Contractors face many challenges when recruiting new business and getting more leads. Even though the market is full of competition, there are many advertising options to get your business noticed. Some things to consider are your:
- Business size
- Geographical location
- Target audience
Before we get started, do you have your contractor’s license in place? This will help you become eligible for taking on more larger projects and building your credibility. Get help with exam prep to make the process easier. Once you pass, use the following marketing tactics to boost your contracting business!
Website Promotion
Developing an excellent company website is a strong marketing tool you should take advantage of. A website will get your business noticed and increase your exposure.
Use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to make your site rank higher on search engines than competitors. If you optimize your site, you will bring visitors to your site so they can learn about your business and eventually hire you a a contractor for their project.
Blog Posts
You can start a blog on your site and become a guest blogger on other high authority websites, which will also expand your web presence and bring traffic to your website. If a potential client is researching advice for their renovation project and stumble upon your blog, they’re more likely to trust you and hire you for their project.
Posting to a blog and writing guest posts also makes you more trustworthy and credible to readers.
Social Media
You can’t overlook social media when it comes to advertising your contracting business. If you aren’t familiar with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, then it’s time you get acquainted with these platforms! Social media is no doubt a very influential tool that your business needs to receive the exposure it deserves.
Paid advertising on platforms like Facebook and Instagram is imperative for any business to achieve success. You can target communities that live in your geographic area so that your ads are seen by people that are the most likely to contact you for hire. You can also target based on age range, interests, and much more.
When deciding which platform you want to use to take your advertising to the next level, consider this: it is a good idea to understand where your target audience spends most of their time. In your case, you should consider using Facebook Ads to target homeowners, as opposed to Snapchat, which is strictly for a young audience.
PPC (Pay-Per-Click)
Another tool to use for advertising your contracting business is Pay-Per-Click (PPC). This means that you pay a platform, such as Google, based on how many people click on your ad. This is a great way to figure out if your advertising campaigns are effective based on the number of clicks you receive. Once you nail your approach, you’ll generate leads based on your ad clicks.
Make sure that your website is on-point with exceptional content and a captivating look to attract your customers. Otherwise, your clicks won’t lead to conversions, and this tactic will be a waste of time.
Bottom Line
With these online advertising options, your contractor marketing strategy will bring you leads and a pool of customers ready to hire you.
If this process becomes overwhelming, fall back on these steps as you’re getting started:
- Promote your services through your own website to share relevant information, as well as give advice and suggestions.
- Post blogs and guests blogs
- Use paid advertising to promote your business in the form of sponsored ads.
- Create a social media presence and become an active member in online communities to make connections
Where contractors lose money on marketing (and what I tell them to fix first)
I’ve sat across the table from enough builders, electricians and plumbers to know the pattern by heart. They get busy, they stop marketing. Work dries up, they panic and throw money at a website or a batch of leaflets. Then work picks up again and marketing gets dropped. It’s a boom and bust cycle, and it’s the single biggest reason contractors struggle to grow past a certain point.
Last year I worked with a heating engineer in the Midlands who was doing this exact thing. Great tradesman, terrible marketing habits. He’d spend three months flat out on jobs, then hit a quiet patch and scramble for a Google Ads campaign that he’d switch off the moment his diary filled up again. The problem wasn’t his ads. It was that he treated marketing as an emergency response rather than a constant, quiet background process.
Here’s what I got him to change, and it’s the same advice I give every contractor now:
- Marketing runs every week, even during your busiest month. A simple job photo posted to Google Business Profile, a short update sent to past customers, that’s enough to keep the pipeline warm.
- Reviews get asked for on the day the job finishes, not weeks later when the customer has forgotten how good you were.
- One channel does the heavy lifting. For most contractors that’s Google Business Profile plus reviews, not a scattergun approach across five platforms nobody has time to manage.
- Every enquiry gets tracked somewhere, even if it’s a spreadsheet. Without this you have no idea which jobs turned into paid work.
The other mistake I see constantly is contractors copying their competitors’ websites and messaging word for word. If every local plumber’s site says “reliable, affordable, professional,” you’ve said nothing. Customers can’t tell you apart from the next quote. What works instead is being specific: the exact areas you cover, the exact type of jobs you prefer, real photos of real jobs with dates, and a clear price range so people aren’t scared to call.
By 2026, the contractors doing well are the ones who’ve accepted that a phone that doesn’t stop ringing is a marketing result, not luck. They’ve built a small, boring, repeatable system: photos after every job, a review request built into the invoice process, and a website that gets updated with new work every month rather than left untouched for three years. None of this is clever. It’s just consistent, and consistency beats cleverness every time in a trade business.
More questions
How much should a contractor spend on marketing each month?
Most trades do well spending somewhere between 3 and 8 percent of turnover, with a chunk of that going on Google Ads or Local Services Ads and the rest on basic content like photos and review collection. Start smaller and increase spend once you can see which jobs the marketing is bringing in.
Do contractors need a website if they get most work through word of mouth?
Yes, because word of mouth referrals still check you out online before they call. A simple site with real photos, service areas and reviews turns a warm referral into a booked job rather than losing it to a competitor who looks more established.
What’s the fastest way to get more reviews as a contractor?
Ask on the day the job is finished, ideally while you’re still stood there, and send a text link straight
