Agency

Contractor Marketing Agency

Most contractors have been burned by a marketing agency at least once. Usually the same way: a monthly retainer, a dashboard full of impressions and clicks, and no measurable change in booked jobs. Here is how to tell the difference before you sign.

What a contractor marketing agency should be accountable for

For a contractor it comes down to booked jobs at a cost that leaves margin. Everything else is an input. Impressions, reach, clicks, engagement and even cost per lead are diagnostics, not results.

A good agency agrees the target up front in your terms: cost per booked job, or cost per qualified appointment if your sales cycle is long. Then it reports against that number honestly, including the months it misses. An agency that will not commit to a business metric before starting is telling you something.

Be equally wary of an agency that promises a guaranteed number of leads with no reference to quality. Leads are easy to manufacture. Booked jobs are not.

The questions worth asking before you sign

Who actually runs my account day to day, and how much experience do they have in the trades?
What happens to the ad account, the landing pages and the CRM data if we part ways? Do I own them?
What is the target cost per booked job, and what happens if we do not hit it?
How do you qualify leads before they reach my calendar?
How fast is the first response to an enquiry, and is it automated?
Can I speak to two contractors in a similar trade you currently work with?

That last one is the most useful and the one agencies most often deflect. A current client in your trade will tell you more in ten minutes than any case study deck.

Red flags

Long lock in contracts with no performance conditions. Reporting built entirely on platform metrics rather than jobs. Ownership of your ad account or website held by the agency. Vague deliverables described as brand awareness. And any agency that cannot explain, in plain language, exactly what happens between someone clicking an advert and your calendar filling.

One more that contractors underrate: an agency that only handles the advertising and treats what happens after the lead arrives as your problem. Most contractor marketing fails after the click, not before it. If nobody owns follow up speed and qualification, the ads will not save you.

What it should cost

There are two components: management and media. Media is what you spend on the platforms and it goes up as you scale. Management is what you pay the agency, usually a monthly fee, sometimes with a performance element.

Be realistic about media budget. Home services and construction keywords are expensive, and an under funded account never gathers enough data to optimise. An agency willing to take your management fee while your media spend is too low to work is not doing you a favour.

Judge the total against booked revenue, not against the fee in isolation. A larger spend that produces a healthy cost per booked job is cheaper than a small one that produces nothing.

What we do differently

We build the whole path rather than just the advertising: the offer, the campaigns, the qualification, and the instant follow up that turns an enquiry into a booked appointment. That full system is what we call the B.I.G System.

We work only with trade and construction businesses, which means we are not learning your industry on your budget. And we report against booked jobs, because that is the number you actually run your business on.

Frequently asked questions

What does a contractor marketing agency do?

At minimum it runs advertising to generate enquiries. A good one also builds the offer, qualifies leads before they reach your calendar, and automates follow up so enquiries convert into booked appointments rather than sitting unanswered.

How much does a contractor marketing agency cost?

There are two parts: a monthly management fee to the agency and the media spend paid to the advertising platforms. Home services and construction advertising is expensive per click, so an under funded media budget rarely performs. Judge the combined cost against booked revenue rather than the fee alone.

How do I know if my marketing agency is working?

Track cost per booked job, not impressions or clicks. If your agency reports platform metrics but cannot tell you what a booked job costs you, that is the problem. Agree the target metric before you start.

Should I hire a specialist contractor marketing agency or a general one?

A specialist already knows the offers, seasonality and buying behaviour in the trades, so you are not funding their learning curve. A generalist agency can work, but expect a longer ramp and more of your time spent explaining the industry.