Contractor Marketing Ideas That Actually Work in 2026

Most contractor marketing advice is garbage.

I say this having audited hundreds of marketing setups for roofers, HVAC companies, plumbers, and electricians. The advice floating around online is written by people who've never had to explain to a frustrated contractor why their "content strategy" generated 50 Instagram likes and zero phone calls.

The people writing "10 Marketing Tips for Contractors" have never run a service business. They've never dispatched a crew. They've never sweated a slow season. They're regurgitating the same recycled advice that works for e-commerce stores and SaaS companies, then slapping "for contractors" on the headline.

Here's what actually works, based on spending real money and tracking real results.

## Google Business Profile: Your Actual Most Valuable Marketing Asset

Your website isn't your most important marketing asset. Your Google Business Profile is.

When someone searches "plumber near me" or "emergency roof repair," the map pack shows up first. Before your website. Before your ads. The map pack.

If you're not in those top three spots, you're invisible to the highest-intent searchers in your market.

What actually moves your GBP ranking:

Primary category selection matters more than anything else. "Roofing Contractor" outranks "General Contractor" for roofing searches. Get specific.

Complete every single field. Service areas, hours, attributes, services offered. Google rewards completeness. Your competitors skip half of this.

Post weekly. Not because anyone reads them. Because consistent activity signals to Google that your business is alive. We've tested this across dozens of profiles. Weekly posters rank better than identical profiles that don't post.

Photos of real work. Not stock images. Google's AI can tell the difference. Upload before/afters, team photos, and truck photos weekly. Aim for 100+ photos total.

The Q&A section is free keyword optimization. Add your own questions: "Do you offer emergency roof repair?" Answer them yourself with location keywords: "Yes, we provide 24/7 emergency roof repair throughout Dallas and surrounding areas."

Most contractors set up their GBP once and forget it. That's why beating them isn't hard.

A Review Generation System (Not Just "Ask for Reviews")

"Ask for reviews" isn't a strategy. It's a wish.

A system is a process that runs automatically and produces consistent results. Here's what that looks like:

The timing: Send a review request within 2 hours of job completion. Not the next day. Not a week later. While they're still feeling good about the work.

The medium: Text message, not email. Text open rates are 98%. Email open rates are 20% on a good day. A direct link to your Google review page, not your Facebook or Yelp.

The script that works:

"Hi [Name], thanks for trusting us with your [service type]. If you have 30 seconds, a quick review helps other homeowners find us: [link]"

That's it. No begging. No "it would really mean a lot to us." Just the ask and the link.

Automate it: Every job completion in your CRM triggers the text automatically. Jobber, Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan all support this. If your CRM doesn't, Zapier can connect almost anything.

Response protocol: Respond to every review within 24 hours. Positive reviews get a quick, personalized thank you. Negative reviews get a professional response acknowledging the issue and offering to make it right. Future customers read your responses more carefully than the reviews themselves.

This system, running consistently, will generate 5-10x more reviews than "asking when you remember."

Local SEO Fundamentals That Actually Matter

Local SEO for contractors isn't complicated. But agencies love making it sound complicated so they can charge more.

Here's what actually moves rankings:

Service pages that target real searches. One page per major service. "Roof Replacement in Austin" is a different page than "Roof Repair in Austin." Each page should target specific keywords, answer specific questions, and have unique content. Not 200 words with the city name stuffed in.

Location pages if you serve multiple cities. "HVAC Contractor Round Rock" needs its own page. Include driving directions, local landmarks, and specific service details for that area. Google wants to see you're actually serving these locations, not just claiming them.

NAP consistency everywhere. Your Name, Address, and Phone number should be identical across your website, Google Business Profile, Yelp, Angi, and every other directory. "123 Main Street" and "123 Main St." are not the same to Google.

Citations that matter. Forget the 200-directory "citation building" packages agencies sell. Focus on: Google Business Profile, Apple Maps, Bing Places, Facebook, industry-specific directories (Angi, HomeAdvisor, Houzz), and local directories (Chamber of Commerce, BBB if you're a member). That's roughly 15-20 citations that actually move the needle.

Website speed on mobile. Over 70% of "near me" searches happen on phones. If your site takes 5 seconds to load, you're losing leads before they see your content. Test with Google PageSpeed Insights. Aim for under 3 seconds.

Most SEO agencies will overwhelm you with technical audits and hundreds of "issues" to fix. 80% of those issues don't matter. The fundamentals above do.

For a deeper dive, read our complete local SEO guide for contractors.

Google Ads with Proper Negative Keywords

Google Ads work for contractors. When set up correctly.

The problem: most contractors (or their agencies) set up campaigns with broad match keywords and let Google spend their budget on garbage searches.

"Roofing contractor" on broad match will show your ad for "roofing contractor jobs," "roofing contractor salary," "how to become a roofing contractor," and "roofing contractor license requirements." All people looking for information, not services. All wasted clicks.

The setup that works:

Start with exact match and phrase match keywords only. [roofing contractor austin] and "roofing contractor austin" will show for people actually searching for roofing services. Not the tangentially related searches Google wants to waste your money on.

Build your negative keyword list from day one. Check your search terms report weekly for the first month, then monthly after that. Every irrelevant search gets added as a negative. Jobs, salary, DIY, how to, license, near [other cities], free.

Separate campaigns by service and intent. Emergency searches ("emergency roof repair") have different cost-per-click and conversion rates than non-urgent searches ("roof replacement cost"). Don't lump them together.

Geographic targeting: Target your actual service area, not the whole metro. A 30-mile radius is probably right. Adding "service area" locations doesn't help.

Call-only campaigns for high-intent services. For emergency HVAC, plumbing, or roofing, skip the landing page. Send them straight to a phone call. These leads are ready to book now.

The contractors who do Google Ads well are checking their search terms reports and adding negatives weekly. The contractors who lose money set it and forget it.

Local Service Ads (LSAs) for Qualified Leads

LSAs show up above regular Google Ads. The "Google Guaranteed" or "Google Screened" badge builds instant trust. And you only pay for actual leads, not clicks.

If you're not running LSAs, start tomorrow.

The setup:

Get through Google's verification process. Background checks, license verification, insurance verification. It takes 2-4 weeks. Start now.

Set your budget based on how many leads you can actually handle. LSAs have limited inventory. If you set a high budget, Google won't necessarily spend it all. But they'll fill what demand exists.

Respond to every lead within minutes. LSAs rank providers partly by responsiveness. Slow response = fewer leads shown. Set up instant notifications to your phone.

The reality check:

LSAs aren't infinite. You can't just spend more to get more leads. Google only shows them when people search. In most markets, you'll max out LSA inventory and need other channels for growth.

Lead quality varies. You'll get some time-wasters. Track which leads convert to jobs and which don't. Report bad leads to Google (they sometimes credit them back).

"LSAs are the highest-intent leads you will get. They show up above everything else, build instant trust with the Google badge, and you only pay when someone actually contacts you."

LSAs are the highest-intent leads you'll get. Start here before anything else.

Before/After Photos That Convert

Every contractor thinks they have "great photos." Most don't.

What actually works:

Consistent angles. Take the "before" from the same spot as the "after." Standing in the same location, same angle, same framing. Side-by-side comparisons that show the transformation clearly.

Good lighting. Natural daylight beats flash every time. If you're inside, open the blinds. If the job finishes after dark, come back in the morning for the final photos.

Context shots. The wide shot showing the whole project. The detail shot showing quality of workmanship. The before shot showing how bad it was.

Organized storage. Every job gets its own folder. Date, customer name (or address), service type. You should be able to find photos from any job within 60 seconds.

Where they go:

Google Business Profile (fresh photos weekly). Your website service pages. Social media. Your CRM attached to customer records. Estimates to show prospects what to expect.

A phone camera is fine. You don't need professional photography. You need consistency and volume.

Video Testimonials from Real Customers

Written reviews are good. Video testimonials are better.

A real customer, standing in front of the work you did, talking about their experience carries weight that written text can't match. It's proof that's hard to fake.

How to get them:

Ask at the end of jobs where customers are clearly happy. Not every customer. The ones who say "this looks amazing" or "I can't believe how fast you finished."

Keep it simple: "Would you mind giving us a 30-second video testimonial? Just say what the problem was and how we helped. Takes less than a minute."

Film on your phone. Horizontal orientation. Decent lighting. Not shaky.

The questions that work:

"What was the problem you needed solved?" "How was your experience working with us?" "Would you recommend us to others?"

Keep videos under 60 seconds. Long testimonials don't get watched.

Where to use them:

Homepage. Service pages (roof replacement page gets roofing testimonials). Google Business Profile as video posts. Facebook and Instagram. YouTube Shorts and TikTok if your audience is there.

Three to five strong video testimonials will outperform pages of written reviews.

Nextdoor: The Overlooked Platform

Nextdoor is hyper-local. People asking their neighbors for recommendations on home services. High trust, high intent.

How to work it:

Claim your business page. Get verified as a local business.

Ask happy customers to recommend you on Nextdoor specifically. When someone posts "looking for a good roofer," their neighbors' recommendations carry serious weight.

Don't spam the neighborhood feed. Contribute useful information. Answer questions about your trade. Be the expert, not the salesperson.

Neighborhood sponsorship ads: Nextdoor offers local sponsorship that shows your business in a specific neighborhood's feed. Worth testing with a small budget.

The ROI here is hard to track directly. But in suburban markets especially, Nextdoor recommendations drive significant business.

Strategic Partnerships with Real Value

Referral partnerships with related trades create recurring lead flow without ongoing ad spend.

Partnerships that work:

Roofing + Gutters + Siding. After a roof replacement, the homeowner often needs gutters or siding work. The contractor who did the roof recommending a specific gutter company carries weight.

HVAC + Electrical + Plumbing. New HVAC installation might need electrical work. Plumbing remodels might need HVAC rerouting.

General Contractors + Specialists. GCs need reliable subs they can refer homeowners to for specialized work.

How to structure it:

Mutual referral agreement. You send leads to them, they send leads to you. No money changes hands (avoids licensing issues in some states).

Monthly check-ins. Quick call or coffee to maintain the relationship and share what types of jobs you're each looking for.

Clear communication on pricing. Nothing kills a referral partnership faster than your partner's customer complaining about your prices.

Supplier partnerships:

The roofing supply house, HVAC distributor, or plumbing wholesaler talks to contractors all day. Some of those contractors get asked for recommendations by homeowners. Be the company suppliers mention.

A Referral Program With Actual Teeth

"Referral bonus: $50 Visa gift card" doesn't move anyone.

What works: meaningful rewards for meaningful referrals.

Structure that performs:

$200-500 for a closed job, not for a lead. Paid within 30 days of job completion. Real money that's worth remembering.

Tiered rewards: $200 for jobs under $5k, $400 for jobs $5-15k, $600 for jobs over $15k. Bigger jobs deserve bigger rewards.

Make it easy to participate:

Simple tracking (by name, not by code). "Just tell them Sarah sent you" beats "use referral code SARAH123."

Tell customers about it at job completion. "If you have friends or neighbors who need [service], we pay $300 for referrals that turn into jobs."

Remind past customers quarterly. A text or email to your customer list: "Know someone who needs [service]? We pay $300 for referrals."

Track obsessively:

Where did each referral come from? Which customers refer repeatedly? What's your cost per acquisition from referrals vs other channels?

In most markets, referral leads close at 50%+ rates with zero ad spend. Invest accordingly.

Truck Wraps That Actually Convert

Your trucks are moving billboards you already own. Done right, truck wraps generate calls. Done wrong, they're ignored.

What works:

Massive phone number. Readable from 50 feet away. This matters more than anything else.

Clean, simple design. Your logo, phone number, and one line about what you do. That's it. No one's reading paragraphs at 40mph.

High contrast colors. Dark text on light background or vice versa. Low-contrast designs disappear.

Website secondary to phone. URL small at the bottom. Phone number giant.

What doesn't work:

Cluttered designs with too much information. Stock photos of smiling technicians. Cute slogans instead of services. Hard-to-read fonts.

The implementation:

Use a reputable wrap company. Cheap wraps peel and fade. This is a 5+ year investment.

Full wraps outperform partial wraps. The cost difference is worth it.

Keep trucks clean. A dirty wrapped truck signals "we don't care about details."

Track it: unique phone number on truck wraps so you know what's generating calls from the road.

Yard Signs Done Right

Basic, but effective when done correctly.

After every job:

Ask permission to leave a yard sign for 2-4 weeks. Most customers say yes.

Place at property line, visible from the street, facing traffic flow.

Include: company name, phone number, service completed. "Roof replacement by [Company] | 555-1234"

High-traffic strategy:

Ask customers on corner lots or busy streets if you can extend the sign duration. Offer a small discount on future work.

Route your estimates through neighborhoods where you have signs up. "You may have seen our signs on Oak Street."

Track it:

Ask how people heard about you. "Saw your sign on [Street]" is free attribution.

Cheap, effective, easy. Most contractors skip it entirely.

Email to Past Customers

Your existing customer list is underutilized. People who've already paid you money are far more likely to pay you again.

What to send:

Seasonal reminders. "Spring is coming - time to check your roof after winter storms." "Summer's almost here - when's the last time you serviced your AC?"

Maintenance offers. Annual HVAC tune-up specials. Gutter cleaning before fall.

New service announcements. "We now offer [service]. As a past customer, you get 15% off."

Referral reminders. "Know someone who needs [service]? We pay $300 for referrals."

Frequency:

Once per quarter minimum. Once per month maximum. More than monthly and you become annoying.

Implementation:

Collect email addresses on every job. Your CRM should have a field for this.

Use a real email platform (Mailchimp, MailerLite) not your regular inbox. You need to track open rates and stay out of spam folders.

Segment by service. Roofing customers get roofing emails. HVAC customers get HVAC emails.

Email is cheap and effective for repeat and referral business. Most contractors don't do it at all.

Marketing Ideas That Waste Money

Not everything works. Here's what to avoid:

Random social media posting. Posting to Facebook three times a week with no strategy generates nothing. No one's scrolling Instagram looking for a plumber. Unless you're running paid ads with targeting, organic social is brand maintenance at best.

Cheap SEO packages. The $299/month SEO agency is submitting your business to spam directories and writing garbage content. You're better off doing nothing. Real SEO takes time and expertise. If the price seems too good to be true, it is.

Lead gen services (Angi, HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack). These can work, but understand what you're buying: shared leads sold to 4-5 competitors simultaneously, often with inflated prices. Calculate your actual cost per closed job, not cost per lead. For many contractors, it's astronomical.

Billboards. Unless you're in a very specific situation (highway in your service area, major brand awareness push), billboards are expensive and untraceable. A $3,000/month billboard could fund your entire digital marketing budget.

Radio/TV for most contractors. Mass media makes sense when you're trying to reach everyone. Home services usually don't need to reach everyone. They need to reach homeowners in their service area who need their specific service right now. Digital targeting does this better at a fraction of the cost.

Save your money for what works.

Budget Allocation: How to Prioritize

Your marketing budget determines your strategy, not the other way around.

$1,000/month plan:

100% to LSAs and Google Business Profile optimization. Don't split this budget. Concentrate on the highest-ROI channel until you've maxed it out.

Do everything else (review generation, photos, referrals, truck wraps) with time, not money. These cost effort, not dollars.

$3,000/month plan:

$1,500 LSAs (or until maxed) $1,000 Google Search Ads (exact/phrase match, strict negative keywords) $500 Facebook/Instagram retargeting (people who visited your site but didn't convert)

Plus continued investment in organic: GBP posts, review generation, content for your website.

$10,000/month plan:

$3,000 LSAs (likely maxed at this point) $4,000 Google Search Ads (expanded keywords, geo-targeting tests) $1,500 Facebook/Instagram (retargeting plus cold audience testing) $1,500 for professional content, video testimonials, and website improvements

At this level, you should be running incrementality tests. Turn channels off temporarily to measure their true contribution. What happens to lead flow when you pause Facebook? Now you know what it's really worth.

Measuring What Matters

Marketing without measurement is gambling.

Track these numbers:

Leads by source. How many calls, forms, and chats from Google Ads vs LSAs vs organic vs referrals?

Cost per lead by source. Total spend divided by leads.

Estimate rate. What percentage of leads turn into scheduled estimates?

Close rate. What percentage of estimates turn into jobs?

Cost per job by source. This is the number that matters. A channel with expensive leads that close at 80% beats a channel with cheap leads that close at 10%.

Average job value by source. LSA leads might close smaller jobs. Referrals might close bigger ones.

The monthly report you need:

One page. Leads, estimates, jobs, revenue, and cost per job by marketing channel. That's it.

If your agency can't produce this report, ask why not. If they give you impressions and reach instead, read this.

What to Do Next

This post is 3,000+ words of specific, actionable advice. Most people will read it, nod along, and do nothing.

The contractors who win their markets do the work. They set up the tracking. They optimize their GBP. They build systems for reviews. They check their search terms reports. They ask for referrals. They measure everything.

Pick one thing from this list. Implement it this week. Then pick another.

Or if you want help implementing all of this the right way, let's talk. We build marketing systems for contractors that track actual jobs, not vanity metrics. We'll show you exactly where your leads come from and what each one costs.

For more on what actually drives results for home service businesses, read our complete home services marketing guide.