We run Google Ads for trade businesses, and we run them for ourselves too. In July 2026 we launched a campaign aimed at tradies who want more work. It seemed obvious: a quiet builder types “find building work” into Google, sees our ad, and books a chat about filling their calendar.
That isn’t who typed it. In the first fortnight, the keywords built around “finding work” took 62% of the campaign’s spend and produced nothing. This post lays out our own numbers, what the searches really were, and the fix. If you run ads for a trade business, the same trap is almost certainly sitting in your account, pointed the other way.
What happened in our account
The campaign went live on 20/07/2026 with a group of keywords for each trade. Eleven of them were built on two ideas that looked sensible at the time: “find [trade] work” and “[trade] contracts”. Here’s the fortnight before we caught it:
| 20/07 to 04/08/2026 | Impressions | Clicks | Cost | Enquiries |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The whole campaign | 787 | 67 | $661.00 | 1 |
| The 11 “find work” and “contracts” keywords | 585 | 49 | $407.20 | 0 |
$407 of $661 went to keywords that never produced a single enquiry. These are real figures from our own Google Ads account, and the only reason we’re comfortable publishing them is that the account is ours.
The searches behind it
Your keywords are what you ask Google to show your ad for. The search terms report shows what people actually typed. Ours read like a jobs board:
- where to find painting contracts ($43.24 for 2 clicks)
- subcontract painters wanted auckland ($23.61)
- electrician job in hamilton
- electrical trade assistant
- plumber job
- building job near me
- builders wanted
- plumbers wanting work
- painters wanted near me
- roofing employment
Every one of those people was looking for an employer or a subcontract, not a marketing partner. They clicked because the ad mentioned their trade and the word “work”, which is exactly what they were after.
Why “work” and “contracts” fooled us
Some words point two ways. “Building work” is what a homeowner wants done and what a builder’s labourer wants to be paid for. “Painting contracts” is a council tender, a contract template and a subcontractor looking for a gig, all at once. Google can’t tell which person is searching from three words, so it shows your ad to both and lets you pay for the mistake.
We assumed a business owner with a quiet month would describe their problem as “finding work”. Some do. Far more people typing those words are employees and subbies, and in a fortnight they outnumbered the business owners completely.
The same trap in your account
Our campaign sells to tradies, so job seekers are the wrong audience by definition. Your ads sell to homeowners and businesses, and the trap runs the same way. Every trade has a jobs market, and the people in it search with your trade’s name:
- “plumber jobs auckland”, “electrician jobs hamilton”
- “builders wanted”, “painters wanted near me”
- “plumbing apprenticeship”, “electrical apprenticeship nz”
- “roofer salary nz”, “electrician pay rate”
- “sparky labourer work”, “carpentry work near me”
Some of those look like customer searches at a glance. “Carpentry work near me” could be a homeowner. It could just as easily be a carpenter looking for their next start. If you’re paying for those clicks, you’re paying to send job hunters to your quote form. We wrote about the builder side of this in how to get more building work, and it’s one of the first things we check in an account that gets clicks but no calls.
The fix, in five parts
1. Choose keywords only a customer would type
The cheapest negative keyword is the keyword you never added. “Find building work” was our mistake, and no negative list would have saved it: the keyword itself invited job seekers.
For your own ads, build keywords around what the customer needs done: the problem, the job and the place. “Blocked drain Hastings”, “switchboard upgrade”, “reroof cost Tauranga”. Avoid keywords built on work, contracts, wanted or jobs on their own, because those are the words job seekers use.
2. Add negatives by type, and mind the match types
A negative keyword tells Google never to show your ad when a search contains it. A starting list for job seekers in NZ:
| Type | Negatives | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Jobs and hiring | jobs, vacancy, vacancies, hiring, recruitment, seek, trade me jobs | “Jobs” is safe for almost every trade |
| Pay | salary, wages, pay rate, hourly rate | Unless you advertise your own rates |
| Training | apprentice, apprenticeship, course, training, qualification, how to become | Add “apprenticeships” separately |
| Subcontract | subcontract, subcontractor, subbie, labour hire | Unless you hire out labour |
| Phrases | “plumber job”, “electrician job”, “builders wanted”, “painters wanted” | Use your own trade’s words |
Two rules from Google’s own help page on negatives matter here. First, negative keywords don’t match close variants or plurals: Google says “you’ll need to add synonyms and singular or plural versions if you want to exclude them”. So “apprentice” doesn’t block “apprentices”. Add both.
Second, the match type of a negative changes what it blocks. A broad negative blocks any search containing all its words in any order. A phrase negative blocks the words in that order. An exact negative blocks only that exact search. Use broad negatives for words that are always junk (salary, vacancies), and phrase negatives for anything that could cut both ways (“plumber job”).
3. Don’t paste a generic list without reading it
Search “negative keywords job seekers” and Google’s own AI answer will hand you a list that includes hire, work, worker and staff. Big lists from overseas agencies do the same. For a trade business, “hire” is one of the best words in the language: “hire a plumber”, “electrician for hire”, “scaffold hire”. Paste that list in and you’ve quietly told Google to hide your ad from people trying to give you money.
“Job” has the same problem in a smaller way. “Small plumbing job” and “handyman for small jobs” are customers. If you take small jobs, use phrase negatives like “plumber job” instead of blocking “job” outright.
Here’s the part that surprised us. One of the negatives now on our own campaign is “small job electrical”, because for a business selling marketing to tradies, that search is junk. For an electrician it’s a customer. The same search is waste in one account and a booked job in the next, which is why a list copied from someone else’s account is never finished. We’ve seen the same thing with “not working” and “broken” for plumbers: our plumbing guide covers the words a generic list should never block.
4. Let the ad copy do some filtering
Write ads that speak to the person paying, and the person looking for a job scrolls past. “Leaking cylinder? Book a licensed plumber” filters better than “Plumbing work in Napier”. Name the problem, the outcome and the booking. Leave out words like “work”, “positions” or “join”, which read like a job ad. (And keep your phone number out of the headline: Google won’t approve it there. Use a call asset.)
5. Check the search terms every week, knowing it’s only part of the picture
For the first month, open Insights and reports, then Search terms, sort by cost and add negatives every week. After that, monthly is usually enough.
One catch: the report doesn’t show everything. Google leaves out search terms that “don’t have enough query activity”, to protect searchers’ privacy. Over the six months to 05/10/2026, the search terms Google showed us in our own account added up to about $1,075 of the $3,564 we spent on non-brand keywords. The rest went on searches we can’t see. That’s why parts 1 to 4 matter: good keywords and a sensible negative list protect you from the searches the report will never show you.
What our account looks like now
We paused all 11 keywords in early August, added around 70 job-seeker negatives to the campaign and attached a shared job seekers list. Here’s the comparison:
| Our campaign | Job-seeker search terms shown | What they cost |
|---|---|---|
| 20/07 to 04/08/2026 | 63 searches, 18 clicks | $138.42 visible, $407.20 at keyword level |
| 05/08 to 05/10/2026 | 1 search, 0 clicks | $0 |
The campaign has kept running on the same budget, and the money that went to job seekers now goes to the keywords that can actually produce an enquiry. We’d rather have caught it on day one, and for client accounts we do: a job-seeker negative list goes in before the first ad runs, and the search terms get read weekly for the first month. If you’re comparing agencies, ask to see that report. It’s one of the questions to ask a Google Ads agency before you sign.
Job seeker negative keywords FAQ
Should I add “job” as a negative keyword?
“Jobs” (plural) is safe for almost every trade. “Job” (singular) is safe unless you advertise for small jobs, because “small plumbing job” and “handyman for small jobs” are customers. If you take small work, block phrases like “plumber job” and “electrician job” instead of the single word.
Do negative keywords block plurals and misspellings?
They don’t block plurals or close variants. Google’s help page says you need to add singular and plural versions yourself, so add “apprentice” and “apprentices”, “vacancy” and “vacancies”. Check the search terms report for variants you missed.
How do I find the job seekers in my account?
In Google Ads, go to Insights and reports, then Search terms. Look at the last 90 days, sort by cost, and scan for jobs, wanted, salary, apprenticeship and course. Then look at your keyword list for words like “work” and “contracts” on their own, which invite them.
Can I see every search that triggered my ads?
No. Google leaves low-volume searches out of the report for privacy reasons. In our own account, the visible search terms covered about 30% of non-brand spend over six months. Good keyword choices and a negative list cover the part you can’t see.
Is it worth paying an agency to manage this?
It depends on your time. Setting up a sensible negative list takes about 20 minutes, and checking the search terms takes 10 minutes a week. If you won’t do it, someone should, because an unchecked account usually leaks more than a management fee costs. Our Google Ads cost guide covers what a sensible budget looks like, and our Google Ads management is a monthly package that covers management and your ad budget in one price, with a one-off $497 +GST setup.
Want someone to read your search terms report with you and point out the leaks? Get a free leads audit: 20 minutes, real numbers, no obligation.