VKHP Consulting
13 October 2025
Our client is a Sussex-based aggregate delivery and muck away company, supplying grab lorries, MOT Type 1, sand, topsoil and stone to construction trade and residential customers across the South East. Since 2020, Google Ads has delivered more than 5,600 enquiries and helped the business triple in size.
Our client is an independent aggregate supply, grab hire and muck away company based in Sussex, serving construction trade customers, ground workers, builders, landscapers and residential customers across East and West Sussex, Kent, Surrey and the wider South East. Their work covers everything from delivering bulk MOT Type 1 to a building site, to taking soil and rubble away from a residential renovation, to weekly recurring grab lorry runs for established trade clients.
The business depends on being there at the moment a customer needs them. A site supervisor needing a load of stone tomorrow, a homeowner clearing a garden, a developer scheduling a multi-week ground works programme. These searches happen at the point of need, and the company that turns up first and answers the phone tends to win the work.
Google Ads is the right channel for this business precisely because the buying decision is local, immediate and price-sensitive. When we took over the account in September 2020, the brand had limited online visibility and was relying heavily on word-of-mouth and repeat business. Five and a half years later, paid search is the largest single source of new customer enquiries, and the business has tripled in size.
Over five and a half years of continuous management, the account has produced more than 5,600 qualified enquiries at a blended cost of £13.33 per lead. For a business where a single trade contract can be worth thousands of pounds and a residential job typically settles in the hundreds, the return on every pound spent has been substantial; the consistency, month after month, is what has allowed the business to plan, hire, and grow.
Generating consistent leads for a multi-service trade business is not the product of a clever setup. It is the product of structured campaign design, weekly attention to where the budget is being spent, and ad copy that speaks to the buyer at the moment they search.
Grab hire customers and topsoil customers are not the same person. A site contractor ordering a daily grab lorry run thinks differently to a homeowner buying a few bags of stone. We structure the account so each major service has its own focused campaign, with its own keywords, ad copy and budget, keeping the message relevant to the buyer and the reporting clear for the client.
For a delivery business, every mile from the depot eats margin. We manage the geographic targeting to keep the ads in front of the customers the client can actually serve profitably, and we build extensive blocked-location lists to keep the budget out of areas the company does not deliver to. As the service area has expanded over the years, the targeting has been adjusted in step.
In an industry where Google may show your ads for searches like “free topsoil”, “DIY muck away”, or specific competitor brand names, the wrong searches eat budget fast. We run weekly search term reviews and maintain extensive negative keyword lists (covering competitor terms, consumer DIY queries, out-of-area locations and irrelevant variations), so that budget is protected for the searches that actually convert.
A trade buyer wants tonnage, lead time and a phone number. A residential buyer wants a price guide and reassurance that a real person will call them back. We write distinct ad copy for each service and audience, and refresh the headlines and descriptions on a rolling basis to keep the assets fresh, the relevance high and the cost-per-click controlled over time.
The value of Google Ads for a trade business is not in a single strong month. It is in the steady, predictable flow of new enquiries the team can build a business around. Over 68 consecutive months of management, from September 2020 to April 2026, the account has delivered enquiries every single month, without exception.
The strongest months have produced more than 200 enquiries. Quieter winter months still delivered consistent double-digit volumes. That consistency is the product of structured campaign management, weekly search term reviews and continuous attention to where the budget is being spent.
For a business where a single trade contract often covers more than the entire monthly ad spend, even one well-won enquiry in a given month pays for the channel. The thousand-plus that come on top of that, year after year, are the compounding result of staying actively in the channel over the long term.
The best results in Google Ads are not the product of a clever setup. They are the product of sustained, attentive management over time. The account improves because someone is watching it, week in, week out, and making the right calls.
Service Campaigns Built
Across geotechnical, contamination, drainage, utility, and investigative services, each with its own ad copy and keyword set.