We help contractor businesses grow every day.
And this is not luck.
It’s a process. Something that we got really good at over the years.
In this article & the video I want to share some of the options and my experience on how to get contractor leads online.
If you are a contractor or a local service company, this article is for you. Discover how to get more contractor leads for electrician, roofer, HVAC contractor, plumber, basement waterproofing company, bathroom, kitchen or basement renovations company, fence installation business or another home service business.
How to Get Leads as a Contractor - The Main Point
First – every channel can give you results. If a channel didn’t work, it wouldn’t exist.
So yes, SEO, Google Ads, Facebook Ads all of it works.
· It’s just SEO will give you for example $50 per Lead
· Google Ads – for example $70
· And Facebook - $90 or the other way around.
Every channel will give you leads, It’s just a matter of how well it works in your industry and your location. In some cases, we hear companies rely 100% on Angi’s list or Home Stars plus referrals to get all of the business.
But if you work in a major city, competition will likely be too steep to get all the leads from these websites.
Set Clear Objectives = Get More Contractor Leads
So the first thing you need to ask yourself what is your objective, what are you trying to achieve?
Put a number on it, realistically how many leads can you and your team service tomorrow? How many people can you service this month?
Example - why getting too many leads is just as bad:
Take a look from aside, imagine a company that makes and installs fences. Imagine they sell 2000ft of fences per month. A company like this would have someone answering the phone, a designer who designs these fences, they order materials and make the fence plus they have a team who installs this product.
If today this team gets 100 leads per month and installs 2000 ft of fences, they can’t jump to 500 leads tomorrow.
And if they do get 5 times more calls tomorrow, what’s gonna happen is they won’t have enough hands to pick up the phone, they won’t be able to handle design, manufacturing or installation.
Best case, they will lose most of these leads, worst case – their quality will be bad and they will get a bunch of bad reviews and refund requests.
But if this company grows by from 100 to 130 leads over 2-3 months, this will be comfortable, they will have time to hire more people, train them etc.
So set this objective based on where you are today. If you’re a one man show, how many clients can you service. If you’re a 10-people business how many calls do you need to keep your team busy.
There is a methodology called STAR – Specific, Timely, Action-Oriented, Realistic. So set very specific and very realistic goals. 20% or 30% growth is good growth, slow and steady wins the race.
Now going into the growth and how to get leads. Lets look into the steps you need to take and if you are just getting started vs a company that already has 5-10 employees.
Create a Brand for your Business
Start with creating a brand for your business. This is what will set you apart, no matter if you are calling your friend for referral or someone sees your road sign or finds you on Google your brand has to look trustworthy. Remember, most people you will do business with are the people you don’t know. And your brand will start the conversation from the right foot.
Obviously, the requirements here will be different. If you are just getting started, come up with a basic brand, get a logo, get a basic one-page website, think about that business name. Talk to a designer (maybe someone you know), ask for their help. You need to create some basic shape, the minimum viable brand for your business to make it look professional.
Medium & Large Contractors
Now if you are a company that is already past this initial stage, and you are serious about being a leader, you need to get your looks in order as well. Except for just creating a beautiful “consumer” brand, your design should be on another level, plus your website should not just get some leads by maximize leads from existing traffic, the 3-5% increase actually matters for scale.
Example: Your math will look like this – we get 1000 people to the site, 10% of them will turn into leads, that’s 100 phone calls. Make your website better and now you have 15% leads, that’s 150 phone calls. See the difference? So your website must be optimized with features like lead capture forms, website chat etc.
List of Local directoruies. Source - White Spark
Register Directory Listings
Next, you will need to establish a footprint – register your company on Google Maps, Facebook, Instagram, Yelp, LinkedIn, Home Stars, Angi’s list, the Better Business Bureau, etc. This will be a plus for your future SEO, plus will contribute to making your business create the right impression for consumer. In most cases, this won’t a be a significant source of leads, but hey if you get 2-3 calls per month from there and even close a client or two, this is perfect.
Image Source: Home Stars
Offer a Discount or Incentive
Next - come up with an incentive. Why would someone get their walls painted by you tomorrow and not in 6 months?
Consider using this incentive in your marketing, maybe even tell your referrals, hey we are running 25% OFF promotion right now so if you were to buy from us within the next 4 weeks, you will get a good discount. You can put this promotion on your website, road sign and even your business card.
Ask for Referrals
Now that you have your brand in order lets shift the gears to promotion.
First thing you may want to do - get that word of mouth and referrals. So let everyone know that you are now in the business. Talk to your friends, talk to companies you know. Actively reach out, talk to people.
Idea: Or even better, give them some sort of offer the incentive we just discussed. Hello so and so, I’ve opened a painting business and offer 25% off our services for the first month.
Register on Contractor Websites - Does Angi's List & Home Stars Work?
Next, contractor websites – Angi’s List, Home Stars etc. Your performance here will depend on your location and the level of competition.
Based on our experience, if you are in a smaller town, you can get better results, large cities will have greater competition, and likely less results. I haven’t heard about these sites working too well because in many cases, leads are sent to a large number of people so the odds of closing them are low.
Opinion: With that said, it’s an industry standard to have your listings there it will help establish a footprint for your business and will even help SEO in the future. So by all means, pick one day, get your listing on major contractor websites like Angi’s List or Home Stars. And if you end up getting some business from there, that’s awesome!
Image Source: SEM Rush
Tap into Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Tends to have the best Return on Investment. You don’t pay for clicks, only for leads. So if your industry is not overly competitive, this may a good place to start.
Google Maps Marketing
This marketing strategy falls under Local SEO – a major source of business for many of our clients. This marketing channel is especially good for companies that are just getting out there provided of course that your location is not too competitive and the gaps in the number of reviews is not too big. The thing is that for Google Maps, one of the ranking criteria is how close you are to the person searching for your services. In other words, if you are located nextdoors to someone, you will likely show up when they search for your specific services. So make sure to setup Google Maps and ask your past customers for reviews.
Get FREE Contractor Leads from SEO
This is where it is harder to compete but the Return on Investment is very good. Let me oversimplify this to give you an understanding of how this works and why it can be hard to compete here.
SEO is amazing because all clicks are free (unlike Google Ads), people come on Google to searching for plumbers, and painters in their location.
Why SEO takes time?
However, one of the reasons why SEO takes a while and can be harder to compete is backlinks. Backlinks in SEO function like citations in academia. Imagine you invented the first electric car company and got lots of publicity from BBC, CNN, Bloomberg etc.
Google will pick up these links and interpret them as an endorsement (a vote) for your business popularity. This is one of 200 ingredients of becoming number one for a keyword like “electric car USA”.
Contractor SEO Example: Imagine you are a plumber and your website is new, while someone else has been investing in SEO for 10 years now. Imagine they added five links to their website every month for 10 years. That’s 600 links to their Plumber New York website, while your site has zero. This is a gap that will take time to bridge. But you can always go for less competitive keywords like specific service names like pipe replacement in new York or smaller locations like Plumber in Queens.
Local Service Ads – Google Guaranteed Ads
The strategy I would definitely add into the mix - Google Local Services Ads (pay-per-lead). A beautiful channel, you only pay for relevant leads and NOT clicks. This type of ads is new so people are not very familiar with it.
The volume of leads here may not be as high, but hey this channel is worth setting it up because again, if you get a couple of leads here per month this will still work toward your goal. And as you get more reviews on your Google Maps account, you will start getting lore leads through the Local Service Ads as well.
Remember you only pay for relevant leads. If you want to find out how much leads cost in your industry and location and how to set these up, check out my video here.
Online Advertising for Contractors
Next, we go into advertising – Paid Search, Social Media Ads etc. These are fairly effective channels. In many cases, they tend to be more expensive than SEO.
It’s just in many cases, especially for new businesses we would use online advertising after we start getting good results with SEO.
This is because except for paying for the hours needed to do the work, you will have to pay for clicks. Plus your results will depend on how well you can optimize your ads, which in-turn depends on how much you spend.
The more money you spend, the more data you’ll have and the make better optimization decisions.
Consider Search Advertising
Now a bit more about Google Ads – this is a good channel for most contractors.
Are Google Ads Good for Contractors?
Yes! Because when you need a plumber you likely go on Google and search for Plumber in your city.
This is where Google Ads will pop up, you’ll click, most likely call.
This is a good source of leads because this is where people come when they are looking for something. So if you are searching for a plumber in a city, chances are you actually need a plumber.
Facebook Ads for Contractors
Now, going into Facebook Ads and social media ads in general .You can still get some business here, but it probably won’t be the best for contractors like plumbers. Because instead of people coming to you, you will be trying to find the right people yourself. Instead of bidding for plumber in your city, you will be putting your ads in front of the people who showed interest in “plumbing topic” or something along those lines.
Do Facebook Ads for Contractors Work?
This can still work fairly well especially for bigger jobs like basement renovation or home additions and large, not urgent projects of that nature. You can still catch a couple of people searching for plumber for an emergency repair, because all sorts of things can happen – for example a prospect called a couple of companies on Google, but they are closed.
Maximize Sales – Use Follow Ups
Next – Follow Ups & support – this is a category that can include a lot of different things, but they all have the same objective. Objective is to stay top of mind for consumers. The objective is to be helpful and build your brand, as prospect consider making a purchase. Imagine you offer basement renovation services and it take a couple of weeks for propsects to decide who they want to work with.
Email Marketing
Why not send them a couple of automated emails – with helpful content like Five Things to plan before basement renovation, or basement renovation ideas etc.
Remarketing for Home Service Businesses & Contractors
We also use remarketing here showing ads to people who reached out to your business or went to your website or both. We want to maximize people you close because this is the ultimate measure of success.
Contractor Leads Tip - Track Results
Now there are more things you can do. Road signs, print ads etc. for these I would recommend experimenting. But you need to track it well. Set up a tracking phone number for the print advertisement you run. Count the number of call you get from that number. Decide based on what you see.
Summary - How to Get More Contractor Leads
To wrap this up – set your objectives – how many leads do you need to keep your team busy, how many leads can you actually service this month.
Let everyone know that you are in this business.
Incentivize - give people an offer, a discount, a reason to buy from you or recommend you tomorrow and not next month.
Start the path of brand building, if you are serious about growing, invest in your website and logo. In the end of the day, when someone finds you online this is one of the ways to stand out.
For sure, setup your Google Maps listing, your Facebook your Better Business Buro to create that initial presence.
And based on this foundation, start getting out there via SEO or Google Ads or Local Service Ads to grow your leads.
And if you have any questions about contractor marketing or how to get contractor leads, don’t hesitate to reach out to the team at growth360 – contractor marketing agency serving Canada and the US.