Most advertising metrics were designed for businesses where the conversion happens on the website. A contractor’s conversion happens on the phone, and several standard numbers report that badly enough to prompt the wrong decision.
Bounce rate, which is close to backwards
A bounce is a visitor who leaves without a second interaction. Consider what a perfect paid visit looks like for an emergency plumber: someone lands, sees the number, taps it, and calls.
Depending on how your analytics is configured, that visit can register as a bounce: a single page, no further interaction, very short. Your best-performing page can therefore show your worst bounce rate.
The fix is not to chase the number down. It is to track the tap as an event, so the call is counted as what it was. Until then, treat bounce rate on a call-driven landing page as uninformative rather than bad.
Time on page, for the same reason
An emergency visitor should leave quickly. Twenty seconds followed by a call is the outcome you wanted; four minutes of reading usually means they did not find the number.
Longer sessions are meaningful on planning pages: replacement costs, financing, comparisons, where reading is the job. Judge the two kinds of page by different standards, or you will optimise the emergency page towards being slower to use.
“Conversions” counts only what you told it to
The conversions figure in your ads account is not a measure of enquiries. It is a count of the actions someone configured it to count.
In a great many contractor accounts that means form submissions only, which for most trades is the minority of enquiries. The account then optimises towards the customers who fill in forms and away from the ones who ring, which is the opposite of what the business wants.
Check what your conversion actions actually are before trusting a single figure that depends on them. If calls are not among them, call tracking is the first fix, not a later refinement.
Click-through rate, which can improve while things get worse
CTR rises when an ad is compelling to whoever sees it. That includes people you do not want: an ad promising “free estimates” or “lowest price” will lift CTR and fill your phone with price shoppers.
It is a diagnostic: a sudden drop is worth investigating, but it is not a goal. Rising CTR alongside falling booked jobs is a common and expensive pattern.
Impression share, which needs splitting
One genuinely useful metric, but only when you read the two reasons separately:
- Lost to budget means the demand exists and you ran out of money. If those campaigns book profitably, this is a straightforward case for more budget.
- Lost to rank means you were eligible and lost the auction. More budget will not fix that; it is a relevance or bid problem, and relevance is usually the cheaper lever.
Read as a single blended number, impression share tells you almost nothing.
What to watch instead
- Cost per booked job, by campaign and service. Every other number is a step towards this one.
- Call answer rate. It silently multiplies every other cost in the account.
- Search terms. What you are actually paying for, as opposed to what you thought you bought.
- Booked revenue by job type, so you can turn off the work you do not want.
Frequently asked questions
Is a high bounce rate bad for a contractor?
Often not. A visitor who lands, taps your phone number and calls may register as a bounce, so your best page can show your worst figure. Track the call as an event rather than trying to lower the number.
Why is my conversion count so low?
Usually because only form submissions are configured as conversions. For most trades calls are the majority of enquiries, so the account is optimising towards the smaller half and away from the phone.
Should I aim for a higher click-through rate?
Not as a goal. Ads promising free estimates or the lowest price lift CTR while attracting price shoppers. Treat it as a diagnostic, a sudden fall is worth investigating; a rise means little on its own.
What does impression share tell me?
Only when split. Lost to budget means demand exists and you ran out of money. Lost to rank means you lost the auction, which more budget will not fix. Blended together the number is close to meaningless.
Where to start
Open your conversion actions and check whether phone calls are among them. In most contractor accounts they are not, and every other number in this article is built on that one.
Real Time Marketing has worked with home service contractors since 2016: plumbing, HVAC, roofing, electrical and other trades, nationwide, from our office in Bradenton, Florida. Agreements are month-to-month. See our pay-per-click management or book a strategy call.
