Garden centerDrake’s 7 Dees
380%more organic traffic
in one year
- Google Ads conversion rate
- 26.4%
- Google Ads conversion rate
- leads in 60 days
- 744
- leads in 60 days
PPC in San Mateo, California
Google Ads for San Mateo businesses, judged on calls and cost per lead.
San Mateo Google Ads that report in calls and cost per lead, with management from $500 a month plus ad spend.
- A landing page for each job type
- Call tracking from the first click
- Budget planned month by month
Google PartnerView our Partners listing
5.0on Google · read our reviews
2010Lithium Marketing, established in 2010
$10M+Over $10 million in Google ad spend managed
Businesses
we’ve worked with
Businesses we’ve worked with
- Willard Power Vac
- Sarkinen Plumbing
- Robinson Restoration
- Town & Country Glass
- Dixie Glass
- Byers Septic Service
- F&W Fence Co.
- Drake’s 7 Dees
- Rickabaugh Construction
- Hillsview Building
- Dozer Dave
- Mt. Hood Pro Painting
- On-Target Landscape
- Atiyeh Bros Carpet
- Lovett
- Westmore Construction
- Northwest New Homes
- Porter Sealcoating & Paving
- RescueHero Restoration
- Panda Plumbing
- Biermann Plumbing & Heating
- Ballistic Junk Removal
- Smart Doors LLC
- Peak Performance Roofing
- Deluxe Heating & Cooling
- Lifetime Exteriors
- Bruce Johnson Construction
- Madrone Painting
- Smart Tree Service
- Premier Gutter Cover
- NW Pacific Electric
- Universal HVAC
- Lenny Martin Painting
- Next Level Decks & Exteriors
- Prodan Construction
- Smooth Rollin’ Sealcoating and Paving
- Lovett Restoration
- Greenlight Titles
- G.W. Hartley IV
- Advanced Coatings
- Thomson Equipment
- MyADU
The account from the first click
How far a San Mateo ad budget goes
A click on “garage door repair san mateo” averages $70.13, so an account without call tracking is expensive guesswork. Lithium Marketing puts tracking in place before the budget moves: calls and forms counted, the ad that brought each one recorded, and the jobs that followed.
The spread across trades is wide. “HVAC repair san mateo” runs $49.05 a click and “plumber san mateo” $35.99, while “landscaping san mateo” averages $3.13. A garage door company and a landscaper can spend the same budget and get very different numbers of clicks, so the plan starts from what one booked job is worth to you.
Click costs in San Mateo County
What the county’s trade clicks cost
San Mateo click costs run from $70.13 for “garage door repair san mateo” down to $3.13 for “landscaping san mateo”. Between those two sit “pest control san mateo” at $26.77, “roofing company san mateo” at $22.56 and “water damage restoration san mateo” at $13.11. Management starts at $500 a month, plus ad spend, and it is agreed separately from the media budget, so the fee and the ad spend stay in separate lines.
A search for “plumber san mateo” carried no paid ads when we checked, and the local listings sat at the top of the page. Ad slots and local results shift with the hour and the searcher, so one look at a page should not set a budget. Your own call data should set it.
| Search | Searches a month | Cost per click |
|---|---|---|
| google ads agency san mateo | under 10 | not reported |
| ppc agency san mateo | under 10 | not reported |
| ppc management san mateo | under 10 | not reported |
Source: Google Ads keyword data, average monthly U.S. searches. "Under 10" = below Google’s reporting floor.
| Search | Searches a month | Cost per click |
|---|---|---|
| garage door repair san mateo | 90 | $70.13 |
| hvac repair san mateo | 70 | $49.05 |
| plumber san mateo | 720 | $35.99 |
| pest control san mateo | 170 | $26.77 |
| roofing company san mateo | 110 | $22.56 |
| water damage restoration san mateo | 20 | $13.11 |
| electrician san mateo | 170 | $5.51 |
| landscaping san mateo | 110 | $3.13 |
Source: Google Ads keyword data, average monthly U.S. searches. "Under 10" = below Google’s reporting floor.
- Map Pack
- The first thing on the page
- Search ads
- None recorded
- Local listing reviews
- 32 to 1,600 Google reviews each
- Directories in the top 10
- Facebook, HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack, Yelp
- AI Overview
- Not shown
- People also ask
- Not shown
Source: one Google results page for “plumber san mateo”, as Google showed it to a searcher located in San Mateo. Search ad counts exclude sponsored local listings. Results shift by searcher and day.
The San Mateo year
A budget that follows the weather and the map
San Mateo has warm, dry summers and mild, damp winters. If your trade works outdoors, plan the budget to peak before the dry months, not sit flat all year. If your calls bunch up in the wet weeks, have the budget ready for them, because a burst pipe does not wait for a convenient month.
The city is served by three major freeways, so a crew’s service area can reach past the city limit. Set the ad targets by the cities and the radius you can reach, then read the search terms report for the towns you would prefer not to drive to.
- residents (2025 estimate)
- 103,337
- residents (2025 estimate)
- population change, 2020 to 2025
- -2.2%
- population change, 2020 to 2025
- housing units
- 42,641
- housing units
- of occupied homes owner-occupied
- 49.9%
- of occupied homes owner-occupied
- of homes built before 1980
- 70.4%
- of homes built before 1980
- median home value
- $1,618,700
- median home value
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau 2025 population estimates, ACS 2020–2024 and 2023 County Business Patterns.
Trades in San Mateo County
The trades behind these click costs
A specific ad beats a general one in some trades. San Mateo County lists 146 painting contractors and 21 glass and glazing contractors, so both trades need an ad that shows something a customer can check: a finished room, a measured window, a date the crew can hold.
Project trades need a different ad. San Mateo County’s 42 excavation and site preparation contractors sell work planned weeks ahead, so their ads should ask for the project type and the start date. A repair trade’s ad says the opposite: someone can come out today.
County Business Patterns
Trade and home service businesses in San Mateo County
Establishments by industry, 2023
- Residential remodelers520
- Landscaping services286
- Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors233
- New home builders214
- Electrical contractors206
- Painting contractors146
- Roofing contractors69
- Excavation and site preparation contractors42
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 County Business Patterns (NAICS establishment counts).
Your first month
The first 30 days of a San Mateo account
The account is set up around the jobs you want, then tuned daily for a month and weekly after that.
1
Start with the money already spent
If the account has history, we read the last few months of search terms, keep the ones that brought calls and write down the ones that did not.
2
Put a number on every call
We count every call and form, record the campaign and ad behind it, and report what a lead costs.
3
Give each job its own page
A landing page for the work you want, written around that job, not a general services list.
4
Adjust on a schedule
Bids and blocked search terms get checked every day for the first 30 days, then once a week, with the budget set by month.
What every Google Ads account includes
The same eight parts go into every Google Ads account, wherever the business is.
- Conversion tracking, properly wired
- Landing pages per intent
- Match types and negatives
- Responsive search ads
- Geo and audience targeting
- Bid management
- Remarketing
- Looker Studio reporting
Proof
A garden center’s growth across website, SEO and Google Ads
Drake’s 7 Dees, a garden center, had Lithium build its website, run its SEO and manage its Google Ads. The card carries the numbers from that work, and the quote beside it comes from Daniel Busby at Willard Power Vac.
Garden center“Lithium Marketing has been amazing for our business. They have greatly increased our web traffic and helped us land hundreds of jobs. Before we started using Lithium we were sitting on page 8 in google. We are now sitting in the top spots in all the areas we do work.”
Daniel BusbyPresident, Willard Power VacAround San Mateo
Ads across the Bay Area cities
Bids can be set city by city from day one, and each nearby city below has its own PPC page. The Bay Area and California links widen the targeting to the metro and the state.
Published price
What a San Mateo account costs to manage
From $500
per month in management
Management is separate from your ad spend. Typical: $500–$1,500 a month in management on $2,000–$5,000 a month in ad spend. No haggling, no hidden upsells.
FAQ
What owners ask before they buy ads
Still curious?
Call (503) 766-5964 or email [email protected].
What starting budget makes sense for my trade?
Start from what a booked job pays you, then look at what a click costs in your trade. A garage door company near the top of the click-cost range needs a bigger daily budget than a landscaper near the bottom to produce the same number of calls, and the landing page decides how many of those calls turn into work. The first budget gets set with you, and it moves once tracking shows what a lead costs.
What happens in the first week?
Tracking gets checked, the campaigns go live and the first calls usually arrive inside that week. The search terms report fills up quickly, and we start cutting the terms that were never going to book work.
Can the budget change with the season?
The budget should change with the season. It is set by month, so a slow month and a busy one do not need the same number. Tell us which months carry your year and the plan will follow them.
Is the ad account in my name?
The ad account is set up in your name, so the history, the conversion data and the campaigns stay with you if the work stops. The management fee and the ad spend are separate lines.
Do you advertise anywhere besides Google?
For most trades Google is the first channel to test, and it is not the only one. Microsoft Ads and Meta ads on Facebook and Instagram are managed as well, and a channel gets added when tracking shows it brings calls at a price the jobs can cover.
Free action plan
Price your first San Mateo ad budget
Start with two numbers: what one booked job pays and which months carry your year. On a short video call, a co-founder goes through click costs in your trade and the daily budget to start at.
What we’ll cover
- What’s working (and what isn’t) in your current marketing
- Site and funnel gaps that are costing you leads
- Local SEO and paid traffic opportunities
- Simple tracking and KPIs to measure success
(503) 766-5964
[email protected]
2000 NE 42nd Ave Ste D Unit 2370, Portland, OR 97213
Prefer to pick a time? Book a 30-minute call with DJ