Not Sure Which Paid Channel Is Right for You?
You shouldn't have to guess which paid channel is right for your trade. One conversation tells you where to start.
What Paid Advertising Looks Like When It's Working
More calls. Lower cost per job. A clear picture of what every channel produced. Here's what that looked like for these contractors.
The difference was immediate. Where other agencies focused on the creative, Valve+Meter focused on the math. The numbers behind the campaigns. The data that tells you whether your marketing dollars are actually building your business — or just generating activity.
Revenue across the business increased substantially. And for the first time, Flow Tech could see why — which channels were producing, which efforts were driving growth, and where the opportunities were to scale further.
We monitored the website through December 2023. By year’s end, traffic-to-lead conversion had climbed to 32% — an impressive improvement given the unusually mild weather that year, which typically depresses HVAC demand and makes every conversion harder to earn.
Evergreen’s owner was upfront about this expectation from day one: “I want to feel like you care about helping me get here.” It’s a simple ask, but one that most marketing agencies fail to deliver on. Valve+Meter didn’t.
Paid Advertising Services for Home Services Contractors
Our paid advertising services for contractors cover eight distinct channels, and each one reaches homeowners differently. Some capture demand at the moment it exists. Others build awareness before it does, or follow homeowners across the web until they're ready to act.
We match channels to your trade, market, and goals so your budget produces jobs, not just activity.
PPC & Paid Search
The first results a homeowner sees after searching for a contractor are paid ads. Google Ads puts your business in that row. You pay when someone clicks. For contractors who need the phone ringing now, this is where most paid strategies begin.
- Google Ads campaign management
- Keyword research built around home services searches
- Ad copy and landing page alignment
- Monthly reporting tied to calls and cost per job
Google Local Services Ads
LSA listings sit above standard Google Ads at the very top of the page, with your name, your rating, and the Google Guaranteed badge. You pay per lead rather than per click, and Google vets the leads before billing you.
- LSA profile setup and optimization
- Google Guaranteed badge setup and verification
- Lead review and dispute management
- Monthly reporting on cost per verified lead
Paid Social Media
Facebook and Instagram ads reach homeowners based on where they live, what they own, and what they're interested in. That makes paid social effective for services where homeowners think before they call, rather than services where they call immediately.
- Facebook and Instagram ad management
- Audience targeting built around homeowners in your service areas
- Lead generation and retargeting campaigns
- Reporting tied to calls and form submissions
Yelp Advertising
Yelp is where homeowners compare contractors before they call. Without active management, competitors advertise on your profile. With it, Yelp becomes a channel that works for your business.
- Yelp profile optimization
- Review monitoring and response management
- Pay-per-call ad management
- Monthly reporting on cost per call and dispute credits
Geofencing Advertising
Geofencing puts your ad on a homeowner's phone based on where they physically are. A competitor's parking lot. A street where you finished a job last week. A neighborhood dealing with storm damage. The homeowner sees your ad before they've decided who to call.
- Competitor location targeting
- Storm-chasing and event-based campaigns
- Post-job neighborhood targeting
- Call tracking tied to specific fence locations
OTT & Streaming TV Ads
Streaming ads run on connected TV platforms and apps during the shows homeowners watch. They don't produce calls the next day. Over time, they make your name the familiar one: the contractor a homeowner already knows when they finally need to call.
- Connected TV and streaming ad management
- Seasonal brand campaigns built around your demand calendar
- Audience targeting by location, homeownership, and household income
- Downstream measurement tied to branded search and conversion lift
Display & Retargeting
Display advertising reaches homeowners in your market who don't know you exist yet. Retargeting follows homeowners who visited your site without calling, keeping you visible across the weeks or months it takes them to decide.
- Display ad management across Google Display Network and programmatic exchanges
- Retargeting campaigns with windows matched to your trade's purchase cycle
- Homeowner audience targeting matched to your service geography
- Attribution tracking that connects display spend to downstream results
Programmatic Advertising
Programmatic media buying coordinates your display, streaming, and geofencing campaigns into one strategy with one budget and measurement framework, purchased automatically across hundreds of publishers.
- Demand-side platform (DSP) access and management
- Cross-channel audience strategy and budget allocation
- Real-time budget management across channels
- Unified monthly reporting across all programmatic channels
We Start Where Other Agencies Skip
Most paid media agencies lead with their services. We lead with your situation. Before we recommend a channel or set a budget, we look at your trade, your market, your seasonality, and what you're already running. You leave the conversation with a recommendation built around your business, not a generic channel list.
Free Marketing Assessment
We look at your current paid channels, market, trade, and what the numbers show before recommending anything. You come away knowing where your current paid channels stand and what the gaps are before anyone mentions a next step.
Your Channel Recommendation
Based on the assessment, we recommend the paid channels that fit your trade, budget, and goals.
Campaign Build & Launch
We build and launch campaigns around what the recommendation calls for. Every campaign is connected to call tracking and reporting before the first dollar is spent.
Manage and Report
We manage your campaigns every week, shift budget based on what's working, and send you a monthly report showing how many calls came in, what they cost, and which channels produced them.
Paid Advertising for the Trades
The trades we work with span a wide range of services, service areas, and demand patterns. We build paid media strategies around those differences.
Nancy & Bill Berning
Owners$1.6M+
In Incremental Revenue
34%
Year-Over-Year Growth
200%
Increase In Search Visibility
Questions About Paid Advertising for Home Services Companies
Before committing to a paid channel, contractors tend to ask the same things. Here are the ones that come up most.
A paid media agency manages paid advertising campaigns on behalf of a business. That includes the strategy, the campaign setup, the ongoing management, and the reporting. For home services contractors, a paid media agency handles the Google Ads, LSA, social media ads, and other paid channels that generate calls and booked jobs, so you can focus on the work.
The answer varies by trade and what you need. Google Ads and LSA work best when a homeowner is already searching for what you do. Paid social works better for services where homeowners spend time deciding before they pick up the phone. Geofencing and streaming ads work best for building name recognition in your market or reaching homeowners at specific locations. Most contractors start with search-based channels and add others as the business grows.
PPC (pay-per-click) charges you when a homeowner clicks your ad and sends them to your website. LSA (Local Service Ads) charges per lead and lets homeowners call directly from the listing. LSA listings appear above standard search results at the top of the page and carry the Google Guaranteed badge. For most home services contractors, both are worth running. They reach homeowners at the same moment, but work differently. See our PPC page and our Google Local Services Ads page for more details.
Google Ads and LSA campaigns usually start producing calls in the first week or two after launch. Paid social usually produces leads within the first week but requires a testing period to find what performs in your market. Channels like geofencing, OTT, and display work over a longer horizon because they build awareness rather than capture immediate demand. If you need calls now, start with search-based channels.
No. Starting with every channel at once spreads budget thin and makes it impossible to know what's working. We recommend starting with one or two channels that match your immediate goals, then growing from there as results give you something to build on.
It varies by channel, trade, and market. Google Ads costs are based on clicks, which vary by keyword and competition level. LSA charges per verified lead. Paid social budgets are set monthly. Streaming, geofencing, and display campaigns are priced per thousand impressions. We set budgets based on what each channel requires to produce results in your market and what a booked job is worth to your business.
Paid search captures homeowners at the moment they need what you offer. Paid social (Facebook, Instagram) reaches homeowners based on who they are and where they live, not what they're searching for. Search captures immediate demand. Social builds awareness before the demand exists. Both have a role in a complete paid media strategy, but search usually comes first for home services contractors.
The short answer: if you can't trace your ad spend back to calls and booked jobs, it's hard to know. Every campaign we manage ties into call tracking, so our reports show you exactly which channel, which campaign, and which keyword brought each call in. Each month's report covers calls and what each call and booked job cost, broken out by channel. If a channel isn't producing, you'll know before you've spent another month's budget on it.