Ads & SEO

Google Ads for commercial cleaning companies: keywords and budgets that work

A keyword list, a negative keyword list and a budget method for commercial cleaning companies running Google Ads, with the setup mistakes that waste spend.

October 21, 20268 min read

Google Ads works for commercial cleaning companies when the campaign is narrow: bid on searches that name a building type or a contract ("office cleaning company", "janitorial services for medical clinics"), block the large share of searches that come from job seekers and homeowners, target only the area your crews can actually serve, and give each region enough budget to buy at least 80 to 100 clicks a month. Below is the keyword structure, the negative list we start every cleaning account with, and a simple way to set the budget for each region.

Why commercial cleaning is a harder account than residential

Most published benchmarks for cleaning ads describe residential work. The WordStream by LocaliQ home services report for 2025, based on more than 3,200 campaigns that ran from April 2024 to March 2025, put the "Cleaning/Maid/Butler Services" category among the best performers: a 17.65% conversion rate and an average cost per lead of US$46.99, against US$90.92 for home services overall. Those are US figures for a mostly residential category, so treat them as a ceiling, not a forecast.

Commercial accounts behave differently for three reasons:

Fewer buyers search. An office manager or property manager looks for a contractor once every few years, when a contract ends or a provider fails. Search volume is a fraction of residential volume.
Much of the traffic is not a buyer. "Commercial cleaning" is also searched by people looking for work, people starting a cleaning business and people pricing supplies. Without negatives, these clicks can eat a large share of the budget.
One lead is worth far more. A weekly office contract can be worth more than a year of residential jobs, so a higher cost per lead is normal and acceptable. The real measure is cost per signed contract.

Build the keyword list around building types

Organize the account so every ad group matches one kind of client. That lets the ad and the landing page speak to that client, which is what turns a click into a quote request.

Core service ad group

commercial cleaning company
commercial cleaning services
office cleaning company
office cleaning services
janitorial services
janitorial contract
commercial janitorial company

Building-type ad groups

medical office cleaning, dental clinic cleaning
warehouse cleaning, industrial cleaning
retail store cleaning
condo common area cleaning, building maintenance cleaning
school cleaning, daycare cleaning
post-construction cleaning (often a separate campaign, because buyers are general contractors with short deadlines)

Specialty ad groups

floor stripping and waxing
commercial carpet cleaning
commercial window cleaning
disinfection services for offices

In Quebec and other bilingual markets, build a separate French campaign rather than mixing languages in one ad group: "entretien ménager commercial", "nettoyage de bureaux", "conciergerie commerciale", "nettoyage industriel", "entretien de planchers". French searches usually have lower volume and less competition, which can make them cheaper.

Which match types to use

Google offers three keyword match types. Broad match lets ads show on related searches, phrase match on searches that include the meaning of the keyword, and exact match on searches with the same meaning or intent. Google's own help page calls broad match combined with Smart Bidding "critical", because the bidding system learns from a wide range of searches.

That advice holds for accounts with reliable conversion data. A new commercial cleaning account rarely has it. Our rule:

Start with phrase and exact match, and manual or Maximize Clicks bidding with a cap, for the first four to eight weeks.
Switch to Maximize Conversions or Target CPA once the account records real leads (calls and forms, not page views) at a steady rate, roughly 15 to 30 a month.
Only then test broad match, in its own campaign, so you can see the search terms it adds.

Use location words in the keyword only when they reflect how people search ("office cleaning laval"). Location targeting already limits where ads show, so you don't need a separate keyword for every suburb.

The negative keyword list

Negative keywords stop your ad from showing on searches that contain those terms. One detail matters a lot here: Google says negatives "won't match to close variants or other expansions". Excluding "job" does not exclude "jobs", and excluding "emploi" does not exclude "emplois". Add singular, plural and French forms yourself.

Start with this list, at the campaign or account level:

Job seekers: job, jobs, hiring, career, careers, salary, wage, wages, part time, full time, indeed, resume, apply, employment, emploi, emplois, salaire, embauche
Starting a business: how to start, start a, franchise, franchises, business plan, license, insurance for cleaning business, pricing calculator, bid template, contract template
Residential: house, home, apartment, condo unit, move out, move in, maid, airbnb, residential, maison, appartement, ménage résidentiel
Do-it-yourself and products: how to, checklist, supplies, products, equipment, machine, rental, rent, buy, wholesale, chemicals, soap
Training and free: course, courses, training, certification, free, cheap, jobs near me

Remove a word from the list if you actually sell that service. If you do move-out cleaning for property managers, for example, keep "move out" active in a separate campaign with its own budget.

Review the search terms every week

The search terms report shows the real searches that triggered your ads. Google hides low-volume searches for privacy reasons, so you will never see every query, but the visible ones are enough to catch the expensive mistakes. For the first two months, open it weekly, add irrelevant terms as negatives, and turn good new terms into keywords.

Location targeting: serve only where you can staff

In the location settings, choose "Presence: people in or regularly in your targeted locations" rather than the default, which also reaches people who have only shown interest in the area. For a cleaning company, someone in another province reading about your city is not a client.

Draw the target around where you can actually send crews within your normal travel time. Google warns that location targeting is not 100% accurate and that it may show ads in nearby related areas, so check the location report after a few weeks and exclude the places that bring clicks but no viable contracts.

Setting a budget for each region

There is no fixed price for a commercial cleaning click. It depends on your city, how many competitors bid, and your quality. Use Keyword Planner (it needs a Google Ads account with billing set up) to see the average cost per click for your keywords in your area, then work backward:

Pick the minimum data you need. A campaign needs about 80 to 100 clicks a month before the numbers mean anything.
Multiply by the expected cost per click. If Keyword Planner shows about $9 for your core terms, 100 clicks costs about $900 a month.
Check it against the value of a contract. If one weekly office contract is worth $20,000 a year and you close one in four qualified quotes, you can afford a high cost per lead.

In practice, this gives three tiers:

One city or a small region: start around $1,000 a month. Below that, data comes in too slowly to make decisions.
A large metro area (Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, Calgary): plan for $2,000 to $4,000 a month, or narrow the target to the boroughs and suburbs you serve best.
Several regions: give each region its own campaign and budget. A shared budget always drifts to the cheapest region, which is rarely the one with the best contracts.

Run the account for at least 90 days before judging it. Commercial contracts often sign weeks after the first call.

What the ad and the landing page need to say

Commercial buyers want to reduce risk. The ad and page should answer the questions an office manager has before calling:

Which building types you clean, and examples of clients (with permission).
Evening and weekend schedules, so cleaning happens outside business hours.
Insurance, staff screening and how you handle keys and alarm codes.
How quality is checked (inspections, a named supervisor, a response time for complaints).
A free walk-through and a written quote within a set number of days.

Send each building-type ad group to a matching page, not to the home page. The form should ask for building type, approximate square footage and cleaning frequency, which is enough to qualify the lead without scaring it off.

Track calls and forms, then signed contracts

Many commercial buyers call rather than fill in a form. Google's call conversion tracking replaces your number on the website with a Google forwarding number for visitors who came from an ad, and it counts a call as a conversion only when it lasts longer than a minimum length you set. Use 60 seconds or more, so wrong numbers and hang-ups don't count.

Set calls and form submissions as your primary conversions. Then, once a month, import which leads became signed contracts. Google's enhanced conversions for leads uses hashed details from your form (email or phone) to match those offline sales back to the campaign. This is what lets the bidding system learn the difference between a residential tire-kicker and a property manager with six buildings.

What about Local Services Ads?

Local Services Ads are a separate Google ad format for local trades. Google lists "Cleaning services" among the eligible categories, says the format is available only for certain service categories, and points advertisers to an eligibility checker because availability varies by area. In our experience the format leans toward residential customers. It is worth checking eligibility in your area, but treat it as a complement to a search campaign, not a replacement.

When not to run Google Ads yet

You can't take on a new contract in the next 60 days. Leads that wait go to a competitor.
You have no page that describes your commercial services. Sending ads to a residential home page wastes most clicks.
No one answers the phone during the day. Commercial buyers call once.
You can't spend at least about $1,000 a month in one region. A smaller budget is better spent on your Google Business Profile and service pages first.

Where PNE fits

PNE's digital marketing service sets up and manages Google Ads campaigns like this one: building-type ad groups, the negative lists, call tracking and monthly reporting, in an ad account you own. We work with cleaning companies in French and English and can build the landing pages each ad group needs.