Google Ads · Tree Surgeons
Google Ads for tree surgeons, minus the people who want free logs
Two things quietly drain a tree surgery account. People searching for free logs and woodchip, and people researching whether they are allowed to touch a protected tree. Both look like your customer to Google and neither will ever pay you.
In short
Google Ads for tree surgeons in the UK needs a different build from a generic Google Ads account, and this is how PipelineOS structures it. Four campaigns, split by urgency and by buyer type. Emergency and storm work runs 24/7 on its own budget for fallen trees, hanging limbs and trees on buildings. The first ad group to build is Emergency and storm work: 24/7 schedule, highest bids, budget written to multiply on an amber wind warning and revert within five days. The most common way this goes wrong: no negatives for free logs, free woodchip and firewood.
How we build it
Four campaigns, split by urgency and by buyer type. Emergency and storm work runs 24/7 on its own budget for fallen trees, hanging limbs and trees on buildings. Routine domestic tree work — felling, crown reduction, pruning, deadwooding — is the volume campaign. Stump grinding is deliberately separate, because it is often a standalone job at a fraction of the value and will otherwise be bid as though it were a felling. Surveys and consultancy — TPO applications, BS5837 reports, mortgage tree reports — is a fourth, and it is the campaign most arb firms never build despite it being high-margin office work.
The negative list is the defining piece of work. Tree surgery search is polluted with people wanting your waste: free logs, free firewood, free woodchip, free wood chippings, logs for sale, seasoned logs delivered. These are high-volume, cheap-looking and worthless, and they belong in an account-level negative list from day one. Alongside them go tree surgery courses, NPTC and chainsaw tickets, arborist jobs, tree surgeon apprenticeships and equipment hire. If you genuinely have logs to give away, put that on a page and let it rank organically; do not pay for the clicks.
Protected trees need care rather than exclusion. Informational searches — can I cut down a tree with a TPO, conservation area tree rules — are research and should be negatives on the domestic campaign and content on the site. But tree survey, arboricultural report and TPO application terms are commercial buyers with a deadline, and they justify high bids in the consultancy campaign. Wind is the scaling trigger: an amber wind warning multiplies emergency searches within hours, so that budget is written to move on the forecast. Geography is presence-only and moderately tight, since a chipper and a team travelling an hour costs a chargeable morning.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Emergency and storm work | emergency tree surgeon, fallen tree removal, tree on house, dangerous tree urgent | 24/7 schedule, highest bids, budget written to multiply on an amber wind warning and revert within five days. |
| Routine tree work | tree surgeon [town], crown reduction cost, tree felling [town], tree pruning quote | The volume campaign. Phrase and exact only, with the full firewood and training negative list applied at account level. |
| Stump grinding | stump grinding [town], tree stump removal cost, stump grinder hire near me | Separate and bid low. A £120 stump cannot carry a felling bid, and hire-shop searches need negativing out of it constantly. |
| Surveys and consultancy | arboricultural report, BS5837 tree survey, TPO application, mortgage tree report | Highest value per hour in the trade and almost no competition. Exact match, wider radius, office-hours schedule, and route to a page naming your qualifications. |
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Call 07443 392243WhatsAppBudget and the arithmetic
Most arb firms work at £300–£900 a month, which is lower than most trades on this site because click prices are modest — £2–£5 on routine domestic terms, a little higher on emergency, and £4–£9 on survey and consultancy terms where the competing bidders are consultancies rather than climbers. Cost per enquiry generally lands at £12–£40 on domestic work.
The arithmetic works easily at the top and badly at the bottom. A typical domestic job runs £250–£1,500 depending on access and disposal, and at a £25 enquiry cost with a one-in-three close that is £75 of advertising against a job that might be £700. Fine. Stump grinding at £80–£250 is not fine at the same cost per enquiry, which is exactly why it needs its own lower bid rather than sharing. Consultancy is the outlier: a BS5837 survey at £600–£1,500 for largely office and site-visit time will happily absorb a £100 enquiry, and almost nobody is bidding against you for it.
Four ways this goes wrong
- No negatives for free logs, free woodchip and firewood. This is the single largest source of wasted spend in arb accounts, because the searches look topically perfect to Google.
- Bidding on TPO and conservation-area questions. Those searchers are trying to find out whether they are allowed to do something, not hire anyone, and the answer belongs on a page rather than behind a click.
- Grouping stump grinding with felling so both carry the same bid. You end up paying felling prices for jobs worth a tenth as much.
- Ignoring the wind forecast. Emergency arb demand is almost entirely weather-driven, and a budget that does not move on an amber warning misses the two or three genuinely profitable weeks of the year.
The two pages behind this one
This page is the intersection. For the wider picture:
Google Ads in general
Everything about marketing for tree surgeons
Questions
How do I stop paying for people wanting free firewood?
An account-level negative list covering free logs, free firewood, free wood chip, logs for sale, seasoned logs and firewood delivery, extended weekly from the search terms report. If you do give logs away, publish a page about it so those searchers land on you organically at no cost, which is genuinely good for local goodwill and costs nothing per visit.
Is consultancy work really worth advertising?
It is the most overlooked campaign in the trade. Someone searching for a BS5837 survey or help with a TPO application has a planning deadline and very few local options, so the bid competition is thin. The work is high-margin, weather-independent and it often leads to the physical work later. It needs a page naming your qualifications, because this buyer checks.
Should I advertise year round?
Yes, but at a variable budget. Domestic tree work is steadiest from autumn through late winter when trees are dormant and people can see the problem, quieter through the nesting season, and punctuated by wind events that can produce a month of work in a week. We keep a base budget always on and hold headroom for those weeks.
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