// MARKETING FOR PLUMBERS
Marketing for plumbers has to serve two different customers. One has a blocked drain or no hot water and calls the first plumber who looks licensed and close. The other is pricing a hot water replacement and reads three quotes. We set up the profile, website, follow-up and ads for both.
// TWO KINDS OF PLUMBING JOB
Most plumbing marketing that wastes money treats every job the same way. These two customers search differently, decide differently and are worth different amounts.
The customer has water on the floor or a cold shower and a phone in one hand. They pick from the first few results, check you look licensed and nearby, and call. They do not read much and they do not fill in forms.
What it needs: A profile that wins the map pack, a page that loads fast on mobile data with a call button on the first screen, and someone answering the phone.
The customer gets two or three quotes and reads before they ring. Price context, photos of your own installs and reviews that name the job all get weighed. These jobs are often worth several times a blocked drain.
What it needs: A page per job with what it involves and what it usually costs, quote requests by form as well as phone, and follow-up on every quote you send.
// THE ORDER
Each step makes the next one cheaper. Prices are ex GST and fixed before work starts.
On a phone, a blocked drain or burst pipe search opens on the map pack, which fills most of the first screen. A plumber working from a ute needs the address hidden and the suburbs set, with "Plumber" as the primary category and honest secondaries for drainage or gas work you really do.
Setup and verification $390 + GST, fixed.
Tap to call on the first screen, your plumbing licence number where a customer can find it, and a page per job: blocked drains, hot water, burst pipes, leak detection, gas. One "Services" page listing everything cannot rank for any of them.
Full website from $2,800 + GST, hosting included. Single landing page $1,500 + GST.
A review that says the blocked sewer was cleared the same afternoon, and names the suburb, does more for the next drain search than five stars and no words. The request goes out when the job is closed, while the customer still remembers who turned up.
Review system $1,500 + GST setup, then $497/month + GST.
An emergency caller who gets voicemail usually rings the next plumber on the list. A text back the moment a call is missed keeps the job yours while you are on the tools. Quoted hot water and renovation work needs a follow-up when the quote goes quiet.
Missed-call text-back from $1,800 + GST. Quote follow-up from $900 + GST.
Plumbing clicks are dear, so the account splits emergency searches from planned work, blocks apprenticeship and DIY searches before launch, and only runs when someone answers.
Management $650/month + GST. Ad spend is separate and paid straight to Google.
Organic work goes first to the planned jobs worth the most, such as hot water replacement and drain relining, and to the suburbs you want more of. It builds under the ads and slowly takes over searches you were paying for.
One-off SEO builds from $3,500 + GST, scoped before we start.
// AFTER HOURS
A burst pipe at 11pm can be the best job of the week. It is also where plumbing marketing leaks the most money, because the click, the profile view and the call all happen whether or not anyone picks up.
Missed one anyway? Missed-call text-back replies to the caller straight away, so they wait for you instead of ringing the next plumber.
// PLUMBING CLIENTS
Plumbing
A plumbing business we have looked after for close to three years. We build and host the website, make the video and run the Google Ads with tracking wired in, all pointed at the same service offer and contact paths. We also archive their completed ServiceM8 jobs into a Google Drive they own.
We also built a fast site and set up Google Ads with conversion tracking for Bay Plumbing & Drainage. We do not publish lead or job figures for either business, because we do not yet have written permission to share their numbers.
// WHAT TO SKIP
Paying for hipages and want out? Read hipages alternatives.
// QUESTIONS
Facebook, hot water, after-hours and budget, answered for Australian plumbing businesses.
Get in touchFor most plumbers: a Google Business Profile that shows in the map pack, a fast website with a page per job and tap to call, reviews that name the job, and fast answers to every call. Google Ads on the emergency and hot water searches come next, with SEO building underneath.
Not for emergency work. People with a blocked drain or a burst pipe search Google, they do not scroll social media. Meta ads can work for planned, visual jobs such as bathroom renovations, and usually only once the Google side is converting.
Treat hot water as its own service. That means a dedicated page covering repair and replacement, the system types you install, what a replacement usually involves and how fast you can do it, plus its own ad group and reviews that mention hot water. "No hot water" is an urgent search that often turns into a replacement worth far more than a callout.
Only if someone answers 24 hours a day. Schedule ads and profile hours to your on-call roster, publish the after-hours rate, and use missed-call text-back so a call you cannot take straight away still gets a reply.
Start with the fixed pieces that keep working: profile, website, reviews and follow-up. Google Ads management with us is $650/month + GST, with ad spend paid to Google and set from your job values and live click costs. It makes sense from about $1,500 a month of ad spend.
Yes. Your Google Business Profile, ad accounts, website and domain sit in your name. There is no lock-in contract, and if you move on you keep the lot.
// RELATED
Fast on mobile data, one tap to call, licence up front, a page per job.
SEO for plumbersThe map pack and the organic results for emergency and planned plumbing searches.
Google Ads for plumbersEmergency, planned and waste search terms, after-hours scheduling and the job-value maths.
Plumber rates in AustraliaHourly rates and call-out fees by city, with sources.
A good cost per lead for a plumberHow to work out what a lead can cost against the jobs it books.
Marketing for tradiesThe order every trade business should add marketing in.
// THE NEXT BLOCKED DRAIN
Tell us your suburbs, the hours you answer and the jobs you want more of. We will tell you the next step worth paying for, and what it costs.
Get a plumbing marketing plan