Why waste removal Google Ads go wrong
It’s a common story with man and van Google Ads. The spend went up, the phone rang a bit more, and nobody could say which calls came from the ads or whether they turned into jobs. The account was set up by a generalist, or by Google’s own “smart” settings, and left to run.
The usual problems are easy to spot once you know the trade:
- Paying for the wrong searches. “Skip hire near me”, “council bulky waste collection”, “tip opening times”, “free sofa collection”, “man and van jobs”. These people were never going to book you.
- Targeting too wide. Ads shown to people “interested in” your area rather than people actually in it, or a radius that covers towns you’d never drive to for a single-item job.
- No call tracking. Most of your customers ring rather than fill in a form. If calls aren’t tracked, Google’s bidding is flying blind, and so are you.
- Sending clicks to the homepage. Someone searched for “house clearance” and landed on a page about removals and parcel delivery.
- One campaign for everything. A £40 single-item pickup and a £600 full house clearance competing for the same budget.
We cover this in more detail in why waste removal Google Ads get expensive (and how to fix it).
How we run PPC for man and van businesses
Campaigns split by the jobs that make you money
We start with your numbers: average job value, which jobs you actually want, how far you’ll travel for each type, and your busy and quiet days. Then we split campaigns so your budget goes to the work that pays. House clearances, rubbish removal, garden waste and furniture collection usually need different keywords, ads and budgets.
Keywords and negative keywords
We target the searches that book: specific services plus your towns, “near me” searches, and urgent searches. Then we build negative keyword lists from experience in this trade, and keep adding to them from your real search terms every week. This is where most of the wasted spend in waste removal accounts goes.
Location targeting that matches your van routes
We set targeting to people actually in your area, not people merely “interested in” it, and we shape it around your yard, the towns you want, and how far a job has to be worth travelling. If you want more work in one town and less in another, we can bid differently by location.
Local Services Ads
Where Google offers Local Services Ads for your category and area, we’ll check whether you’re eligible and help you get set up. You pay per lead rather than per click, and you get the Google badge at the top of the results. Availability varies, so we’ll tell you straight whether it’s an option for you.
Call and form tracking, tied to real jobs
We set up conversion tracking for calls from your ads, calls from your website, and quote forms, wherever your phone and site setup allow it. Then we show you a simple way to mark which enquiries became booked jobs, so decisions are made on jobs and revenue, not clicks.
Landing pages that get the call
Paying for a click and sending it to a slow, vague page wastes money. We’ll tell you if your landing pages need work and, if needed, our web team builds pages for your main services: clear area, clear services, clear prices or how pricing works, your waste carrier licence, real photos, and a big phone button. See CTR and conversion optimisation.
You always own your Google Ads account
This matters more than most owners realise. Some agencies run your ads from their own account, so if you leave, your history, your data and everything Google has learned about your customers stays with them, and you start from scratch.
With Requiq, the account is yours. You pay Google directly, you can log in whenever you like, and we work through access you grant us. If you ever stop working with us, you keep everything.
How much should you spend?
There’s no single right number. It depends on your average job value, how many extra jobs you can actually handle, and how competitive your area is. We’d rather you start with a budget you’re comfortable with and grow it once the tracking shows which jobs it’s booking. We walk through the maths in how much should a man and van spend on Google Ads? and you can model your own numbers with the ROI calculator.
Google Ads and SEO together
Ads are the quickest way to get the phone ringing, but you pay for every click, forever. Local SEO takes longer but builds free visibility in the map pack. Many owners use both: ads for steady, controllable calls now (and for filling quiet weeks), SEO to bring the cost per job down over time.
Who runs your campaigns
Andy Hathaway has 12 years of PPC experience, more than five of them running campaigns for the waste industry. Michael Miller has 12 years of PPC experience and over 12 years in the trade itself. He grew his own waste business from £5k to £2.5m in five years. They do the work themselves. Nothing is handed to a junior.
