Google Ads for a manufacturer means buying the searches for the processes you run, not the name of your industry. In the UK "sheet metal fabrication" gets 1,300 searches a month at $16.98 a click, "injection moulding" 6,600 at $19.57 and "cnc machining" 18,100 at $2.56. These are Google Ads averages pulled through DataForSEO on 11 November 2026, in dollars as the tool reports them.
On the same day we read 12 Italian Google results pages for 12 manufacturing processes, from laser cutting to hot-dip galvanising. Search ads found: zero.
Manufacturers who try it on their own usually get three things wrong:
- they buy "metal fabrication" or "heat treatment" on broad match, searches where Google also shows hobby tools and hair products;
- they send every click to the home page, where an engineer finds no tolerances, no materials and no way to upload a drawing;
- they count the form and never the order, so Google learns to bring in any enquiry at all.
One of the companies we work with is Macropix, an Italian maker of LED walls and screens.
In 2024 Google Ads brought it 120 enquiries at €94.37 each. In 2025, on a €12,937 budget, it brought 328 enquiries at €39.44: cost per enquiry down 58%, on less than half the 2020 spend.
What does a screen maker have to do with a subcontract machine shop?
The method. One ad group per product family, one conversion that counts, budget moved by cost per enquiry. It works the same way for processes. Here you'll find:
- who advertises today on process searches (in our Italian sample, nobody);
- UK and Italian CPCs for manufacturing searches, in two tables;
- what to exclude before you spend a penny;
- how to track an order that closes four months later;
- the minimum budget, worked out from the numbers.
Who advertises when a buyer searches for a process (0 ads on 12 Italian pages)
On subcontract process searches in Italy, almost nobody buys ads today. On 11 November 2026 we read 12 Google results pages through DataForSEO, on desktop, location Italy (which Google resolved to the Rome area): 0 search ads, top or bottom.
What filled the page instead:
- 11 pages out of 12 had a map pack with three local firms, usually above the first organic result;
- 8 out of 12 had an AI Overview and 8 out of 12 a video block;
- on the Italian for "precision engineering workshop", 9 results out of 10 were directories: Pagine Gialle six times, Europages three.
So if nobody does it, it doesn't work?
The opposite. An empty auction means the first advertiser in sits above everything, map and directories included, paying whatever the auction minimum is.
Finished products are a different story. In October 2026 we reviewed, for a maker of industrial dust extraction systems, the Italian search for "centralised industrial extraction systems": on desktop in Lombardy up to 4 competitors were running ads. The rule we take from it: sell a product and the auction is already crowded; sell a process and it's usually empty.
The UK picture is not the same, and the CPCs below show it: when a click on "sheet metal fabrication" is worth $16.98, someone is bidding. Run the test yourself on your own three processes, on a phone, in your own area.
What a click costs for a manufacturing process (from $0.66 in Italy to $28.25 in the UK)
UK manufacturing searches cost between $2.56 a click for "cnc machining" and $28.25 for "subcontract machining". Italian ones are far cheaper, mostly between $2 and $5.
| UK search | Searches a month | Average CPC |
|---|---|---|
| cnc machining | 18,100 | $2.56 |
| injection moulding | 6,600 | $19.57 |
| precision engineering | 4,400 | $6.51 |
| metal fabrication | 4,400 | $10.50 |
| sheet metal fabrication | 1,300 | $16.98 |
| laser cutting services | 1,000 | $8.13 |
| subcontract machining | 30 | $28.25 |
| Italian search (English meaning) | Searches a month | Average CPC | Ads found on 11/11 |
|---|---|---|---|
| carpenteria metallica (metal fabrication) | 5,400 | $2.31 | 0 |
| taglio laser lamiera (sheet laser cutting) | 880 | $3.35 | 0 |
| lavorazione lamiera (sheet metal work) | 880 | $4.83 | 0 |
| taglio laser tubi (tube laser cutting) | 390 | $4.66 | 0 |
| stampaggio ad iniezione (injection moulding) | 170 | $13.40 | 0 |
| lavorazioni meccaniche conto terzi (subcontract machining) | 70 | $4.74 | 0 |
| piegatura lamiera conto terzi (subcontract press braking) | 10 | $0.66 | not checked |
Two things stand out.
CPC is an estimated bid, not a price paid. On pages with no rival ads, what you actually pay can sit below the average.
"Subcontract" searches are tiny: 30 a month in the UK, against 4,400 for "metal fabrication". Buyers type the process, not the way you sell it. We break down the keyword families in keywords for manufacturing companies.
Technical products work the same way. For the extraction systems maker, the search the client gave us had 10 searches a month; the whole family, written the way a plant manager writes it, came to 4,330.
What to buy and what to exclude (on "heat treatment" Google shows hair products)
Negative keywords go in before the campaign goes live, because many industrial searches have a second meaning. In our Italian sample 5 pages out of 12 showed products to buy, almost all off-topic.
- "heat treatment" (trattamenti termici): 13 products, all heat protection sprays for hair;
- "sheet metal work": 12 products, offcuts and nibblers;
- "aluminium die casting": frying pans and detergent;
- "tube laser cutting": hobby laser engravers, plus machines for sale at €23,248 and €115,705.
Exclusions to add on day one if you sell processes:
- machines: machine, machine price, used, for sale, hire;
- jobs and training: jobs, vacancies, apprenticeship, course, pdf;
- DIY: home, hobby, kit, Amazon, how to;
- second meanings in your field: hair, kitchen, jewellery, depending on the process.
For the extraction systems maker, the starting list had more than 130 exclusions.
Isn't adding "used" once enough?
No. Google Ads Help on negative keywords says close variants and other expansions of negatives don't match: plurals and synonyms are on you. And broad match is the default for every new keyword, so in a field this ambiguous we start on phrase and exact.
How to set up campaigns for a manufacturer (one per process family, not one per company)
The structure that works is one search campaign per process family, one ad group per process and one landing page for each. Sheet metal (laser cutting, press braking, stamping) doesn't share a campaign with precision machining (turning, milling): the buyer, the CPC and the page all change.
- Keywords: process + material. "stainless laser cutting", "brass turning", "engineering plastics injection moulding". These are the searches of an engineering office.
- Area: where you actually deliver. Google's location targeting has a "Presence or interest" option that also reaches people merely interested in the area. A fabricator working within 100 miles picks "Presence". The minimum radius is 1 km.
- Hours: the buying office's. Ad scheduling defaults to "All day"; evenings and Saturdays bring mostly students and hobbyists.
- Landing page: the process page, with machines, thicknesses, tolerances, certifications and a form that takes files. Of the 52 Italian manufacturing sites we read for our guide to the manufacturing company website, only 4 accepted a drawing.
- Export: one campaign per country, with ads and pages in the buyer's language.
If your Google campaigns are already running, Microsoft Advertising can import them directly; broad match negatives become phrase match, so check them after the import. The rules that apply to all B2B accounts (ads, testing, bidding) are in Google Ads for B2B companies, and machine builders have their own guide in Google Ads for industrial machinery manufacturers.
Search or Performance Max? (with 10 enquiries a month, automation learns little)
For a manufacturer starting out, the answer is Search. Performance Max is a goal-based campaign that spreads ads across YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Maps, and sets bids from the conversions you feed it.
The problem is volume. A process family with 2,500 searches a month produces a handful of real enquiries, and a system optimising on five events a month learns from the noise: students, hobbyists, job seekers. Look at Performance Max once Search has built up qualified enquiries.
How to track real enquiries (Google keeps the click for 90 days, the order comes later)
A manufacturing campaign is measured on the quote request, then on the accepted quote. Count visits or catalogue downloads and Google learns to bring visitors, not buyers. To tell it which enquiries became orders, there are three official tools:
- offline conversion imports: you store the Google click ID (GCLID) with the lead and send it back when the order is signed;
- enhanced conversions for leads: they use the lead's hashed email address instead of the GCLID;
- Customer Match: you upload trade show contacts or CRM customers; a list needs at least 100 members.
And if the order arrives six months later?
Then it can't be tied to the click. Google's offline conversion import FAQ says the GCLID is kept for 90 days, and uploads using enhanced conversions must happen within 63 days.
So you track the stage that lands within two months: "quote sent" or "sample requested". It arrives in time and says far more than a filled-in form.
Does your account know which enquiries became orders?
If Google counts every form as a conversion, it buys clicks from students and hobbyists as happily as clicks from buyers. Let's look at what your account measures, which searches you're paying for by accident and which stage of the deal to send back to Google.
Book a strategy callHow much budget you need to start (worked out from measured CPCs and the Macropix rate)
The budget depends on the CPC of your process family, and it's arithmetic, not a feeling.
Take sheet metal in Italy: four searches (sheet laser cutting, sheet metal work, tube laser cutting, sheet stamping) add up to 2,470 searches a month at a weighted average CPC of about $3.90.
- $1,000 a month buys about 260 clicks.
- On the Macropix account, from July 2025 to June 2026, €16,805 at €0.81 a click brought 374 conversions: about 1.8% of clicks (published in our manufacturing SEO guide).
- 260 clicks at 1.8% make 4-5 enquiries a month.
In the UK the same arithmetic gives a different answer. At $16.98 a click on "sheet metal fabrication", $1,000 buys about 59 clicks and, at the same 1.8%, one enquiry. A UK fabricator needs roughly four times the Italian budget for the same number of enquiries, or narrower keywords.
One more correction: in August demand roughly halves (in Italy, "laser cutting" went from 4,400 searches in March to 1,600 in August 2026), so the budget should follow. Management fees are on top: the full bill is in what Google Ads costs, minimum budgets by sector in Google Ads for small business.
Google Ads and AI answers (the AI Overview on Italian "subcontract laser cutting" names three suppliers)
An ad doesn't get a company named by Google's AI or by ChatGPT: AI answers cite the pages and companies they find best described. In our survey the AI Overview for the Italian "subcontract laser cutting" listed CMM Laser, Gruppo Pontiggia and CM Laser as reference suppliers, taken from the organic results.
We also put the question to ChatGPT on 11 November 2026. It answered with budget bands from €500 to €6,000 a month, quoting three agency sites and admitting there is no official benchmark for Italian manufacturing.
The practical point: the process pages you build for your campaigns are the same pages AI answers read. Thicknesses, materials, sectors served and a complete Google Business Profile make a supplier easier to name. What Google Ads is actually running inside AI Overviews is covered here.
Google Ads for manufacturers: frequently asked questions
Yes, if you buy searches for your processes rather than for your industry. On 11 November 2026, 12 Italian results pages for processes such as laser cutting, fabrication and stamping showed no ads at all, so the first advertiser appears above the map and the directories.
It depends on the process and the country: according to DataForSEO (11 November 2026) a UK click costs $2.56 for "cnc machining", $16.98 for "sheet metal fabrication" and $28.25 for "subcontract machining", while Italian process searches mostly cost $2-5.
It depends on your CPC: on an Italian process family with about 2,500 searches a month, $1,000 buys about 260 clicks and, at the 1.8% rate measured on Macropix, 4-5 enquiries. At UK sheet metal CPCs the same budget buys about 59 clicks.
Search, to start with. Performance Max sets bids from conversions, and with a handful of enquiries a month it learns from students and hobbyists. Consider it once Search has built up qualified enquiries.
Yes, with offline conversion imports or enhanced conversions for leads. The limit is time: Google keeps the GCLID for 90 days, so on long sales cycles send back "quote sent" rather than the order.
Google Ads for manufacturers, in short (and the test to run today)
Buy the processes, not the industry.
Exclusions come before budget.
Track "quote sent", within 90 days.
Do the budget sum with your own CPC.
The most useful finding here isn't a CPC. It's that 12 Italian process searches had no ads at all, while UK clicks on the same processes cost up to $28. Where the auction is still empty, the first advertiser collects enquiries and conversion data before the price is set by anyone else.
The test to run today: search your three main processes on a phone, in your area, and count the ads. Then read how to do lead generation for manufacturers, or let us set it up with our Google Ads service.
