What turns a plumbing search into a won job

An enquiry is a phone call or a web form. A won job is one the business marked as won in its job records, valued at the agreed price. Everything that decides whether advertising pays sits between the two.

Key facts

• The typical plumbing business turned about 1 in 5 Google Ads enquiries into a won job. Counting only enquiries marked won or lost, it was about 1 in 3.
• Won jobs traced to Google Ads were worth about 2.5× the ad spend across the businesses, and about 2.3× with the largest business left out.
• In about 2 in 3 businesses, the first month of ads produced won jobs worth more than that month's ad spend.
• About 7 in 10 won jobs were recorded within a week of the enquiry.

Exhibit 1. From enquiry to won job

Two cautions keep these numbers useful. Won-job value is revenue, not profit: it does not take out labour, materials or travel. And the counts are conservative: an enquiry that could not be traced to an ad is left out, and the newest enquiries have not finished turning into work.

Searches that name a suburb. When the search, or the keyword it matched, named a specific suburb, the enquiry became a won job 1.5× as often as an enquiry from any other search. That is the conservative figure; before allowing for differences between businesses it was close to double. The lift showed for calls and forms alike, and held with the largest business taken out.

A city name does not do the same job. Searches naming only a city or region did not share the lift: they won less often than average. The local signal that matters is the suburb.

Exhibit 2. How often each kind of search became a won job

Suburb searches are a steady slice of demand, not the bulk of it: roughly 1 in 5 dollars of the won revenue that could be traced to a search. They earn their own campaign because they win more often. Build real pages for the suburbs that already produce work, and let the ad and the page say the suburb back to the customer. Our local SEO work covers suburb pages that ads and organic results can share.

Most won work came from searches no keyword list would hold

Where the exact words a customer typed were visible, about 80% of won revenue came from search wording that appeared on no other enquiry. About 6 in 10 of those won jobs came from a search that was not word-for-word the keyword being bid on. Plumbing work lives in a long tail of specific, oddly worded searches, which is why the search terms report shows more about where jobs come from than the keyword list does.

That long tail includes price-checking and how-to searches. The usual advice is to block them as tyre-kickers. Some won work came from exactly those searches, so look at what they produced in your own job records before blocking them by reflex. Our guide to enquiries from searches you never chose covers the weekly review.

Calls bring in most of it. About 3 in 4 plumbing enquiries were phone calls, and calls carried a similar share of won revenue. A plumbing campaign is a phone business run through a mobile screen.

Enquiry for enquiry, though, forms hold their own. In the typical business, web forms became won jobs about as often as calls, 1.0× the call rate, and forms did better than calls in about half of the businesses with enough of both. The average won job was within about a tenth either way. A business that answers calls in seconds and forms the next morning is leaving won jobs on the table.

Long calls win more often

Calls that ran three minutes or more became won jobs about 1.9× as often as shorter calls, and the pattern held in most businesses. Calls over five minutes did better still. A long call is where a job gets described, priced and booked.

Short calls still count. Around half of call revenue came from calls under three minutes, because a customer who knows what they need can book in a sentence or two. Call length is a sign of a serious enquiry, not a reason to ignore a short one.

Exhibit 3. Calls, forms and call length

For how to set call conversions, see short calls and the 60-second rule. For what happens on the call itself, see our analysis of which trade phone calls turn into won jobs.

Early, and at weekends. Win rates fell steadily through the working day. Enquiries arriving between 6am and 9am became won jobs 1.3× as often as those arriving between 3pm and 6pm, and the whole morning beat the afternoon by about 1.2×. The early advantage showed in most businesses with enough data.

Weekends pulled more than their weight. In businesses that ran weekend ads, weekend enquiries were roughly 25% of enquiries but brought in about 34% of won revenue, and they became won jobs about 1.2× as often as weekday business-hours enquiries. No single weekend day stood out consistently.

Exhibit 4. When the enquiry arrived

What to change: run ads from 6am if someone can answer, keep weekend ads on, and make sure the phone is covered in every hour the ads run. Nothing here supports switching plumbing ads off at weekends. Our guide to running ads in the hours you answer calls covers the schedule settings.

By the service the customer asked about, hot-water enquiries were worth about 1.3× the average enquiry in won-job value, and leak-detection enquiries about 1.5×. Tap, fixture and bathroom enquiries were worth well below average, roughly 0.6× to 0.8×. Hot water also made up more than a quarter of the won revenue that could be sorted by service. The hot-water premium varied a lot between businesses, so use it as a starting point for your own numbers.

Exhibit 5. Won-job value per enquiry, by service asked about

The biggest tenth of jobs carries half the revenue

Won plumbing revenue is lopsided. The biggest tenth of jobs produced about 50% of all won revenue, and the smaller half of jobs only about 10%. In the typical business the average job was worth about 1.9× the median job, because a few large jobs pull the average up.

That changes how to judge a campaign. A month with fewer, cheaper-looking leads can still be the best month of the year if it brings in a hot-water replacement and a leak hunt. Judge on won-job value over a run of months, and let budget and ad copy follow what an enquiry is worth, not only what it costs. Our guide to what a plumbing lead costs on Google Ads covers the cost side.

Fast. About 7 in 10 won jobs were recorded within a week of the enquiry, around 40% or more within a day, and only about 10% took longer than two weeks. The dates are the job date or the date the business marked the job won, so the real pace is if anything quicker. The first response to a new enquiry carries most of the weight; follow-up still matters for the minority of jobs decided later.

Exhibit 6. Time from enquiry to won job

The money arrives quickly too. In about 2 in 3 plumbing businesses that recorded job outcomes from launch, won jobs from the first 30 days of ads were already worth more than that month's ad spend. Results ranged from below spend to several times it, so treat the first month as an early read, not a verdict. Our guide to how long to give a campaign before judging it covers the months after.

Seven checks, each one possible in a week, each tied to a finding above.

1. Mark every job won or lost, with the agreed price. Without it, none of these numbers can be measured for your business.
2. Give your best suburbs their own ads and pages. Start with the suburbs that already produce work, not a list of every suburb on the map.
3. Read the search terms report, not just the keyword list. Most won work comes from wording you never chose.
4. Answer forms as fast as calls. A form wins about as often as a call.
5. Let calls run, and book the job on the call. Ask about the job, then price it or book it before hanging up.
6. Cover the phone from 6am and at weekends, or set the ad schedule to the hours someone can answer.
7. Judge the month on won-job value, not lead count. A few big jobs make the year.

This is how SoudCoh Compound runs a plumbing business's marketing: ads, the website, tracked calls and forms, and follow-up run as one plan and judged on won work. See it in practice in the case studies for Bayside Plumbing (suburb searches and weekends), Champion Plumbing (suburb searches and speed to a won job) and State Choice Plumbing (hot water and web forms), and in our marketing for plumbing businesses.

The figures come from SoudCoh's analysis of won-job records from Australian plumbing, drainage, leak-detection and hot-water businesses running Google Ads. Each figure is an aggregate across businesses.

• Enquiry: a phone call or web form traced to a Google Ads click or an ads-only phone number, with test entries removed.
• Won job: an enquiry the business marked as won in its job records.
• Won-job value: the agreed job price recorded when the job was marked won. It is revenue, not profit, and not cash collected.
• Windows: each business is measured from its own first day of ad spend. First-month figures use each business's first 30 days of ads. Times of day are the business's local time.
• Rounding: multiples are rounded down. Where a result depended on how it was measured, the most conservative version is shown.
• Checks: each finding was recalculated independently and tested with the largest business left out. Findings that did not hold up were dropped.

Search wording was visible for only part of the enquiries, so the search findings describe that part. Some businesses record outcomes more completely than others, which affects win rates more than job values.

What share of plumbing enquiries become won jobs?

About 1 in 5 for the typical plumbing business, counting every Google Ads enquiry, including wrong numbers and enquiries that were never updated. Counting only enquiries marked won or lost, it was about 1 in 3.

Do suburb pages help plumbers win more jobs?

In SoudCoh's analysis of won-job records, enquiries from searches naming a suburb became won jobs 1.5× as often as enquiries from other searches. Searches naming only a city did not share the lift. A real suburb page lets the ad and the page say the suburb back to the customer.

Should plumbers switch Google Ads off at weekends?

Not if someone can answer. Weekend enquiries were roughly a quarter of plumbing enquiries but brought in about a third of won revenue, and they became won jobs about 1.2× as often as weekday business-hours enquiries.

How quickly does Google Ads pay back for a plumber?

Often within the first month. In about 2 in 3 plumbing businesses that recorded outcomes from launch, won jobs from the first 30 days of ads were worth more than that month's ad spend. Results ranged widely, so judge a campaign over a run of months.

Which plumbing services are worth advertising most?

Hot water and leak detection. Hot-water enquiries were worth about 1.3× the average enquiry in won-job value and leak-detection enquiries about 1.5×, while tap, fixture and bathroom enquiries were worth well below average.