Paid Search for Landscape Gardeners
If you’re reading this in spring, this is your only real option.
Timing is the entire story
Your demand climbs from February, peaks through spring, and falls away by midsummer. That’s a short window and it decides your year.
Organic content and profile authority take months to build. If you start that work in September, it’s mature by February and it carries your season. If you’re starting in March, it will be ready in time for next year — not this one.
Paid search is the only channel that can be live in a day. That makes it the answer to a specific and very common question: my season is starting and I’m not visible enough — what can I actually do about it now?
It’s also useful in a second way. Your job values are decent — £1,045 for turfing, £2,970 for a patio, £5,105 for a full garden — which means there’s real room for a paid click, especially on the bigger work.
The discipline is knowing when to stop. Spending in October on a trade nobody’s searching for in October is one of the more common ways landscapers waste money.
What actually works
Front-loaded seasonal budget. Heavy from February to June, tapering through July, largely off from August. Your spend should look like your demand.
Separate campaigns by job type. Patios, turfing, fencing, full design and build. These are different customers with different budgets and different urgency, and one campaign serves none of them well.
Landing pages with photographs. You sell visually. Sending paid traffic to a text page wastes the click.
Price ranges in the ad copy. It filters out people expecting a garden for £500, which at your click costs is worth doing.
A tight radius. Landscaping work is heavy and local. Forty-minute drives eat the margin.
Negatives for DIY, materials, plants and jobs. Gardening attracts enormous amounts of hobbyist traffic.
What we’d actually do
If it’s autumn, we’d tell you to put the money into content and profile work instead, and use ads lightly. That’s the cheaper path and there’s time for it.
If it’s already spring, we’d get campaigns live within days — patios and full-garden work first because the values justify the clicks, with photo-led landing pages and price ranges in the copy.
Then measure cost per booked project by job type, because a patio lead and a clearance lead are worth very different amounts.
Then taper deliberately from July, and switch off rather than letting it drift through autumn.
And in parallel, start the organic work for next season, so that this is the last year you have to rely on paid to carry spring.
The first 90 days
What these look like depends entirely on the month you’re reading this, which is unusual but it’s the reality of a season this short.
If it’s September to December. We’d spend almost nothing on ads. Content, photography and profile work instead, so you go into February visible without paying per click. Ads then become a small top-up rather than the engine.
If it’s January or February. Campaigns built and live within two weeks — patios and full-garden work first, photo-led landing pages, price ranges in the copy. You’re buying visibility for a season that’s about to open, and getting in before the March bidding war is a genuine cost advantage.
If it’s March to May. Live within days, and we’d be blunt that you’re entering at peak competition and peak cost. It still works, it just costs more than it needed to. We’d run it, carry your season, and start the organic work immediately so next year is cheaper.
If it’s June or July. We’d tell you to wait. Taper what’s running, spend the money on content and photography through summer and autumn, and come into next February properly.
Across all four scenarios, month three is the same conversation: cost per booked project by job type, and a plan to need paid less next year. Renting your season forever is the failure mode here.
What good looks like
Cost per booked project under 5% of project value. At £1,495 average that’s around £75, and the bigger jobs give more room.
Spend curve matching demand. Heavy Feb–June, near-zero Aug–Jan.
Average project value rising, because photo-led landing pages attract people who want a garden rather than a bargain.
A plan to need this less next year. Paid should be carrying you until the organic work matures, not forever.
The mistakes we see most
Spending year-round. Autumn clicks in a spring trade.
One campaign for everything. Patios and clearance are not the same customer.
Text-only landing pages. You’re a visual trade. Show gardens.
No price ranges. You’ll pay for a lot of conversations that end at the number.
Starting in May. Peak competition, peak cost, and half your season already gone.
Never building the organic side. Then you’re renting your season every year.
What’s it worth?
Average project £1,495 · cost per booked project £68
Every £68 returns £1,495, in a window that only opens once a year.
Every enquiry lands in Gaffer
Enquiries arrive tagged by campaign, so you know whether they came from a patio ad or a full-garden one. Photos attach to jobs and build the gallery that reduces what you need to spend next year. Last spring’s customers are a list for this autumn.
Questions landscapers ask
Should I run ads all year?
No. Match the spend to the season and switch off.
How much for a season?
Depends on your area, but we’d start small in February and scale as the cost per job proves out.
Will it work as well as SEO?
Faster, not cheaper. Use it to carry this season while the slower work matures.
Ad spend separate?
Always, in your own account, switchable by you at any time.
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