Google Ads for Painting Contractors: Beginner Guide

One of the biggest challenges in marketing a painting company is getting steady, good-quality leads. Google Ads helps with that. Instead of waiting months for SEO or hoping for referrals, it puts your painting business in front of homeowners who are searching for a painter right now.

I've run Google Ads for contractors for more than five years. Beyond The Brush Painters booked 8 jobs in the 20 days after their new site went live, at a 7X return on the ads.

Why Google Ads Works for Painting Contractors

Google Ads works because it reaches people who are ready to hire.

1. You reach customers who are ready to book

People searching:

• "house painters near me"
• "interior painting quote"
• "exterior painters [city]"

are not browsing. They want quotes.

2. You pay for clicks

You're charged when someone clicks your ad or calls, not when they see it.

3. You can target your exact service area

• Target specific cities
• Set a radius around your shop
• Exclude areas you don't serve

4. It's fast

Unlike SEO, Google Ads can bring in leads within days of launching.

Step 1: Setting Up Your Google Ads Campaign

This is the same basic setup we use for our painting clients.

Campaign type

Start with Search campaigns. They show at the top of Google when someone searches for painting services.

Campaign goal

Choose Leads, and set up conversion tracking for calls and quote forms before launching.

Budget and cost per lead

Painting is one of the more expensive trades on Google. In our 2026 findings a painting lead costs about $193 in Canadian dollars, the typical figure across three sources, which range from $91 to $243.^1–3 Painting clicks are among the priciest in home services, but about 1 in 10 of them call or send a form, better than most trades.^1,3 Your reviews, landing page and competition all move the number. Remember that a lead is a call or form, not a booked job.

Start with $30 to $75 a day for one service area.

Step 2: Choosing the Right Keywords (Most Important)

Results depend heavily on keyword selection. A keyword is the phrase someone types when looking for your service, like "painter near me".

High-intent painting keywords

• house painters near me
• interior painters [city]
• exterior painting company
• cabinet painting services
• commercial painters [city]
• residential painting contractor

Negative keywords (searches to block)

• DIY painting
• paint colours
• how to paint walls
• painting jobs

Tip

Start with phrase match and exact match. Broad match and Google's automated keyword expansion can spend your budget on searches that have nothing to do with hiring a painter.

Here's how the three match types read one painting keyword. The difference is how much freedom Google gets.

Step 3: Writing Ads That Get Clicks

Your ad has one job: get the right people to click you instead of the painter above or below you.

Headline examples

• Trusted Painters in [City]
• Interior and Exterior Painting
• Free Estimates, Fast Scheduling

Description example

Professional painting in [City]. Interior, exterior and commercial projects. Free quotes, clean job sites and reliable crews.

What makes a painting ad work

• Mention your city
• Include a clear offer, like a free quote
• Show trust: licensed, insured, reviews
• Add urgency when it's true: limited spring or summer spots

Step 4: Location Targeting

To avoid wasted clicks:

• Target only your service area. With under $30 a day, a 15 km radius is usually enough. With $50 a day or more, you can go to 30 km or more.
• Exclude cities you don't serve
• Consider focusing on neighbourhoods where your best jobs come from

Phones first

Most painting leads come from people searching on their phones. Make sure your ads have a call button and your landing page works well on mobile.

Step 5: Your Landing Page (Where Most Contractors Lose Money)

Sending ad clicks to your homepage wastes money. You need a focused landing page. Below are three sites we built, including a painter's, that show what a focused page looks like.

What your page needs

• A headline that matches your ad
• Before and after photos
• A short contact form
• One clear button: "Get a Free Quote"
• A design that works well on phones

Example layout

• Headline: Interior and Exterior Painters in [City]
• Subheadline: Clean, careful work with a written quote
• Photos of your work
• Reviews and testimonials
• Contact form

A better landing page lowers your cost per lead without spending a dollar more on ads.

Step 6: Budget and Bidding

How to start

Use Maximize clicks or Manual CPC for the first few weeks while you collect data. Once calls and forms are tracking properly, switch to Maximize conversions so Google bids for leads.

What painting costs on Google, in Canadian dollars

• People who click, out of 100 who see a contractor's ad: about 6^1,9,12,13
• Each lead (a call or form): about $193^1–3
• Each booked job: about $460 in ad spend^4–9

Costs vary a lot by city and season. Track your own numbers and compare them with what a job is worth to you.

Step 7: Tracking and Improving Your Campaign

Track:

• Click-through rate
• Cost per click
• Conversion rate
• Cost per lead and cost per booked job

Weekly checklist

• Pause keywords that spend without leads
• Add negative keywords from the search terms report
• Test new headlines
• Improve the landing page

Step 8: Remarketing

Most visitors don't reach out the first time. Remarketing lets you:

• Show ads again to past visitors
• Stay in mind while they compare quotes
• Win back leads you already paid for

Examples

• "Still need a painter? Get a free quote today."
• "10% off exterior painting booked this month."

Common mistakes painting contractors make

• Too many keywords in one campaign
• Sending clicks to the homepage
• No conversion tracking
• Ads that sound like every other painter
• A landing page that's hard to use on a phone

Advanced Strategies

1. Separate campaigns by service

• Interior painting
• Exterior painting
• Commercial painting

Each gets its own budget, ads and landing page, so you can push exterior work in summer and interior work in winter.

2. Location pages

Create landing pages for your main areas, like:

• /painters-vancouver
• /interior-painting-vancouver

Use real projects from each area, not copy-and-paste text.

3. Combine SEO and ads

Ads bring leads now. SEO brings leads later without paying per click. Together, you show up in both the ads and the regular results, and people trust you more when they see you twice.

What Results to Expect

Results depend on your budget, city and conversion rate. As a rough guide, a painting company spending $2,000 a month at the typical $193 a lead would get around 10 leads and 4 booked jobs. A strong landing page, good reviews and a lower-cost market can do much better. Track your cost per booked job as well as your cost per lead.

Done well, Google Ads is one of the fastest ways to grow a painting business.

What that looked like for Beyond The Brush Painters, a new Vancouver painting company, after their site and Google Ads went live:

Where to start

Start with one Search campaign for your best service in the area you serve: phrase and exact match keywords, a landing page with before and after photos, and call tracking. Spend $30 to $75 a day for a month and judge it by booked jobs.

Our Google Ads management runs this for painting companies, and the numbers for every other trade are in our Google Ads benchmarks by trade.