We pulled every readable ad that electrical, home-service and generator advertisers had run on Google's network for our example market, Columbus, Ohio, from Google's Ads Transparency Center. Generators came up more than any other electrical service: 46 of 221 readable ads mentioned them, from 9 different advertisers. EV chargers and panel upgrades managed 8 ads each.
The advertisers running the most generator ads weren't local electricians. They were Generac, the manufacturer; Generator Supercenter, a dealer network whose ads show a Tomball, Texas location; and Hurricane Generators, whose ads name Rochester, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Wilkes-Barre and Coconut Creek. All three hit the 15-ad limit the Transparency Center shows. The two local electrical contractors in our sample that are Generac dealers ran 5 and 4.
A local electrician can't outspend a manufacturer on "generac generator." The good news, and the point of this chapter, is that it doesn't have to. The searches that turn into installs are a different, smaller and more expensive set, and they're the ones a local shop is built to win.
Generac and Out-of-State Dealer Networks Run More Generator Ads Than Any Local Electrician
One honest limit first. The Transparency Center shows what an advertiser has run anywhere in the US, not which towns it aimed at. So we can't say Generac or the networks outbid anyone in Columbus specifically. We can say they compete for generator searches nationally, and that one of them showed up locally too: a Hurricane Generators listing appeared in one of the Columbus map packs we checked.
To see who's actually bidding in your own market, use the ad preview tool from Chapter 5. Type "whole house generator installation" and "generac dealer near me" with your town as the location, and look at whose ads appear. Then look up each name in the Transparency Center to read the ads they've been running.
You'll usually find three kinds of competitor:
- The manufacturer, selling the brand and sending people to its dealer locator.
- Dealer networks and generator-only companies, often based in another state, selling units and arranging the install.
- Local electrical contractors who are also dealers, like the two in our sample.
The first two have bigger budgets and better brand recognition. The third has something they can't buy: a crew that's already in town, licensed in the state, and able to show up when the power goes out.
Generac Clicks Are Cheap Because Shoppers Make Them. Installer Searches Cost About Four Times as Much.
Keyword Planner's top-of-page estimates for the example metro tell the story in prices:
- "Generac generator": about 1,300 searches a month, up to about $6.40 a click.
- "Whole house generator": about 720, up to about $6.73.
- "Portable generator": about 1,600, under a dollar.
- "Generac dealers near me": about 110, up to about $10.48.
- "Whole house generator installation": about 140, up to about $22.25.
- "Generator installer near me": about 30, up to about $27.
Advertisers pay three to four times as much for an install search as for a brand search, and that gap is information. The person searching "generac generator" is reading about a product: models, sizes, reviews, maybe a store price. The person searching "generator installer near me" has decided on a generator and needs someone to put it in. Chapter 5 found the same split in the competitor-seeded keyword lists: the big brand searches were mostly research, and the small, pricier ones were people looking for an installer.
So the keyword plan for a local electrical contractor looks like this:
- Keep and bid on: installation, installer, installer near me, dealer near me, "whole house generator installation," "generac generator installation," and your town names with "generator."
- Set aside: "generac generator" on its own, "whole house generator" on its own, model numbers and cost research. If Exploration's broad match wanders into them, watch whether they ever book a site visit before adding them on purpose.
- Block as negatives: "portable," the names of big-box stores, "for sale," "used," "parts" and "manual." A homeowner shopping for a portable unit at a hardware store is not buying a transfer switch from you.
Inside the generator campaign or ad group set, split the install searches by job, the way Chapter 4 split services. Whole-house standby installs get their own ad group and page. Generator service and repair, for owners whose unit won't start after sitting all summer, get another. If you install manual transfer setups, an interlock and an inlet for a portable unit, give those their own group too. Dean & Co Electrical in the example market, for one, has a page just for generator interlock installation. Each group's ad then matches the job the homeowner typed, instead of a generic "generators" headline.
Whole House Generator Searches in One Metro Went From 320 to 1,900 in a Month. Budget for the Spike You Can't Schedule.
Generator demand doesn't arrive evenly. In the example metro, "whole house generator" ran about 320 searches in most months of the past year, then about 1,900 in January, 1,600 in March and 1,600 again in August. Nationally the same search ranged from about 18,100 a month in spring to about 135,000 in January. "Generac generator installation" had its national peak in a different month, December. Locally, "generac dealers near me" rose from about 110 searches a month in the spring to about 260 by August, the highest month of the year. A dealer search is a buyer search, so that climb is worth watching more closely than the brand-name spikes, which are mostly people reading.
We didn't verify what drove each jump, so we won't name a cause. The practical lesson is the same one Chapter 14 drew for emergency calls: a service line this spiky needs its own budget, so a busy generator month doesn't starve your panel and charger ads, and a quiet one doesn't waste money.
There's a second limit that matters more for generators than for most work: install capacity. A whole-house unit takes a site visit, a permit and often a gas line, and the panel work around it. If your crew is booked six weeks out after a spike, the extra ad spend buys leads you can't serve on time, and the homeowner who waits six weeks may go back to the dealer network that promised three. Set the generator budget to the number of installs you can actually schedule, and tell the homeowner the real lead time in the ad or on the page.
Authorized Dealer Is a Claim the Manufacturer's Own Locator Can Check
Generators come with a brand-name question that most electrical services don't. Can you use "Generac" in your ads?
Google's trademark policy answers most of it. Google doesn't restrict trademarks used as keywords, so bidding on "generac generator installation" is fine. Google also doesn't restrict landing pages that sell or install a brand's products. What it will restrict, after the trademark owner complains, is a competitor using the brand in ad text, and any ad that uses a trademark in a confusing, deceptive or misleading way.
For an electrician who actually installs the brand, naming it in an ad, "Generac Generator Installation," is describing the service. The line that needs care is the one that claims a relationship: "authorized dealer," "certified installer," or a dealer tier. Generac's own Dealer Lookup shows each dealer's designation, Direct, Select, Elite or Premiere, and says those designations indicate what the dealer is authorized to do, from sales and installation to service and warranty work. A homeowner, or the manufacturer, can check your claim in a minute.
So the rule is simple: if your ad or page says "authorized" or names a tier, it has to match the locator today, not when you first signed up. Dealer status can change. Your ads should change with it.
A Local Electrician Sells What a Manufacturer Can't: the Permit, the Transfer Switch and Service After a Storm
The manufacturer's ads sell the box. The networks' ads sell the box plus a price. A local electrical contractor's ads should sell the part neither can: the install and what comes after it.
That's a specific list, and every item is headline material if it's true at your shop:
- The permit and inspection, pulled and passed by a local licensed electrician.
- The transfer switch and panel work, which is electrical work, not appliance delivery.
- Sizing, done at the house, so the unit runs what the homeowner actually needs during an outage.
- Service and warranty work from a shop that's down the road, not three states away.
- The real lead time, stated honestly.
The price conversation belongs on the page, not in a fight over the cheapest number. Angi, a home-services marketplace, puts the average whole-house generator install at $5,157 nationally, a vendor's figure. One example dealer site in our sample quotes around $8,500 for a home unit and around $15,000 for whole-house systems, and an AI-generated summary on a local installer search quoted $8,000 to $16,000. Homeowners see numbers like these before they call. A page that explains what's included in your price, the way Chapter 8's five-star reviews praise, does more than a lower number with no explanation. It's also worth offering the smaller option on the same page. Not every homeowner who searches "whole house generator" will spend five figures. An interlock and inlet for a portable unit is real electrical work, it keeps the homeowner talking to you instead of the hardware store, and it's often the job that brings them back for the standby unit later.
Next: Several States Require Your License Number in Every Electrical Ad. Most Electrician Sites We Checked Didn't Show One.
Chapter 16 closes the guide with the claims that carry legal weight in electrical advertising, starting with license numbers. Chapter 5 found the generator keyword split in the competitor lists, and Chapter 14 covers the same separate-budget logic for emergency calls.
The full set of sixteen chapters is gathered on the guide's home page.
Under our Google Ads management, a generator dealer's account bids on installs, not on the manufacturer's brand, and its budget follows the install calendar. Running your own? Search "generac dealer near me" from your phone in your own town and count how many of the ads belong to someone who could be at the house tomorrow.
