Ever stared at the campaign type menu inside Google Ads and felt your eyes glaze over? You’re not alone. There’s Performance Max, dynamic ads, display, search, YouTube, shopping, remarketing… honestly, depending on how you count, there’s a lot to wade through. For a builder who’s got a crew to keep busy, it can be overwhelming.

Here’s the thing though. You don’t need all of them. Not even close.

I’m Nick, founder of Bluelight, an Auckland-based Google Ads agency that works only with roofers, renovators, and contractors. Real budgets, real accounts, real crews trying to stay busy. After running campaigns day in and day out, I’ve landed on a simple truth: when you spin up a brand new account, there are only two campaign types worth touching. Get those right first, then worry about the fancy stuff later.

Let me walk you through them.

Why search campaigns are always the first cab off the rank

The classic keyword-based search campaign is where I start every single time. You know the ones; text ads that pop up when someone types something into Google. They’re not flashy. No banners, no video, no bells and whistles. But they’re the sharpest tool in the box for one reason: intent.

Think about what’s actually happening when someone searches “roof repair Auckland” or “bathroom renovation near me.” That person isn’t browsing. They’re not killing time. They’ve got a problem, and they’re hunting for someone to fix it. That intent is gold. Based purely on what they’ve typed, you can put your ad right in front of them at the exact moment they’re looking.

And it gets better when you stack service area targeting on top. Now you’re not just reaching people who want your service; you’re reaching people who want your service and live inside the patch you actually cover. No wasted clicks from someone three regions away. No tyrekickers from across the country. Just folks in your city, searching for the work you do.

That precision matters more than people realise, especially early on. When an account is fresh, Google doesn’t really know who your ideal customer is yet. It’s learning. So the tighter and more specific you are out of the gate, the faster you teach the algorithm who to chase. Show Google the right kind of customer, and Google goes and finds you more of them. It’s a bit like training a new apprentice; be clear and specific now, and they’ll save you a heap of headaches down the track.

So search is non-negotiable for me. It’s the foundation. Everything else gets built on top.

The second campaign nobody talks about enough: remarketing

Right, so search brings new people to your door. But here’s an uncomfortable little fact about how buying actually works.

Most people don’t say yes the first time.

They’ll type the keyword, click your ad, land on your site, maybe even like what they see… and then close the tab. Life gets in the way. They may still get a couple of quotes. The partner needs convincing. Whatever the reason, they’re not ready to pull the trigger yet. If you’ve got nothing in place, that lead quietly vanishes into the ether.

That’s where remarketing comes in. When someone visits your website, we drop a cookie, basically sorting them into a bucket of “people who’ve shown interest.” Then, as they wander around the web later, checking Trade Me or browsing somewhere else entirely, your banner ad follows them around. A gentle nudge. A “hey, remember us?” It keeps your roofing or reno brand sitting in the back of their mind while they make up their minds.

There are three reasons I never skip it.

People need time. Not everyone converts on visit one, and remarketing lets you stay in the conversation instead of getting forgotten.
It’s cheap. The cost per click on remarketing is way lower than chasing brand new customers through search. You’re advertising to people who already know your name, so the maths just works better.
It catches everyone, not just your ad clicks. This is the bit that gets overlooked. Remarketing doesn’t only follow up with people who came from your Google Ads.

Let me expand on that last one, because it’s a beauty. Say someone finds you through SEO, reads one of your blog posts, or stumbles across you on Facebook or Instagram. Once they’ve hit your website and that cookie’s set, you can remarket to them too. So all the other graft you’re putting into your marketing, the organic stuff, the social, the word of mouth that ends in a website visit, suddenly gets a second touchpoint. It all feeds the same engine.

Keep it simple, then scale up

So there you have it. Two campaign types, not eight. Google search to catch people at the exact moment they need you, and remarketing to follow up with everyone who didn’t say yes straight away. Master those two, get them humming, keep the leads flowing and the crew busy, and only then start experimenting with the rest.

The mistake I see most often? Trying to run everything at once on day one. It spreads your budget thin and confuses the algorithm. Start narrow. Start sharp. Grow from there.

If you’d like a fresh set of eyes on your account structure, or you reckon your campaigns could be pulling harder, we’re always happy to take a look. That’s the kind of work we do here at Bluelight every day. Now go win some jobs.