A dentist pricing a startup build-out asks an online forum what it will cost and how to go about it. Most of the answers arrive in the same order. Hire an architect. Get the plans drawn. Let the plans go out to a few builders.
By the time that dentist types "dental office contractor" into Google, if she ever does, the bid list may already be written.
This chapter covers what owners are told to do before they look for a builder, why Search ads reach them late, and how Demand Gen can put a builder's finished work in front of them earlier. It follows Chapter 10, which covered Performance Max.
In 21 Forum Posts and Replies, Owners Heard the Same Order: Architect First, Builder Second
For this guide we read the Reddit threads where business owners asked about building or renovating commercial space: restaurants, dental offices, a nail salon, an owner-occupied warehouse, retail tenants negotiating a build-out. We then read every post and reply on those owners' threads that mentioned an architect or an engineer.
Twenty-one of them, across nine threads, put the architect or engineer ahead of the builder, or alongside choosing one. The rest mentioned architects in passing: a landlord's test fit, a zoning question, a change order dispute. The 21 said much the same thing:
- "Most people will get an architect to draw out the floor plan for your space and bid it out to several different contractors." (a reply to a dentist pricing a startup build-out)
- "For consultants you should always have your PM and architect on board before the GC. GC only comes in when you have drawings they can price." (a reply on a thread titled "How do I go about finding a general contractor?")
- "Get an architect and engineer to do your plans. Shop the plans around to contractors to see who can do it reasonably." (a reply to an owner planning a warehouse)
- "Hire an architect!" (a reply to a restaurant owner considering a build-out)
These are forum posts, not a survey, and many are replies from people giving advice rather than owners describing what they did. But builders in the same threads said the same thing from their side. When one restaurant team reached out to builders first, the reply came back that they'd need plans before anyone could price the job.
Owners Were Told to Let the Architect Pick the Builders Who Bid
The same threads went one step further. Several replies told owners to let the architect choose who bids:
- "If an architect drew your plans, they will have good relationships with contractors as well, ask them to request bids for you."
- "Ask your architect for recommendations."
And at least one owner took the advice in real time. A restaurant team building its first location replied: "I'll ask the architect today. They specialize in Restaurant builds, so they will know who to ask. I'll get 3 recommendations and info on each."
That's one source of the name searches in Chapter 5. An owner who was handed three names by an architect searches those names, not "commercial general contractor." For the builders on that list, the brand campaign does the work. For the builders who weren't, a category Search ad rarely helps, because that owner may never search the category at all.
That's the gap Demand Gen is built for. It doesn't wait for a search.
The same threads show how long that early stage can run. One owner planning a warehouse was told to find land, get it zoned, hire an engineer and an architect, and only then shop the plans to builders. A restaurant team was still working out financing and zoning with its realtor and architect before any builder was named. Months can pass between the first conversation with an architect and the first call to a builder. A builder whose work an owner has already seen during those months starts the bid with an advantage no Search ad can buy.
Search Ads Wait for an Owner to Type Into Google. Demand Gen Ads Reach Owners on YouTube and Gmail First.
Everything in Chapters 2 through 9 depends on someone typing a search. Demand Gen works the other way. A builder's Demand Gen video can play on YouTube, including Shorts, and its photos can sit in a phone's Discover feed, in Gmail, on Maps or across Google's display partner sites, per Google's help page for the campaign type. The ads are video and image ads: a builder's finished projects, a walk-through of a completed build-out, a short clip of a crew at work. They show up while an owner is watching YouTube, scrolling the Discover feed on a phone or reading email, before any search for a builder.
The question is who sees them. Demand Gen doesn't use keywords the way Search does, but it can use a custom segment built from them. Google's help page on audience segments explains that you can build a custom segment "by including specific keywords, URLs and apps related to your product or service," and Google will then show ads "to people who are likely to be interested in these keywords on pages, apps, and videos."
That wording matters. A custom segment isn't a list of people who typed those exact words. It's Google's estimate of who is interested in them. For a builder, the useful keywords are the ones owners use before they look for a builder:
- Lease and space words: tenant improvement allowance, TI allowance, commercial lease, letter of intent, office space for lease. Chapter 2 found "TI allowance" searched nearly three times as often as "tenant improvement contractor" in the US.
- Cost and planning words: office build out cost, restaurant build out cost, cost to build a warehouse, dental office design.
- Professional words: commercial architect, medical office architect, tenant rep broker.
None of those people has asked for a builder yet. Some never will. But the owner planning a dental office who sees a builder's finished dental suite on YouTube in March is more likely to recognize that name when the architect lists three builders in May.
Demand Gen Needs Room to Spend: Google Advises a Budget Ten Times the Cost of a Single Inquiry
Demand Gen has a price of entry. Google sets that price itself. For a Demand Gen campaign aiming at a cost per inquiry, its help page wants the budget to be at least ten of those inquiries' worth. For a commercial builder, the target CPA is the cost per project inquiry from Chapter 7. Ten times that, as a budget, is a real commitment for a firm whose Search campaigns may be spending a few thousand dollars a month.
That's one reason Demand Gen comes late in a builder's account. The other is the same reason Performance Max waits: Demand Gen learns from conversions. We start it once an account is logging about 30 good project inquiries a month, after Search has shown what an inquiry costs. For accounts that get there, that's typically months in, and many single-market builders take longer.
When it does start, judge it on project inquiries, the same conversion every other campaign in the account counts (Chapter 1). Views and clicks will look large; they aren't the point. Expect Demand Gen's inquiries to take longer to arrive than Search's, because it reaches owners earlier in a process that can run for months before a builder is hired. A builder who judges it after two weeks may turn it off before it has had time to work.
Architects Write the Bid Lists. Their Clients Are the Owners Worth Reaching First.
A custom segment can include web addresses as well as keywords, and that opens one more option for a commercial builder. If architects shape the bid lists, the people interested in local architecture firms are worth reaching: owners shopping for an architect, owners already working with one, and the architects themselves.
In our example market, Cincinnati, Google's results for commercial construction searches included the websites of several local architecture and design firms. A builder can list firms like those in a custom segment alongside the keywords above. Google then reaches people it judges likely to be interested in those sites. That's our approach, not a Google promise about who exactly sees the ads, and it's one segment among several, not a replacement for the keyword-based ones.
It also suggests what the ads should show. An architect choosing who to invite to bid wants evidence a builder can follow drawings, keep a schedule and work well with the design team. An owner wants to see a finished space like the one being planned. Short videos of finished projects, with the building type named on screen, serve both. Thirty seconds walking through a finished dental suite, a restaurant on opening night or a warehouse with its racking going in says more to either audience than a logo and a slogan. Phone video is fine; owners and architects are looking at the space, not the production values. Chapter 8 found commercial clients praising builders for hitting the schedule; a Demand Gen video can say the same thing in a way a 30-character headline can't.
Our Google Ads agency helps commercial builders judge when the inquiry numbers can carry Demand Gen, and builds the segments and videos when they can.
Next: Only 1 of 57 Bad Reviews of Commercial Builders We Read Came From a Client
Chapter 12 turns to reviews and the map: who actually writes the bad reviews on commercial builders' profiles, and why asking every client for a review at handover matters more than most builders think. The full chapter list is on the Google Ads for Construction Companies guide home.
