Lead generation for contractors: which channels book jobs

You are paying for leads and the crew is still standing around. The lead company sends names that never pick up. The phone rings with people who want a price and nothing else. January is dead every year. Lead generation for contractors comes down to being the business a homeowner finds on his own, on the map or in his feed, and then being the one who calls back.

The lead company leads never close

A lead company runs the ads, collects a homeowner's name and number, and sells that one inquiry to you and two or three other contractors at the same time. You pay whether or not you get the job. The one who calls back first usually gets it. You did not buy a customer. You bought a spot in a line.

And the money you paid them went to run ads that could have had your own name on them.

The phone rings all day with tire-kickers

Price shoppers. Jobs too small for a crew. People forty minutes outside where you work. That is who searches for "contractor" and a town, so that is who your ads and your map listing bring in.

The fix is to be specific. On the map, your photos should show the jobs you want more of. On your website, one page for each service and each town, so the homeowner lands on a page about his problem, not a page about you. In Google Ads, buy the job, not the trade. "Plumber" is expensive and half the people typing it are looking for work. "Hot water tank replacement" plus your town costs less, and the person typing it needs it done this week. What a click runs in your trade is in how much a Google Ads click costs in Halifax.

Where Google offers Local Services Ads for your trade, the ones with the green checkmark above the map, turn them on. You pay per lead instead of per click, and Google only shows you for your trade in your area.

If you cannot find yourself on the map at all, this is usually why. If the newest review is from three years ago, make asking for one the last step of every job, while the crew is loading the truck.

January is dead

In January nobody is Googling for a deck. The homeowner who will hire you in May is scrolling at night in January looking at other people's decks. Facebook and Instagram ads put you in that feed for pennies at a time, a few neighbourhoods at a time. Start with an offer on the one job you want more of, to the streets you work. Behind it, run the cheap stuff. You on video walking a finished job. Before and after. The crew. The thing you found behind the drywall. Over a few months the people in those neighbourhoods know your name before they know they need you, and when the deck finally happens, they do not go to Google.

It is the cheapest thing on this page, and over a year it is how one contractor comes to own an area. It also works like a tap. A gym owner in Toronto I ran this for turned her lead ads off after six weeks because she was at capacity, kept the cheap visibility ads running, and turned the lead ads back on when she had room. Crews idle, turn it up. Booked solid, turn it down.

The catch is that you have to be willing to get on video and take the photos, and have someone keep it current for you. You do not have to post every day.

Nobody answered the phone

When a contractor tells me ads do not work, I usually find a slow callback under it. The ad worked. The page worked. The form sat there over the weekend, and by Monday two other contractors had been through the house.

Answer in minutes when you can. Two-line text from the site when you cannot. Clear every inquiry at the same time every evening. Decide now who picks up when the whole crew is on a roof.

This week

Ask the last ten customers for a review. Photograph the next five jobs, before and after, with your phone. Decide who answers.

Then do one sum. Last year's jobs, where each came from, what each cost you to get, and what was left after crew and materials. Service calls and big renos in separate columns, because they are not the same job. Most contractors have never done this. The ones who have usually find one channel carrying the business and the lead company costing it money.

Pick one of the above, run it for a month, and write down what each booked job cost you. Once it is working, add the next.

If you want someone to work out which one first, or to build it for you, book a call. Twenty minutes. Bring last year's jobs and whatever you are paying for now. If you are already set up right I will tell you, and you can get back to work.

Frequently asked questions

How do contractors get leads without buying them?

From a Google Maps listing with recent reviews and photos of finished work, pages on their own website for each service and each town, and Facebook and Instagram ads in the neighbourhoods they work. Those catch the homeowner who is searching for the fix today and the one who will be in six months. Local Services Ads and Google Ads put the business at the top of the search.

Is it worth buying construction leads?

Only in one case. A bought lead is one homeowner's inquiry sold to more than one contractor at the same time, so the one who calls back first usually gets the job. Buying them is worth it only if you can answer in minutes and you track what each booked job costs you against what that job is worth. If neither is true, you are paying for a race you are not set up to win.

How much should a contractor spend on ads each month?

Enough for one channel to produce booked jobs for a month, and nothing more until you know what each job cost. The number comes from what one job is worth to you after crew and materials, not a rule of thumb. Once one channel is measured, decide whether to add budget or add a second channel.

How fast do I need to answer a lead?

In minutes if you can, and the same day at the latest. A homeowner with a problem keeps calling until someone answers, and the first contractor who calls back usually gets in the door. A two-line text from the job site beats a voicemail greeting every time.

Which is better for a contractor, Google Ads or Facebook ads?

Both, for different homeowners. Google Ads and Local Services Ads catch the one who has the problem now, at a higher price per lead. Facebook and Instagram ads are far cheaper, reach the one who is planning a project, and over time make one contractor the name a whole area knows. A contractor on a tight budget usually starts on Facebook and Instagram and adds Google once the booked jobs pay for it.