If you look at your Google Ads dashboard and feel a knot in your stomach, you aren’t alone. For many cleaning companies, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing feels less like an investment and more like a slot machine that never pays out.
You are likely getting clicks. You are definitely getting bills. But you aren’t getting the booked jobs to justify the spend.
Why is this happening? It’s not because Google Ads doesn’t work. It’s because you are likely falling victim to the “Default Trap”—a combination of bad advice from online gurus and, ironically, the aggressive recommendations from Google’s own support team.
It is time to stop spending based on hope and start spending based on logic. Here is the unfiltered truth about why your campaign is failing and the technical shifts you need to make immediately.
1. Stop Listening to Google Reps (They Are Salespeople, Not Marketers)
This is the hardest pill for many business owners to swallow. When a Google Ads representative calls you—often relentlessly—offering to “optimise” your account, it feels like expert help.
You need to understand their incentive structure. Google’s goal is to maximise the utilisation of their ad inventory. Your goal is to maximise profit. These two goals are often in direct conflict.
Google reps will almost always push you toward “Auto-Apply Recommendations” and “Broad Match” keywords. They frame this as “letting the AI find you more customers.” In reality, this usually just finds you more clicks—regardless of the quality.
The Fix: politely ignore the emails and calls. Never turn on “Auto-Apply” for keyword insertion or budget increases. You need full manual control over where your money goes.
2. The “Broad Match” Budget Killer
If you have a limited budget (and in the cleaning industry, margins are tight, so budget is always a factor), using Broad Match keywords is financial suicide.
Here is the logic: When you bid on the Broad Match keyword cleaning services, Google’s algorithm feels entitled to show your ad for queries like:
- How to start a cleaning business (Competitor research, not a client)
- Dry cleaning services (Wrong industry)
- Car cleaning tips (Irrelevant)
- Cleaning supplies for sale (Wrong intent)
You pay for every single one of those clicks. Broad match casts a wide net, but it catches mostly garbage. You are paying to educate people or sell them supplies, not to clean their homes or offices.
The Fix: If your budget is under £500/month, you have no business using Broad Match. Stick to Phrase Match (“office cleaning”) and Exact Match ([office cleaning]). This forces Google to only show your ad when the user’s search intent actually matches your service.
3. The Power of “Geo-Modifiers” (Localised Keywords)
Online gurus often preach about “high volume” keywords. They want you to bid on Commercial Cleaning because it has 50,000 searches a month.
But you are a local business. You cannot clean an office in London if you are based in Manchester.
A generic search for “house cleaning” indicates a user who is early in the research phase or perhaps just looking for definitions. However, a user who types “House cleaning in [Your City]” or “Office cleaners near [Your City]” has their credit card in hand. They have a problem, they are in your area, and they are ready to buy.
The Logic:
- Generic Keyword: High competition, high Cost Per Click (CPC), low conversion rate.
- Localised Keyword: Lower volume, lower competition, significantly higher conversion rate.
Stop chasing volume. Chase intent. You don’t need 1,000 clicks; you need 10 clicks from people who actually live in your service area.
4. Negative Keywords Are More Important Than Positive Ones
If you want to beat the algorithm, you need to tell Google what you don’t do. Most cleaning campaigns fail because they lack a robust Negative Keyword List.
If you don’t explicitly tell Google to block them, you will pay for clicks from people searching for:
- Jobs / Employment / Salary (People looking for work, not a cleaner)
- Cheap / Lowest Price (Price shoppers who will haggle you to death)
- DIY / How to
- Car / Pool / Chimney (Services you don’t offer)
The Strategy: Check your “Search Terms” report weekly. Every time you see a waste-of-money search, add it to your negative list immediately. This is how you refine your traffic until only qualified leads remain.
The Bottom Line
Marketing a cleaning business isn’t about magic tricks; it’s about fiscal discipline.
- Ignore the pressure to “spend more to learn more.”
- Cut the Broad Match keywords that drain your budget.
- Focus entirely on Phrase and Exact match localised keywords.
Google Ads is a tool. If you use it like a blunt instrument, it will hurt you. If you use it like a scalpel, it will build your business.