Google Ads for insulation contractors: the campaign split, realistic cost per lead, and the terms that waste money
How to split attic and spray foam campaigns, what an insulation lead really costs on Google, the negative keyword list, and what working ads look like.
Google Ads for insulation does one thing no other channel does: it puts you in front of a homeowner the week they decided the upstairs is unbearable. It also drains $2,000 in a month on clicks from people shopping for batts at the hardware store. The difference between the two is the campaign structure and about a dozen settings.
Before anything else: ads only work if someone answers the phone. If a third of calls go to voicemail during the October rush, fix that first with the missed calls guide. Otherwise you are paying Google to ring a mailbox.
Split the account by job type
The single most common mistake is one campaign called "Insulation" that bids on everything. Spray foam clicks cost two to three times what attic clicks cost, and when both share a budget the foam terms spend it by noon. The attic calls, which are more numerous and close faster, never come.
Run at least two campaigns:
Attic and air sealing. Terms like "attic insulation cost", "blown in attic insulation", "attic insulation contractor near me", "attic air sealing". Clicks run $4 to $12 in most metros. A tracked call or form lands between $40 and $120. Ticket $1,500 to $4,500. This campaign gets the larger budget in September through November and April through June.
Spray foam and crawl space. Terms like "spray foam insulation contractor", "closed cell spray foam", "crawl space encapsulation cost", "crawl space insulation". Clicks run $8 to $25. A tracked lead lands between $80 and $200. Ticket $3,000 to $15,000. This campaign runs year round at a steadier budget because the demand is less seasonal.
If you do a lot of commercial or pole barn foam, that is a third campaign with its own terms and a landing page that shows metal buildings, not kitchens.
Match types and the negative list
Use phrase and exact match only. Broad match on "insulation" will buy you:
- insulation r value chart
- how to install batt insulation
- insulation home depot, lowes
- insulation jobs, insulation installer salary
- pipe insulation, water heater insulation blanket
- insulation for dogs, insulation for vans
- insulation tax credit (research, not a buyer yet)
- reflectix, rockwool, owens corning (product shopping)
Add all of those as negatives on day one, then read the search terms report every week and add more. In the first month the negative list usually grows to 80 to 150 terms. That weekly pass is the single highest-return hour in the account.
Send clicks to a page that mentions the rebate
A click on "attic insulation cost" that lands on a home page with a truck photo and "we offer quality insulation solutions" converts at 2% or worse. The same click landing on a page that says "Attic insulation in [county]: $1,500 to $4,500, [utility name] rebate up to $X, free attic inspection" converts at 8% to 15%.
Build one landing page per campaign. Attic page, foam page. Each needs the price range, the rebate for your utility, three before-and-after photos, two reviews that mention that job type, a tap-to-call button that stays on screen, and a three-field form: name, phone, attic or foam. Nothing else. See the website guide for the rest of the site.
Schedule, location and device
Run ads during the hours you answer the phone, plus one hour either side. A 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. schedule is typical. If nobody answers on Sunday, do not run on Sunday; the click still costs money and the voicemail still loses the job.
Set location targeting to the towns you drive to, with "presence" not "interest", or you will pay for people in other states researching insulation for a house they might buy in yours.
Insulation searches are mostly on phones. Make sure the call button on the ad is live and that the landing page call button works on a phone.
Track calls or you are guessing
Use a tracking number on the ad and the landing page, with call recording, and count a conversion only on calls longer than 45 seconds. A 20-second call is a wrong number. Without this, the account will report "conversions" that are form fills from people asking if you sell batts, and you will scale the wrong terms.
Listen to ten recorded calls a week. You will hear what the ad promised, whether the office asked the right questions, and which search terms bring the jobs that book.
Local Services Ads
In many markets Google offers Local Services Ads for insulation, the "Google Guaranteed" boxes above the regular ads. You pay per lead, not per click, and can dispute leads that were out of area or the wrong service. Lead costs vary by metro but tend to land below Search for attic work. Getting in requires a background check, license and insurance documents, and a few weeks. Rank is driven by reviews, responsiveness and how fast you answer, which is one more reason to run the review system first.
If LSA is available in your category and metro, run it alongside Search, not instead of it.
Budget and what two weeks should show
A one-to-two crew company can test properly on $50 to $80 a day in season. Below $40 a day the data is too thin to judge. Expect the first week to be messy while the negative list builds. By the end of week two you should see:
- 15 to 35 tracked calls or forms across both campaigns
- A cost per lead inside the ranges above
- A search terms report with the junk pruned
- At least a few booked estimates you can trace to a specific search term
If you see impressions and clicks but no calls, the landing page or the answering is the problem, not the ads. If you see calls but no booked estimates, listen to the recordings; it is usually the office quoting price on the phone and losing the walk-through.
Frequently asked
Should I bid on my competitors' names? Rarely worth it in this trade. The clicks are expensive, the homeowner was looking for someone specific, and the conversion rate is poor. Spend the money on your own attic terms.
Can I run ads only in October and April? You can, but the account loses its learning each time and starts cold. Better to keep the spray foam campaign running at $15 to $25 a day through the slow months and scale the attic campaign up and down with the season. See the seasonality guide.
Performance Max keeps being recommended. Should I turn it on? Not until Search is working and tracked. Performance Max spends across YouTube, Display and Gmail with little visibility into where, and for a trade with a narrow search intent it tends to inflate lead counts with low-quality forms. Search plus LSA is enough for most insulation companies.
If you want this built and run for two weeks before deciding whether to keep it, Google Ads is one of the services in the free 14-day trial.
Steven has spent the last several years running growth campaigns for local service businesses, insulation companies among them, and builds the benchmark datasets on this site from public Google listings. About the editor