A building inspector, a university and a disability support provider can all run Google Ads. Almost nothing else about their marketing will look the same.
People buy differently in each sector. Some decide quickly because a settlement date is close. Others compare options for months, or need a parent, a coordinator or a board to agree. What counts as a good lead changes as well, and so does the mix of search, social, email and referral that brings it in.
These are sectors where Pulse has worked closely enough to understand some of the differences in how people search, compare and enquire.
Five sectors where a good part of our work sits, and some of what tends to matter in each.
Pre-purchase inspection work often runs to someone else's timetable. There is an auction date, a cooling-off period or a settlement to plan around, and the search usually starts on a phone with a suburb in mind.
At that point people want to know quickly whether you cover the area, when you can attend and how soon the report will arrive. Making those answers easy to find matters as much as the ad itself. Many enquiries come through as calls, so call tracking is part of the setup from the start.
Education is rarely a one-visit decision. A prospective student might download a course guide in March, come to an open day in August and apply a week before the intake closes. Parents, employers and sponsors often have a say too.
That makes intake dates the real marketing calendar. Campaigns build interest well before each deadline, follow-up keeps people engaged in between, and reporting looks at applications and enrolments, not enquiries alone. Short courses usually behave differently from degree programs, so they tend to need their own plan.
An enquiry about disability support often comes from someone other than the participant. It might be a family member, or a support coordinator looking for a provider with capacity in a particular area.
Either way, the questions are practical: which supports you offer, where you work, whether you can take on someone new and how a referral works. When those answers are clear on the website and on the phone, the next step is easier for the participant and everyone helping them.
In professional services, a lot of work still begins with a referral. Then the person looks the firm up. They read the reviews, check who they would actually be dealing with and decide whether to get in touch.
People without a referral tend to search for the situation they are in rather than the type of firm: a compliance deadline, a dispute, a business they are about to sell. Pages built around those situations, with the people behind the work clearly visible, usually do more than a general list of services.
A not-for-profit website often serves several audiences at once. Donors, volunteers, people looking for support and funders all arrive with different questions, and each needs a clear path through the site.
Search plays a part for each of them. Many eligible organisations can also use Google Ad Grants for search advertising, but the grant comes with rules, and how much it delivers depends on someone managing the account properly after setup.
The channels are mostly the same everywhere: Google, Meta, LinkedIn, email and the website. What changes is the order people use them in, how long they take and who else is involved in the decision.
So before planning a campaign, we want to understand three things about your sector.
How long the decision takes
An urgent booking and a six-month enrolment need different campaigns, different follow-up and different ways of judging whether it is working.
Who else is involved
Coordinators, parents, partners, boards. The person who fills in the form is not always the one who decides.
What a good lead looks like
A call from the right suburb, an application before the deadline, a referral that turns into a client. We agree on it with you before any budget goes in.
Examples from our case studies across these sectors.
SEO, Google Ads and Facebook ads for a property inspection business, with dashboards used to qualify leads.
SEO, Google Ads and Facebook ads for a suite of short courses, tracked through an acquisition dashboard.
Google Ads for high-intent legal searches, leading to a landing page built around a short explainer video.
Pulse is a marketing agency in Surry Hills led by founder Nico Pustilnick. Much of our work is for service businesses and organisations where one enquiry is worth real money, and where the sale or enrolment doesn’t finish at the form.
If your sector isn’t listed here, it may still be worth a conversation. The useful questions are usually the same: who buys, how they decide and what a good lead is worth.
