Emergency work is the story trades tell about paid search, but in the data it is a thin slice. In SoudCoh's research sample of Australian trade and home-service advertisers, even for plumbers and electricians, searches worded as emergencies (“emergency”, “24/7”, “urgent”, “after hours”) took only 1.9% of search-term spend at the median, and produced 1.9% of paid-search enquiries for the median plumbing or electrical business. Nearly every plumbing and electrical advertiser in the sample bid on emergency keywords; most enquiries came from searches that used no emergency wording at all.
So plan a trade account for everyday and planned work first, and treat emergency as a separate, carefully bid segment. Below: what the search data shows, when an emergency campaign earns its place, what to do about price shoppers, and how to stop quick call-outs starving the planned jobs that are worth more.
How much trade demand in Google Ads is emergency work?
Key facts
- Emergency-worded searches took only 1.9% of search-term spend at the median, even for plumbers and electricians.
- They produced 1.9% of paid-search enquiries for the median plumbing or electrical business.
- “Near me” searches produced 17% of enquiries at the median and converted at 1.3× the rate of other searches.
- Price-research searches (“cost”, “price”, “how much”, “quote”) produced enquiries at 0.95× the cost of other enquiries.
- The biggest tenth of won jobs carried 41% of recorded revenue in the median business.
| Search wording | Examples | What the research found |
|---|---|---|
| Emergency words | emergency plumber, 24/7 electrician, urgent, after hours | 1.9% of search-term spend; 1.9% of enquiries for plumbing and electrical |
| Near me | plumber near me, electrician near me | 17% of enquiries; converted at 1.3× the rate of other searches |
| Price research | cost, price, how much, quote | Enquiries cost 0.95× other enquiries |
Definitions. Emergency-worded searches are search terms containing emergency, 24/7, urgent or after hours. An enquiry is a connected call or a submitted form.
Why does emergency work dominate the story but not the spend?
Nearly every plumbing and electrical advertiser in the sample bid on emergency keywords, yet most enquiries came from searches with no emergency wording. Urgency usually lives in the problem, not in the keyword. A homeowner with water through the ceiling may type “burst pipe”, “leaking hot water system” or “plumber near me” rather than “emergency plumber”, and a great deal of trade work is not urgent at all: a new hot water system, a switchboard upgrade, a bathroom tap replaced next week.
Near-me searches show how customers who have decided to hire actually ask. They produced 17% of enquiries at the median and converted at 1.3× the rate of other searches: the customer is choosing who, not whether. Those searches only work when location targeting is set to people physically in the service area, because “near me” says nothing about where the searcher is. Our article on why near-me searches convert better for trades covers the set-up.
A campaign built only around “emergency plumber” or “24/7 electrician” misses most of the market. The everyday, non-urgent jobs are where the volume is.
Should you run a separate emergency campaign?
Only if someone genuinely answers the phone in the middle of the night. When emergency searches do happen, they convert well but cost more per click. That makes them worth having for a business that can respond, and expensive for one that cannot.
If you run one:
- Give it its own ad group or campaign and its own budget, so it cannot quietly take money from the everyday services.
- Bid it on its own economics: the call-out fee and the work that follows, not the account average.
- Say 24/7 in the ad only if it is true, and schedule the ads to the hours someone picks up.
- Send it to a page that leads with the phone number and says plainly what happens after the call.
If nobody answers at night, do not bid on emergency keywords at night. The click costs the same whether or not the call is answered. Our article on separating urgent and planned electrical work shows the same split for electricians.
The urgency is usually in the problem, not in the keyword.
When do trade customers actually call?
Outside office hours more often than most rosters allow for. About 26% of calls from ads arrived before 7am, after 6pm or on a weekend.
That is timing, not necessarily urgency. Homeowners search when they are home: in the evening, before work and at weekends. The practical response is to cover those hours with an answered phone, an after-hours form that promises a callback time, or an ad schedule that matches the hours you can pick up, rather than to build the account around emergency keywords.
Our guide to running ads in the hours you answer calls covers the settings, and short ad calls and the 60-second rule covers how to count the calls those hours produce.
Should you block cheap and price searches?
Not by default. Price-research searches (“cost”, “price”, “how much”, “quote”) converted less often, but Google charged less for them, and the two effects roughly cancelled out: an enquiry from them cost 0.95× what other enquiries cost. A blanket negative keyword on “price” or “cost”, a common default in rules-based cleaning, throws away enquiries at a normal cost. Answer the price question in the ad and on the page instead of hiding from it.
Treat bargain words (“cheap”, “affordable”, “budget”) the same way. Whether they are worth having depends on whether those customers accept a quote, so the decision belongs with job outcomes in your CRM, not with a word list. Our article on negative keywords that block customers explains how to test a negative before adding it.
Why does planned work deserve its own campaign and budget?
Because cost per lead treats a blocked-drain call and a hot water replacement as equal, and they are not the same job. Planned work (installations, replacements, hot water, gas and compliance) is the work a business can schedule profitably.
Revenue is also concentrated. In the median business in SoudCoh's research sample, the biggest tenth of won jobs carried 41% of recorded revenue. The services that produce those jobs are rare enough to be cut by mistake when a monthly review looks only at cost per lead.
Reactive call-outs convert faster and look cheaper per lead, so in a shared budget they tend to win the argument every month. Give planned services their own campaigns and budgets so they are not starved, and judge them on revenue per ad dollar over a rolling quarter rather than on cost per lead in a single month. Our article on why the default conversion value makes ROAS meaningless explains how to get job values back into the account so that comparison is possible.
A campaign built only around emergency keywords misses most of the market.
How should a trade account be planned around the work it wants?
Start from the jobs, not the keywords. A simple way to lay it out:
| Work type | Examples | How customers search | How to run it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reactive repairs | Blocked drain, tripping safety switch, leaking tap | The problem, often with “near me” or a suburb | An ad group per problem, a phone-first page, ads scheduled to the hours you answer |
| Emergency-worded | Emergency plumber, 24/7 electrician | Explicit urgency words | A separate ad group and budget, only if someone answers at night |
| Planned installations and replacements | Hot water replacement, switchboard upgrade, split system installation | The job or the product, sometimes with a price question | Its own campaign and budget, a page that answers price and inclusions, judged on revenue per ad dollar |
| Compliance and maintenance | Smoke alarm compliance, backflow testing, gas appliance servicing | The requirement or the deadline | Its own ad group with a steady budget through the year |
Our white paper Launch, discover, control covers how to structure a new account around the way customers really search, and Marketing for home services in Australia sets the wider picture. For trade-specific set-ups, see our marketing for plumbing businesses, electricians, HVAC businesses and roofing businesses, or talk to us about the work you want more of.
Common questions about emergency searches and Google Ads
Should plumbers bid on emergency plumber keywords?
Only if someone genuinely answers the phone at night, and in a separate ad group with its own budget. In SoudCoh's research sample, even for plumbers and electricians, emergency-worded searches took only 1.9% of search-term spend at the median. Most enquiries came from searches with no emergency wording.
Do emergency searches convert better than other searches?
When they happen, they tend to convert well, but they also cost more per click. They are a thin slice of demand, producing 1.9% of paid-search enquiries for the median plumbing or electrical business in SoudCoh's research sample, so bid them on their own economics rather than building the account around them.
Should I add cheap and price as negative keywords?
Not by default. In SoudCoh's research sample, price-research searches produced enquiries at 0.95× the cost of other enquiries. Decide on bargain searches from quote acceptance in your own job records, not from a word list.
Do I need to advertise at night and on weekends?
Only for the hours you can answer. About 26% of calls from ads arrived before 7am, after 6pm or on a weekend. Answer them, with a call-answering service or a diverted phone, or schedule the ads to match the hours you can pick up.
How do I stop call-outs taking all my Google Ads budget?
Give planned services such as installations and replacements their own campaigns and budgets. In a shared budget the cheaper, faster-converting call-outs tend to win every month, yet in SoudCoh's research sample the biggest tenth of won jobs carried 41% of recorded revenue in the median business.
Questions and answers
Should my ads say we are open 24/7?
Only if a person answers every call, at every hour. Promising round-the-clock service and letting calls ring out wastes the click and the customer's trust.
What should a near-me search land on?
A page that shows your service area and a phone number in the first screen. Near-me searches converted at 1.3× the rate of other searches in SoudCoh's research sample, because the customer has usually decided to hire and is choosing who.