Are you losing sleep wondering if your Google Ads are actually working for your septic business? You’re spending hundreds or maybe thousands of dollars each month on these ads, but your appointment book isn’t filling up like you hoped. The worst part is, you log into your Google Ads account and see all these complicated numbers and charts that might as well be written in a foreign language. Meanwhile, the money keeps flowing out of your business, and you’re not sure if those dollars are bringing in enough septic jobs to justify the cost. Without knowing which numbers actually matter, you could be throwing good money after bad while your competitors are stealing the customers you should be getting.
In this blog post I am going to share the only Google Ads metrics that truly matter for your septic service business. You’ll learn which numbers to focus on and which ones you can safely ignore. First, I’ll answer the question: “Which two numbers in Google Ads tell you if your campaigns are actually making money?” Second, you’ll discover “How can you quickly spot when your ads are wasting your hard-earned dollars?” And third, I’ll explain “How to figure out what good conversion numbers look like for your specific septic business?” Understanding these key metrics will help you stop wasting money on ads that don’t work and start getting more septic jobs from the same budget.
Think of Google Ads metrics like the dashboard in your septic truck. When you’re driving to a job, you don’t stare at every single gauge and light on your dashboard all at once—you mainly check your fuel gauge to make sure you won’t run out of gas, and your speedometer to avoid tickets. The rest of the information is there if you need it, but those two readings tell you most of what you need to know to get to your destination safely. Google Ads works the same way. There are dozens of metrics available, but just like your truck’s dashboard, only a couple of them really matter for keeping your business on the road to success. The rest are just distractions that can take your eyes off what’s truly important—getting more septic jobs at a price that makes you money.
The first and most important metric you need to watch is your conversion rate. This is simply the percentage of people who click on your ad and then take the action you want—like calling your business or filling out a contact form. For example, if a certain number of people click on your ad and some of them call you, your conversion rate shows you what fraction actually contacted you. This number tells you if your ad is attracting the right kind of people—homeowners who actually need septic services. Every business is different, and what counts as a “good” conversion rate depends on your specific service area and competition. If your rate is lower than what’s typical in your area, it means people are clicking on your ad but not contacting you. This could be because your website isn’t clear about your services, your contact information is hard to find, or you’re not building enough trust with potential customers. Check that your website clearly shows your service area, has good before-and-after pictures of your work, and makes it super easy to call you with just one tap on a phone.
The second critical number is your cost per conversion. This tells you how much money you’re spending to get each phone call or form submission. For example, if you spend a certain amount on Google Ads in a month and get a number of phone calls, dividing your total spend by the number of calls gives you your cost per conversion. The key question is: does this make financial sense for your septic business? If your average septic job brings in good profit, then paying a fraction of that to get a new customer might be a great deal. But if you’re spending too much to get each phone call, and many of those calls don’t turn into jobs, you’re losing money. To figure out if your cost per conversion is good, you need to know your average job value and how many phone calls typically turn into paying jobs. For most septic businesses, you want your cost per conversion to be just a small percentage of your average job profit. So if you make a certain profit on an average job, you should only be spending a small portion of that to get a new lead.
Now that you understand these two key metrics, you need to make checking them a regular habit. Set aside just 15 minutes each week to log into your Google Ads account and look at your conversion rate and cost per conversion. If you notice either of these numbers moving in the wrong direction, you need to make adjustments right away before you waste more money. Maybe you need to change your ad text to attract more serious customers, or maybe you need to improve your website so more visitors contact you. The most successful septic businesses I work with set their own targets based on their specific business model and local market. They know exactly what conversion rate makes sense for them and exactly how much they can afford to pay for each new lead based on their job values. By focusing on these two numbers and ignoring all the other distracting metrics in Google Ads, you’ll be able to quickly tell if your ads are working for your business and make smart decisions about how to improve them.
Want to learn more ways to use Google Ads to grow your septic service business? I’ve got plenty more blog posts just like this one that can help you attract more local customers and keep your crews busy year-round.
