Contractor Advertising: What Actually Brings Jobs

A kitchen, a roof or a pool is not an impulse buy. A homeowner can take weeks to decide, and they’ll talk to several contractors first. So the question isn’t only where to advertise. It’s how to be the one they remember when they’re ready.

Start with the people already looking

Google search ads reach someone at the moment they type “kitchen remodel near me”. You pay per click, and Google’s Ad Rank weighs your bid with the quality of your ad and landing page, so a good page can pay less for the same click. Our Google Ads page explains how we run them.

Local Services Ads work differently. They appear at the top of local results, and you pay for leads related to your business, not for clicks. Availability depends on your trade and your area. Google warns that regularly missing calls or messages can hurt your ad ranking, so only turn them on if someone will answer.

Your Google Business Profile isn’t an ad, but it shows up in the same search, and it’s free. Photos of finished jobs and recent reviews do a lot of the selling. Start there if yours is out of date.

Then reach homeowners who are still deciding

Facebook and Instagram ads find people before they search. They suit work that looks good in a photo: a bathroom, a deck, a new roof. Meta’s lead forms open inside the app with the name and phone filled in, so a form takes about a minute. Ask the size of the job and the timeline on that form, and you’ll keep out most of the people who were only curious.

What this looks like in real accounts

These are two of the accounts we publish, as the ad platforms report them:

• Attic insulation, over two years: 1,317 opportunities at $54.59 each from $71,895 in ads, 109 closed jobs and $559,453 in revenue.
• Bathroom remodeling, over four months: 406 opportunities at $42.17 each from $17,143 in ads, and $302,862 in revenue.

Your numbers will depend on your trade, your town and your follow-up. We share these to show the scale of a lead’s cost in this kind of work, not as a promise.

Own your leads

Shared-lead sites like Angi and Thumbtack can fill a slow month. But the same person often gets several quotes, and you compete on price from the first call. We compared them in is Angi worth it?. Your own campaigns bring people who asked for you, and those contacts stay yours.

What decides most of it: the follow-up

Most contractors don’t lose jobs on price. They lose them because nobody called back. A lead that waits until tomorrow has often called someone else. What works:

1. Answer in seconds. A text goes out the moment a form comes in, at any hour.
2. Text back every missed call, so the caller waits for you.
3. Follow up for weeks after the estimate, with messages spaced out so you stay in the conversation without pushing.
4. Ask for a review when the job is done, which feeds your Google profile.

A CRM with automations does all of that on its own while you’re on a job.

Where to start

If you have no reviews and an old website, fix those first: ads only bring people to what’s already there. If you’re on the map and answering fast, add Google search ads for your best-paying work, then Facebook for the jobs worth showing. Our contractor marketing page shows how it fits together.