Digital marketing for contractors, without the agency fog.
Every channel, ranked by how fast it puts real jobs on a contractor's calendar — from people who held a contracting license and spent their own money on every one of these channels first. No jargon, real numbers, and the order that actually works.
Where contractor marketing money actually goes.
Every dollar you spend lands in one of three buckets. Here's what each is for — and how they stack into the 5-channel lead generation scaling system:
Capture demand: Google
LSA and search ads catch homeowners who need work right now — "ac not cooling," "roof leak repair." Highest intent, fastest payback, and where every contractor should start.
Create demand: Meta
Facebook and Instagram ads put financing offers and real job footage in front of homeowners before they search. Bigger audience, cheaper reach — but only works with real filmed content, not stock.
Compound: SEO & reviews
Your Google Business Profile, review velocity, and city/service pages decide what you pay per lead everywhere else. Slowest to build, and the reason established contractors pay half what you do per call.
What each channel costs — and how fast it pays.
These are honest ranges for South Florida trades in 2026, not brochure numbers. Your market and trade shift them, but the relationships hold everywhere:
| Channel | Typical cost per lead | Time to first lead | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local Service Ads | $25–$90 per call | 2–3 weeks | Repairs & emergency work |
| Google Search Ads | $60–$250 | Days | Big-ticket replacements |
| Meta ads + content | $15–$70 | 2–4 weeks | Financing offers, brand, retargeting |
| Local SEO & GBP | Trends toward $0/lead | 3–9 months | Lowering cost on every other channel |
| Email & automations | Pennies (existing list) | Immediate | Repeat work, maintenance plans, reviews |
Cost per lead is not cost per job — a $250 search lead that closes a $14,000 replacement beats a $25 call that goes nowhere. Track both.
The order that works for contractors.
Not everything at once. This is the sequence that gets the phone ringing fastest, then compounds:
Local Service Ads first
Pay-per-call, Google Guaranteed. It's the cheapest qualified lead in the trades and most of your competitors set it up wrong or never finish the screening. Learn more →
Search ads on emergency + big-ticket keywords
Emergency searches close same-day; replacement searches are worth five figures. Each gets its own campaign and landing page. Learn more →
Fix the website before scaling spend
Every channel dumps traffic on your site. If it loads slow, has no estimator, and buries the phone number, you're paying to fill a leaky bucket. Learn more →
Meta + content to compound
Monthly filmed content, financing offers, retargeting people who visited but didn't call. This is what takes a contractor from buying every lead to being the known name in their cities. Learn more →
Marketing looks different in every trade.
A roofer's storm season, an AC company's summer spike, a remodeler's 6-week sales cycle — the playbook bends per trade. We built a page for each:
Roofing marketing →
Storm response, insurance-work messaging, and the replacement keywords worth five figures. See also our roofing SEO & digital marketing guide.
HVAC marketing →
"AC not cooling" is the highest-intent search in Florida. LSA + summer-ready landing pages, plus maintenance-plan email that fills the slow season.
Plumbing marketing →
Emergency calls close in hours. Call-only campaigns, tracked numbers, and answering-speed fixes that most plumbers never measure.
Electrical marketing →
Panel upgrades, EV chargers, generator installs — big tickets homeowners research first. Content plus search wins here.
Windows & doors →
Impact-window financing offers are made for Meta. Long sales cycle means retargeting and estimator tools earn their keep.
Contractor websites →
Every channel above lands on your site. Speed, estimators, and click-to-call decide what all your traffic is worth.
Rank free — the SEO playbook for your trade.
Ads win the click today; rankings lower what every future call costs. We wrote the SEO plan for each trade — what ranks, what it costs, and how long it takes:
SEO for contractors →
The all-trades playbook: map pack, cost pages, review systems — and what a real retainer should cost.
SEO for roofers →
Storm searches are won in advance. Repair vs replacement pages, and why reviews beat backlinks in roofing.
HVAC SEO →
Florida AC searches triple in summer — Google hands the surge to whoever ranked in March.
Local SEO for plumbers →
Emergency searches are winner-take-all: the map pack gets the 2am call, every time.
Local SEO for electricians →
The least contested trade in local search — finished basics still rank fast. EV chargers are the land grab.
SEO for remodelers →
Remodel clients research for months. Honest cost guides get the call, already half-trusted.
Pest control SEO →
Rank once, get paid monthly — one map-pack spot feeds quarterly plans for years.
Landscaping & lawn care SEO →
Design-build projects carry the year; neighborhood pages fill the maintenance routes.
What is LSA? →
The pay-per-call ads above everything on Google — and why the screening paperwork is your moat.
All services, ranked →
The whole menu with prices, in the order that pays: LSA → ads → SEO → content.
Digital marketing questions contractors ask.
What should a contractor spend on marketing?
A useful rule: 5–10% of revenue target. At $1M/year that's $4,000–$8,000/month all-in — management plus ad spend. Below $2,000/month total it's hard to buy meaningful data in a competitive metro; we'll tell you on the audit call if your budget won't work, before you spend it.
Which channel gets leads fastest?
LSA, almost always — calls can start within 2–3 weeks of passing screening. Search ads are next. SEO is a compounding asset, not a quick fix; anyone promising page-one rankings in 30 days is selling you something.
Can I just do this myself?
The setup, yes. The weekly tuning — negative keywords, dispute junk LSA calls, bid changes, new landing pages — is where the money is won, and it's 5–10 hours a week done right. Most contractors' time is worth more on the roof or in the truck.
Do you do SEO too?
Yes — Google Business Profile optimization, review systems, and city/service pages are built into how we work, because they lower your cost per lead on every paid channel. We just won't sell you SEO alone and tell you it'll ring the phone next week.
What's the best marketing for contractors on a small budget?
In order: finish your Google Business Profile and get a review system running (free), set up LSA (pay per call only), then answer your phone faster — a missed-call text-back automation recovers leads you already paid for. Only after those are working should you buy search or Meta traffic.
What about marketing automation for contractors?
The highest-ROI automations in the trades are boring: missed-call text-back, review requests after every completed job, and appointment reminders that cut no-shows. They cost almost nothing to run and lift every channel above them. We wire these into your CRM as part of setup.
Does video marketing actually work for contractors?
It's the cheapest trust you can buy. A 30-second clip of your crew on a real job outperforms stock footage in every Meta account we run, and the same footage feeds your website, GBP, and social. One filming day a month is enough.
This is what the work looks like.
Editing a client's ad content
Stanley on camera — real content, no stockGet a free audit — see exactly where your marketing leaks money.
One call. Within 24 hours you get it in writing: where you rank, what leads cost in your market, and what your top three competitors are running.
No card. No contract. Takes one phone call.