Google Ads · EV Charger Installers
Google Ads for EV charger installers, on a thin per-job margin
A home charger install is a one-day job with a hard ceiling on what anybody will pay for it, and a customer who has already read a comparison table of seven units before they searched. That combination makes EV charging one of the least forgiving accounts to run badly and one of the most predictable to run well.
In short
Google Ads for ev charger installers in the UK needs a different build from a generic Google Ads account, and this is how PipelineOS structures it. Split domestic from commercial before anything else. A homeowner wanting a charger on the drive and a facilities manager specifying eight bays in a staff car park share a product category and nothing else. The first ad group to build is Unit brand searches: cheaper and better qualified than generic terms. The most common way this goes wrong: advertising a headline fitted price that assumes a short cable run and a compliant earthing arrangement, then adding for an earth rod on the day.
How we build it
Split domestic from commercial before anything else. A homeowner wanting a charger on the drive and a facilities manager specifying eight bays in a staff car park share a product category and nothing else. Domestic converts in days, commercial in months; domestic bills four figures, commercial five or six; domestic searches in the evening, commercial searches at eleven on a Tuesday morning. One campaign each, separate budgets, separate landing pages.
Inside domestic, brand-led ad groups do most of the work. Buyers move quickly from generic searching to specific units — Zappi, Ohme, Easee, Wallbox, Hypervolt, Andersen — and those searches are cheaper, better qualified and considerably easier to write ads for than the generic terms, which are contested by national installers and energy suppliers with vastly larger budgets. One ad group per unit you install, copy naming the unit and the fitted price, and a page that compares the units honestly. The customer who arrives having chosen a Zappi and reads a page explaining when an Ohme would suit them better tends to book, because you have just demonstrated you are not a box-shifter.
Grant-eligible work deserves its own campaign because the eligibility rules define the audience. The current OZEV chargepoint grant routes are aimed at renters, flat owners, landlords and workplaces rather than at owner-occupiers of houses, and the searches reflect that: EV charger grant for flats, landlord EV charging grant, workplace charging scheme. You must be an OZEV-authorised installer to claim, which is a genuine barrier keeping the auction thin. Say so in the ad, explain the eligibility in plain English on the page, and be explicit about what the customer pays after the grant.
Two technical realities belong in the copy because they are where jobs go wrong. Installations must comply with BS 7671 including the specific requirements for electric vehicle charging, they are notifiable work under the Building Regulations, and the distribution network operator has to be notified. The other is earthing: many properties need an additional protective device or an earth rod, and a supply upgrade is occasionally required. Quoting a headline price that assumes none of this applies produces arguments on site and reviews about hidden costs. Advertise a fitted price with the standard conditions stated, and price the survey properly.
Ad groups
The account structure in practice. Ad groups stay tight so the ad can genuinely match the search, which lowers cost per click for the same position.
| Ad group | Example keywords | Bids and handling |
|---|---|---|
| Unit brand searches | Zappi installer [town], Ohme charger fitted, Easee charger installation cost, Hypervolt installer near me | Cheaper and better qualified than generic terms. One ad group per unit you actually install, with the fitted price in the copy and an honest comparison on the page. |
| Generic home installation | ev charger installation [town], home car charger fitted, electric car charging point installer | Contested by national installers and energy suppliers. Bid here, but do not let it dominate the budget; the brand groups will produce better work for less. |
| Grant-eligible installs | ev charger grant flats, landlord ev charging grant, workplace charging scheme installer, OZEV approved installer | Thin auction because OZEV authorisation is required to claim. Explain eligibility clearly and state what the customer pays after the grant is applied. |
| Commercial and destination charging | commercial ev charging installation, workplace car park chargers, hotel ev charging points, fleet charging depot | Weekday hours, manual bids, long sales cycle. Landing page should cover load management, back office billing and installation phasing, not units. |
| Faults, upgrades and replacements | ev charger not working, replace old ev charger, untethered charger upgrade, ev charger repair [town] | Small but reliable and almost entirely unbid. Feeds replacement sales as first-generation units reach the end of their working life. |
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Call 07443 392243WhatsAppBudget and the arithmetic
Be honest about the margin, because it is the whole constraint. A standard home install with a mid-range unit typically sells at £900–£1,500 fitted. The unit itself is a large share of that, and after the electrician’s day, cable, consumer unit work, notification and certification, contribution is commonly £250–£450. It is a good day’s work; it is not a high-margin sale, and any lead cost model that assumes otherwise will overspend.
Domestic enquiries convert well because the customer has usually decided to buy something and is choosing whom from — a third to a half of quoted jobs is normal for a responsive installer. At a £350 contribution and a 40% close rate, an enquiry is worth £140, and that is where the campaign must break even. Real accounts see domestic clicks at £2–£6 and enquiries at £25–£70, which works comfortably, but leaves much less room than a trade selling five-figure jobs.
Commercial changes the shape completely and should be budgeted separately. An eight-bay workplace installation is commonly £18,000–£40,000 with 20–30% contribution, and it frequently carries an ongoing maintenance agreement behind it. Win rates are lower, perhaps one in five or six on genuine tenders, and the cycle runs three to nine months. Even so, an enquiry is worth well over £800, which justifies bidding far harder than the domestic side and measuring on a much longer window. Trying to hold both to the same cost per lead is the most common way these accounts go wrong.
Four ways this goes wrong
- Advertising a headline fitted price that assumes a short cable run and a compliant earthing arrangement, then adding for an earth rod on the day.
- Ignoring unit brand searches and bidding only on generic terms, where national installers and energy companies set the clearing price.
- Claiming grant eligibility loosely. The current schemes are aimed at flats, renters, landlords and workplaces, and an ad implying a homeowner with a driveway qualifies wastes the click and irritates the caller.
- Running commercial and domestic on one budget, so the cheap domestic clicks absorb everything and the workplace enquiries never arrive.
- Forgetting the aftermarket. Chargers fitted in the early rollout are now failing or being replaced, and almost nobody is bidding on repair and upgrade searches.
The two pages behind this one
This page is the intersection. For the wider picture:
Google Ads in general
Everything about marketing for ev charger installers
Questions
Should we bid on charger brand names?
Yes, for units you genuinely install. Buyers narrow to a specific unit early, so brand terms carry high intent at lower cost than the generic ones, and the ad can name the unit and the fitted price. Send them to a page comparing the units you supply rather than a general services page, because the decision they are making is between products, not between installers.
How do we compete with national installers and energy suppliers?
On specificity and speed rather than price. National operators quote through a portal and book weeks out; a local installer can name a date, survey properly and answer the questions that actually worry people, such as cable routes, earthing and whether the consumer unit needs work. Those are the details that decide the job, and they are hard to convey at national scale.
Is the OZEV grant still worth advertising around?
Where you are authorised and the customer is eligible, yes, because the eligibility rules keep the auction thin. The schemes now focus on flats, rented properties, landlords and workplaces rather than owner-occupied houses. Advertise against those specific circumstances, state the post-grant cost plainly, and check the current scheme terms before writing copy, as they have changed repeatedly.
How long is the commercial sales cycle?
Three to nine months is normal for a workplace or destination installation, because it involves a site survey, a DNO conversation about available capacity, an internal budget cycle and often a comparison of back-office billing platforms. Measure that campaign on a long conversion window and by pipeline value rather than by cost per enquiry, or you will switch it off two months before the first order lands.
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