on the line:
Those sit on top of 25+ years working with the home service industry. See the certifications, or start with the free Google Ads guide.
Consultations are by phone or video. We build pages for the towns you actually serve and set your ads to the areas your trucks reach. How we quote.
It is usually one of four things: the profile is not verified, the main category is not set to Plumber, the service area is missing or wrong, or you have few recent reviews. Distance plays a part too, since Google weighs how close you are to the person searching. We check each of these in the free consultation.
Google Ads and Local Services Ads can start bringing in calls once Google approves them and they go live. Your map ranking and your website pages build over months. We track calls from the first month, so you can see what is moving.
You set the budget, and the right number depends on your town, the season and the jobs you want more of. An emergency drain campaign and a water heater campaign will not cost the same. We look at your market before we suggest a starting budget, and the free Google Ads guide and what Google Ads cost cover the basics.
Google replaced it with the Google Verified badge starting in October 2025. It is the same screening idea, with license, insurance and background checks depending on your area, minus the old money-back guarantee. We handle the screening paperwork when we set up your Local Services Ads.
Not always. Often it means adding pages for the jobs and towns you want, a phone number that is easy to tap, and your hours where people can see them. If your current site makes those changes hard, we will tell you in the consultation.
That is your call, and some plumbers use both. Leads from those sites are often sent to more than one company, so you are racing other plumbers to the phone. Calls from your own Google listing, ads and website come only to you, and the accounts stay yours.
Yes. Call tracking and labeled links show which ad, listing or page brought in each call or form, so you know which marketing books jobs and can stop paying for what doesn't. Facebook often works over weeks, so we also note when a caller says they saw you there.
No, and nobody honest can. What we put in writing is the scope, the price, and that every account is set up in your company's name.
Is your plumbing business growing the way it should? If not, we need to talk.
Every time you don't get the call, the guy down the street does. The sloppy one, who shows up late and never calls back. He's taking work that should be yours. It's time to get serious, take your share and put them out of business.
Your business and the homeowners in your towns are counting on you, so make the decision. In 30 minutes we will show you where your calls are going now and what it takes to get them back.
