Solved: Google Ads for Coventry Business? (The Real Opportunity)

Hi there,

Thanks for getting in touch. Happy to give you some initial thoughts on whether Google Ads is a good shout for your business in Coventry. It's a question I hear a lot from local business owners, and the short answer is yes, it can be incredibly effective, but the whole game is about capturing intent, not just "reaching people". Most people get this bit wrong and end up burning through their budget with very little to show for it.

I'll walk you through how I'd approach this, why it works, and what you need to have in place before you even think about spending a penny on ads. It's less about flipping a switch and more about building a reliable machine for generating leads.

We'll need to look at this differently... It’s Not About "Reaching," It’s About "Capturing"

First things first, let's clear up a common misconception. A lot of business owners think of advertising as "getting their name out there." That’s brand awareness. That’s what you do with a flyer, a billboard, or maybe a Facebook campaign set to "Reach". You're basically shouting into a crowd, hoping someone who needs you might hear it.

Google Search Ads are a completely different beast. You're not shouting into a crowd. You're putting a signpost directly in front of someone who is lost, has their wallet out, and is actively looking for directions to a place just like yours. They are telling Google, in their own words, exactly what they need, right now. For a local service business, this is pure gold. Nobody wakes up in the morning and thinks, "I fancy browsing for a new boiler today." They wake up to a cold house, a broken boiler, and a sense of panic. Their first move isn't to scroll through Instagram; it's to grab their phone and type "emergency boiler repair Coventry" into Google.

This is the fundamental shift in thinking. You're not trying to *create* demand; you are *capturing* existing, urgent demand. Someone in Coventry needs you right now. Your only job is to be the most obvious, trustworthy, and easiest choice for them to make in that moment of need. When you run a campaign on Meta (Facebook/Instagram), you're interrupting their leisure time. They're looking at pictures of their grandkids or holiday snaps. You're an unwelcome guest. On Google, you're the welcome solution to a pressing problem. The mindset of the user is completely different, and that's why it's so powerful for local services.

Thinking that Google Ads is only for big national e-commerce brands is a massive mistake that leaves a huge opportunity on the table for local businesses. The platform is actually built for locality. With precise location targeting, you can ensure your ads are only seen by people within a specific radius of Coventry, so you're not wasting money on clicks from Birmingham or Leicester. You can even have your phone number and address appear directly in the ad, making it dead simple for a potential customer to get in touch.

I'd say you need to define your customer by their nightmare, not their postcode...

So, who is your customer? If your answer is "homeowners in Coventry aged 30-60," you've already lost. That's a demographic. It's sterile, useless information for crafting a message that actually works. It tells you nothing about *why* they would ever need you.

Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) isn't a person; it's a problem state. It's a nightmare. Your customer is the person whose ceiling is currently dripping water onto their new sofa. Your customer is the small business owner who just got a terrifying letter from HMRC. Your customer is the family whose power has just gone out on the coldest night of the year.

Let's take an electrician in Coventry as an example. The demographic is vague. The nightmare is crystal clear:

• The "Flickering Lights Nightmare": They're worried about a fire hazard. They need an expert to diagnose the problem, not a handyman. They're searching for "certified electrician coventry" or "electrical fault finding."
• The "Total Blackout Nightmare": It's 9 PM, the kids are scared, and the fuse box is dead. They are not price shopping. They need help *now*. Their search is "emergency electrician 24/7 coventry."
• The "New Extension Nightmare": They've got builders on site, and they need a reliable electrician to do the first fix wiring to keep the project on schedule. They're searching for "electrical contractor for home extension coventry."

See the difference? Each nightmare has its own language, its own urgency, and its own search terms. When you understand the nightmare, you can write ad copy that speaks directly to their fear and offers immediate relief. Instead of a generic ad saying "Coventry Electrician - Call for a Quote," you write:

Power Out? Flickering Lights?
24/7 Emergency Electrician in Coventry. Certified & Insured. We'll Be There in 60 Mins. Call Now.

This ad doesn't sell "electrical services." It sells a solution to a specific, stressful nightmare. It acknowledges their problem (Power Out?), agitates it slightly (Flickering Lights?), and then presents the perfect solution (24/7, Certified, Fast). This is how you win the click over your competitors.

This approach transforms your advertising from a cost into an investment in problem-solving. Before you spend a single pound, you need to sit down and map out every single "nightmare scenario" that would lead someone to desperately need your service. That list of nightmares becomes the blueprint for your entire Google Ads campaign structure.

You probably should understand the numbers that unlock growth...

The question I get asked most often is "What will my cost per lead be?". And while that's important, it's actually the wrong first question. The real question you should be asking is, "How much can I *afford* to pay for a lead and still be very profitable?" The answer lies in a simple but crucial metric that most small businesses never bother to calculate: Customer Lifetime Value (LTV).

If you don't know what a customer is truly worth to you, you're flying blind. You'll panic if a lead costs £50, even if that customer goes on to spend £2,000 with you over the next few years. Conversely, you might celebrate £10 leads that never convert or only ever buy your lowest-margin service once.

Let's break it down for a local service business. It's simpler than you think.

1. Average Job Value (AJV): What's the average revenue you generate from a single job? Let's say you're a decorator in Coventry, and your average job is £1,500.
2. Gross Margin %: What's your profit margin after materials and direct labour? Let's say it's 40%. So your gross profit per job is £1,500 * 0.40 = £600.
3. Repeat Business Rate: How many more jobs, on average, will that customer give you over their "lifetime" (say, the next 5 years)? Maybe one in four customers comes back for another job. So that's 0.25 extra jobs.
4. Referral Rate: How many new customers does an average happy customer refer to you? Let's say one in ten customers refers a friend who becomes a customer. That's 0.10 new jobs from each original customer.

Now we can calculate a rough LTV:
LTV = (Gross Profit Per Job) * (1 + Repeat Jobs + Referral Jobs)
LTV = £600 * (1 + 0.25 + 0.10) = £600 * 1.35 = £810

So, each new customer you acquire is actually worth £810 in gross profit to your business.

Now, let's talk about Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). A healthy business model often aims for a 3:1 LTV to CAC ratio. This means you can afford to spend up to £810 / 3 = £270 to acquire a new customer.

If you know your sales team (or you!) can convert 1 out of every 4 qualified leads into a paying job (a 25% closing rate), you can now calculate your maximum affordable cost per lead (CPL):
Max CPL = Max CAC / Closing Rate = £270 / 4 = £67.50

Suddenly, paying £40 or £50 for a high-quality, exclusive lead from someone who searched "decorators in coventry for living room" doesn't seem so expensive, does it? It looks like a bargain. This is the maths that separates the businesses that scale with paid ads from those that give up after a month because they "felt" it was too expensive. Without these numbers, you're just guessing.

Use the calculator below to plug in your own numbers. This will give you a much clearer picture of what you can realistically afford to invest in advertising.

You'll need the right machine to capture customers...

Once you understand the nightmares and the numbers, you can start building the machine to capture these customers. A successful Google Ads campaign for a local business isn't a random collection of ads and keywords; it's a tightly structured, highly logical system designed to do one thing: convert a searcher's urgent need into a qualified lead for your business as efficiently as possible.

Here’s what the core components look like:

1. Campaign Structure is Everything

Don't just lump everything into one campaign. You need to separate your campaigns based on the "nightmare" or service type. This allows you to control your budget and tailor your ad messaging perfectly. For an electrician, it might look like this:

• Campaign 1: Emergency Services (Budget: Higher, runs 24/7)
• Campaign 2: Domestic Installations (e.g., rewiring, new sockets)
• Campaign 3: Commercial Services (for business clients)

Within each campaign, you'll have Ad Groups. Each Ad Group should focus on a super-specific theme. For example, inside the "Emergency Services" campaign, you might have:

-> Ad Group: Emergency Call Out (Keywords: "24 hour electrician coventry", "emergency electrician near me")
-> Ad Group: Fuse Box Issues (Keywords: "fuse box tripping coventry", "consumer unit replacement cost")

This level of granularity means the person searching for "fuse box tripping" sees an ad that says "Fuse Box Problems in Coventry? We Fix Tripping Circuits Fast." This perfect match between keyword, ad, and landing page is what Google rewards with higher rankings and lower costs.

2. Keywords: The Language of Need

Your keyword selection is critical. You must focus on keywords that show clear commercial intent. These are searches made by people ready to hire someone, not just looking for information.

• Good (High Intent): "plumbers in coventry", "cost to fix leaking tap", "local gas safe engineer coventry"
• Bad (Low Intent / DIY): "how to fix a leaking tap", "plumbing basics", "what does a gas safe engineer do"

You also need to use "match types" correctly. Start with "phrase match" and "exact match" to control who sees your ads. Broad match will have you showing up for irrelevant searches and will waste your budget very quickly.

And just as important is your "negative keyword" list. These are the terms you *don't* want to show up for. For a professional plumber, this would include terms like "free", "cheap", "jobs", "training", "course", "DIY". Actively blocking these saves a fortune.

3. Ad Extensions: Your Local Superpowers

Ad extensions are extra snippets of information that appear with your ad, and for local businesses, they are non-negotiable. They make your ad bigger, more prominent, and infinitely more useful to someone in a hurry.

• Location Extension: Shows your business address and a map pin. Instantly builds trust and shows you're genuinely local.
• Call Extension: Puts your phone number directly in the ad. On mobile, this becomes a "click-to-call" button. Essential for emergency services.
• Sitelink Extensions: Add extra links to specific pages on your site, like "Our Services," "Pricing," or "Testimonials."
• Callout Extensions: Short, punchy bits of text to highlight key selling points like "24/7 Service," "Family-Run Business," or "Gas Safe Registered."

Using these extensions properly can significantly increase your click-through rate (CTR) because you're giving the searcher all the information they need without them even having to click through to your website.

I've put together a simplified table showing how you might structure a campaign for a local plumber in Coventry. This is the kind of methodical approach required.

I'd say you need to fix your digital shopfront first...

This is probably the single biggest point of failure I see with local businesses running ads. You can have the best-structured Google Ads campaign in the world, with perfect keywords and brilliant ad copy, but if you send that expensive, hard-won traffic to a website that's slow, confusing, and untrustworthy, you might as well just set your money on fire. Your website is not a brochure; it's your 24/7 salesperson and your digital shopfront. It has one job: to convert a visitor into a lead.

Think about the person who just clicked your "Emergency Plumber" ad. They are stressed, in a hurry, and probably on their mobile phone. Your website has about 3 seconds to convince them they've come to the right place.

• Is your phone number HUGE and clickable at the very top of the page? They shouldn't have to hunt for it. If you can't take calls 24/7, you need a prominent contact form or a callback widget.
• Does it load instantly? If your page takes more than a couple of seconds to load, they will hit the back button and call your competitor. A slow site is a lead killer.
• Does it scream "We are a real, local, trustworthy Coventry business"? You need your full address, local landline number (not just a mobile), pictures of your team/van, and logos of any certifications (e.g., Gas Safe).
• Have you got social proof? Customer reviews and testimonials are absolutley vital. Seeing that other people in Coventry have used you and had a good experience is often the final piece of the puzzle that makes them pick up the phone.
• Is it simple? Get rid of the clutter. The page they land on should be 100% focused on the problem they searched for. If they clicked an ad for "leaking pipes," the landing page should have a headline like "Fast & Reliable Leaking Pipe Repairs in Coventry" and a clear call to action to get in touch. Don't distract them with links to your blog or company history. Solve their problem first.

I've seen so many businesses pour thousands into ads only to fail here. Your website's conversion rate is a massive lever. Improving it from 5% (5 in 100 visitors contact you) to 10% literally halves your cost per lead without you spending a single extra penny on advertising. It's often the most profitable marketing work you can do. Before you launch any ads, you have to be brutally honest about your website. Get a friend or family member to look at it on their phone and ask them: "If your toilet was overflowing, would you trust this site enough to call the number?" If the answer is anything but a resounding "yes," you have work to do first.

You'll need realistic expectations... What to Expect on Costs & Returns

So, what kind of costs are we actually looking at? The answer, frustratingly, is "it depends." It depends on your industry, the competition in Coventry, and how well your campaign is set up. But I can give you some real-world benchmarks from campaigns we've run for similar service businesses.

We're currently running a campaign for an HVAC company in a competitive city, and they're seeing a cost per lead of around $60 (£45-£50). On the other end of the spectrum, we've managed ads for childcare services where signups were costing about $10 each. Our best-performing local service campaign was for a home cleaning company, and we got their cost per lead down to just £5. This was in a less competitive market, and their offer was really strong.

For a typical trade or service business in Coventry, you might be looking at a range of £20 - £60 per qualified lead (a phone call or a form submission). It could be cheaper if your niche is less competitive, or more expensive if you're up against a lot of established players with big budgets.

The key thing is to relate this back to your LTV calculation. If your average job profit is £600 and a lead costs you £40, you only need to close 1 in 15 leads to break even on your ad spend. If you close 1 in 4, you're making fantastic money. That's the ROI.

I usually recommend a starting ad spend of at least £1,000 - £2,000 per month. This gives you enough data to see what's working and what isn't. You can't properly test with a budget of £10 a day. The formula is simple: (Number of leads you want per month) x (Your estimated cost per lead) = Your ideal monthly ad spend.

Ultimately, Google Ads for a local business isn't a cost centre; it's a predictable, scalable lead generation machine when it's built correctly. It's an investment in your growth that, unlike a flyer drop, gives you a mountain of data you can use to refine and improve your results over time. You'll learn exactly which services are most profitable, what time of day people search for you, and which ad messages get the best response. That information is invaluable.

This is the main advice I have for you:

Hopefully this gives you a much clearer framework for thinking about Google Ads. It's not a dark art, but it does require a methodical, data-driven approach. Getting it right can genuinely transform a local business by creating a predictable flow of high-quality leads.

Doing all of this yourself, however, can be a steep learning curve and a full-time job in itself. It’s very easy to make expensive mistakes when you're starting out. This is often where working with an expert can make a huge difference, getting you to profitability much faster and avoiding that initial period of wasted spend while you figure things out.

If you'd like to chat through your specific business and goals, I'd be happy to offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation where we can take a closer look at your situation and see if this is the right path for you.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh