Market analysis: Google Ads for tradespeople

We measured the German Google search market for trade services: 5,901 search terms in the period from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026. For each term, we analyzed:

• average monthly searches,
• development over three months and year over year,
• competition intensity and competition index,
• bids for top ad positions,
• monthly distribution of demand.

The volumes are rounded estimates from the Google Keyword Planner. Similar phrasings often receive identical values and sometimes represent the same demand. That is why we consistently distinguish between general industry research, specific searches for a service provider, product and material searches, cost and information research, apprenticeship and career searches, and searches for brands and companies.

In the trades, visibility in your own catchment area at the right time counts for more than the size of the ad budget. Local campaigns with clean geographic targeting and trade-specific keywords reduce wasted spend considerably. Every euro invested goes into searches from the area where new jobs come from.

Alex Sperber, Partner at UnitedAds

The search market is large, but highly fragmented

Around 3.1 million searches per month sounds like a huge market. However, most of it is spread across thousands of small terms.

The 100 largest search terms account for around 38.7% of the summed volume. More than 60% falls to smaller terms and long-tail variants. The large terms bring reach, while the specific long-tail searches usually show a much clearer intent to hire a business.

If you simply add up the volumes, you overestimate the market. Many variants count the same demand twice:

Search intent determines the value of a click

The cost per click depends much more on the intent behind a search than on its volume.

The groups partly overlap. "Sanitärfirma in der Nähe" (plumbing company nearby) belongs to both local search and company search, so the volumes cannot be added up. The weighting is still clear:

• The median upper bid for local service provider terms is about 5.7 times higher than for product and retailer searches.
• For emergency terms, it is about 11 times higher.
• Pure cost research does relate to a project, but is often still early in the decision.
• A lot of competition for product buyers does not mean that the inquiries are valuable for a trade business.

Searches with specific purchase intent are particularly valuable in the trades. People searching for "Elektriker Notdienst" (emergency electrician), "Dachdecker München" (roofer Munich) or "Badsanierung Kosten" (bathroom renovation costs) are often just about to hire someone. That is exactly why Google Ads is one of the marketing channels with the highest likelihood of closing in the trades, provided the campaigns are consistently optimized for profitable inquiries rather than for as many clicks as possible.

Alex Sperber, Partner at UnitedAds

Plumbing, heating and plumbers bring the highest profit contribution per inquiry

The plumbing, heating and air conditioning (SHK) segment combines high reach with the highest costs per click among classic trade services.

At up to €13.38, "Klempner" (plumber) reaches the highest reliable upper bid among the high-volume general trade terms. The local variants are valuable too:

Bathroom renovation forms its own project market. Cost terms bring reach, but the highest bids go to specific company and service provider phrasings with smaller volume:

Our assessment: very high potential. The segment combines large general and local demand, fast-growing "near me" searches, high values for emergency services and many recurring services.

Roofers are the largest directly visible trades market

The roofing market is the highest-volume clearly identifiable service market in our analysis.

Despite 40,500 searches, "Dachdecker" (roofer) has a competition index of only 19, a low value for such a large term. The upper bid of up to €5.99 nevertheless shows clear commercial relevance. While general demand for "Dachdecker" weakened over the period, "Dachdecker in meiner Nähe" (roofer near me) developed significantly better: searching is shifting toward choosing a specific regional provider.

At the same time, the roofing market contains many high-reach terms without any intent to hire a business:

Our assessment: very high potential, especially for general and local roofer searches, roof cleaning, roof coating, refurbishment and re-roofing. Material, construction type and DIY searches must be consistently excluded.

For tiles, search intent separates jobs from wasted spend

The tile segment has the most variants and the greatest reach. However, most of it concerns products, colors, designs, DIY stores and self-installation.

The difference between "Fliesen" (tiles) and "Fliesenleger" (tiler) is decisive. "Fliesen" has a competition index of 100, but an upper bid of only €1.44. "Fliesenleger" has an index of 25 and reaches up to €3.33. Searching for the service provider is therefore worth significantly more than product research.

The large product and do-it-yourself searches include self-adhesive tiles, mosaic and terrazzo tiles, wood-look tiles, painting over tiles, tile stickers, tiles at OBI or Hornbach, and tile adhesive and accessories. Local tiler searches such as "Fliesenleger in der Nähe" (tiler nearby), on the other hand, are barely represented in our data.

Our assessment: high potential with a very high risk of wasted spend. "Fliesenleger" alone brings 18,100 searches per month, but the raw volume of the segment is not demand for installation services.

Timber construction and carpentry offer reach at moderate costs per click

Costs per click are lower than in the plumbing and heating segment, and the competition index of the most important terms is very low: Zimmerei (carpentry) 10, Holzbau (timber construction) 17, Holzrahmenbau (timber frame construction) 18. This can mean a good ratio of reach to advertising pressure. The positive development of local carpentry searches is striking, while general terms are partly weakening.

Our assessment: high potential at moderate prices, especially for regionally active businesses. Timber trade, material searches, architecture and technical information must be separated.

For painters, local search is what counts

The general job titles are not clearly commercial; they also relate to apprenticeships, salaries or job offers. The local terms are more meaningful: less volume, but positive development and more competition. Customer phrasings such as "Maler in der Nähe" (painter nearby), "Malerfirma" (painting company), "Wohnung streichen lassen" (have an apartment painted), "Fassade streichen lassen" (have a facade painted) or "Maler Angebot" (painter quote) are not sufficiently included in our data.

Our assessment: medium to high potential, especially locally. For a complete market size, we add customer- and service-related painter terms to the analysis.

The most important purchase-ready searches at a glance

The term with the highest volume is not the economically strongest. "Klempner" (plumber) has less than a third of the volume of "Heizung" (heating), but reaches an upper bid more than three times as high.

The competition index says little about the value of an inquiry

Across all terms with a reported bid, the median for a top ad position is around €1.43. Product, material, DIY store and information searches push this value down. The commercially relevant trade terms are significantly higher:

"Fliesen" (tiles) has a competition index of 100 with an upper bid of €1.44, "Heizungsbauer" (heating installer) an index of 33 at €9.60, "Klempner" (plumber) an index of 37 at up to €13.38. The index measures competition for ad positions, including among retailers selling products. It says nothing about the quality of an inquiry for a tradesperson. We describe how we build such campaigns in Google Ads for tradespeople.

Local searches are growing, general ones are declining

The most important trend is the growth of local phrasings. Particularly strong growth is seen for "Zimmereien in meiner Nähe" (carpenters near me), "Sanitär in meiner Nähe" (plumbing near me), "Dachdecker in meiner Nähe" (roofer near me) and "Klempner in meiner Nähe" (plumber near me), plus heating fitter, water installer, installer, heating installer and painting business, each with "in meiner Nähe" (near me) or "in der Nähe" (nearby).

Of the 89 local service provider terms, 45 are developing positively, 15 are unchanged and 29 negative. The median annual development is +14%. Many general terms, on the other hand, are weakening, including plumbing, roofers, tilers, carpentry, timber construction, painters and varnishers, glaziers and roof refurbishment.

This does not mean the trades market is shrinking. People search more specifically and more locally, closer to the decision for a business. These are exactly the searches that are valuable for trade businesses, because region and intent to make contact are already recognizable.

Demand follows the season, very differently depending on the trade

Across all terms, March 2026 was the strongest month with around 3.59 million summed searches, December 2025 the weakest with around 2.49 million. The difference is about 44%.

Heating, roof cleaning, roof coating and roofing services need their own seasonal budget planning. Plumbing and interior finishing services are spread more evenly across the year.

This is where the biggest opportunities lie

• Plumbing, plumbers and heating: the best combination of volume, local demand and cost per click. Plumber, installer, company, emergency service and "near me" terms are particularly valuable.
• Roofers and roofing services: the largest directly recognizable service provider demand of all individual trades. Roof cleaning and roof coating are commercial submarkets of their own.
• Bathroom renovation: less volume than general plumbing and heating terms, but often specific and larger projects. Company terms are economically stronger than pure cost research.
• Tilers: 18,100 searches per month with low competition, surrounded by a much larger product and do-it-yourself market.
• Carpentry and timber construction: high general and local demand at moderate costs per click, with growing local searches.
• Local long-tail searches: The growing "near me" terms are the clearest opportunity across all trades.

Two risks distort any market size

• Product and DIY store searches: For tiles, timber and roofing, searches for OBI, Hornbach, materials, accessories, colors and self-installation increase visible reach without generating demand for a business.
• Apprenticeship and career searches: Apprenticeships, master craftsman school, salaries, job offers, job profiles and exam questions are widespread for tilers, plumbing and heating, painters and electrical engineers.

For questions about tradespeople, Google also cites individual businesses

We searched Google for 15 typical questions, for example "was kostet eine badsanierung" (what does a bathroom renovation cost), "klempner notdienst kosten" (emergency plumber costs) or "dach neu decken kosten" (cost of re-roofing) (queried on October 22, 2026). For all 15 questions, an AI Overview appears above the search results.

The sources are widely spread: 42 different websites in 44 mentions; no website appears more than twice. At least nine of the 42 websites can be recognized by their name as trade businesses, for "klempner notdienst kosten", for example, three plumbing businesses. Only 16 of the 44 mentions come from websites among the top five search results.

How we build content for AI Overviews is described on our page about GEO.

Conclusion: the potential lies in specific local searches

The German search market for trade services is large and very attractive for Google Ads. The most important trend is the growing local search intent: "Sanitär in meiner Nähe", "Dachdecker in meiner Nähe", "Klempner in meiner Nähe" or "Zimmereien in meiner Nähe" are developing much more strongly than many general terms.

Costs per click show the difference between reach and economic value. Product and retailer searches reach a median upper bid of €0.68, local service provider searches €3.87 and emergency terms €7.68. The highest bids are therefore for specific local, problem-related and provider-oriented searches; the terms with the most reach are below them.