The Setting Most Cleaning Accounts Get Wrong
In each campaign's settings, under Locations → Location options, Google's default is Presence or interest. That includes people who are interested in your location, not only people who are in it. For a cleaning company that's rarely what you want. Someone in another state reading about your city can see and click your ad.
Change it to Presence: people in or regularly in your targeted locations. Then check the locations report after a week to confirm clicks come from your area.
Radius, ZIP Codes or Towns?
Many cleaning companies get the best results from ZIP codes. You can raise bids in the areas that book the most and leave out the ones with long drives or low prices.
Set the Area by Drive Time
Recurring cleaning is profitable when crews move between nearby homes. A client 45 minutes away can wipe out the margin on the job. Draw your area around where your crews already work, and grow it as your routes fill. Our post on cleaning business profit margins shows how drive time eats into profit.
Commercial and specialist work, such as post-construction or hood cleaning, can justify a wider area because each job is bigger. Put those in a separate campaign with its own locations.
Location Bid Adjustments
Once you have a few months of data, look at cost per booked job by location. Raise bids in areas that book well and lower them, or exclude them, in areas that don't. Bid adjustments only apply with manual or enhanced bidding. With fully automated bidding, use separate campaigns for areas you want to treat differently.
Ad Schedule
Look at Ad schedule under Campaigns. A sensible starting point:
- Run ads during office hours plus early evening, when someone can answer calls and reply to forms within minutes.
- Turn off call assets outside answered hours.
- Keep ads on after hours only if you have online booking or an instant quote, and an automatic text reply. Speed matters: see the 5-minute rule for cleaning leads.
- Commercial campaigns often do best on weekdays, when facility and office managers are working.
After a month, check the day and hour report. If certain hours bring leads that never book, reduce bids for those hours.
Check Your Service Area Matches Everywhere
Your ads, website and Google Business Profile service area should all describe the same area. If you advertise in a town, have a page for it. See service area pages for cleaning companies.
Want us to map the most profitable area for your crews? Book a free strategy call below.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I use presence or presence or interest targeting?
For a local cleaning company, use Presence. It limits ads to people who are in or regularly in your service area, rather than anyone showing interest in it.
How big should my Google Ads service area be?
Base it on drive time between jobs. For recurring residential cleaning, most companies keep it tight around existing routes. Larger commercial or specialist jobs can justify a wider area in a separate campaign.
Should cleaning ads run 24/7?
Only if leads can book online or get an instant automated reply after hours. Otherwise, run ads when someone can respond within minutes.
