For most contractors, the marketing that pays is a short list: a complete Google Business Profile, steady reviews, local SEO, and Google Ads — roughly in that order. The first two are free and drive the most "near me" calls. SEO builds an asset that keeps producing. Ads buy work today. Everything else is a distraction until those four are working.
We run our own home-service companies — a cleaning company in Tucson and an HVAC company in Sacramento — on the same stack we sell. So this is the honest math on contractor lead generation: which channels return, when each is worth it, and when you shouldn't spend at all.
The single biggest source of local calls, and it costs nothing but effort. Claim it, fill in every field, add real project photos, and ask for a review after every job. A profile with 50 recent reviews beats a competitor with 10 almost every time.
Project and city pages that rank for "[service] [city]" and the cost questions homeowners research. Slower to start — three to six months — but it's an owned asset that keeps producing leads after you stop paying, unlike ads.
The fastest way to calls. Local Services Ads put you at the very top with a "Google Guaranteed" badge and you pay per lead, not per click. Worth it when you need work now or to fill a slow stretch — but the calls stop the day the budget does.
Leads sold to several contractors at once, so you're racing to call first and bidding against yourself on price. Fine to plug a gap, a poor foundation. You never own these leads, and the cost per booked job creeps up fast.
Track one number above all: cost per booked job, not cost per click or per lead. A channel that delivers cheap clicks and no jobs is more expensive than one with pricey leads that close. To know which is which you need attribution — knowing which page, ad, or search produced each call.
A common budget is 5 to 10 percent of revenue, weighted toward whatever you can measure. Start with the free profile-and-review work, add an SEO plan, and only layer in ads once you can see which spend turns into signed contracts. Spending blind is how contractors conclude "marketing doesn't work" — when really they just couldn't see what did.
We turn down work that won't pay off. Hold off on paid contractor marketing if:
Marketing pays when the lost-job math beats the spend and you can catch every lead. For most contractors, one won project covers months of any plan.
We bundle the channels that pay into one stack. Start Getting Leads is $249/mo — a hand-built site plus AI lead capture so no call slips. Grow in Google is $597/mo, adding the monthly SEO content engine, Google Business Profile management, and the attribution that tells you which spend produced each job. Own Your Market from $1,750/mo adds a custom CRM and reputation automation. Month-to-month, and you own everything.
Dig deeper with SEO for contractors, SEO for home services, what local SEO costs, or whether local SEO is worth it. Need the site first? See our contractor website design page.
We don't post stock testimonials. On a 15-minute call we screen-share the real dashboards behind our own businesses — live leads, rankings, and the exact page that produced each one. See the proof →
Profile and reviews first (free, biggest "near me" driver), then local SEO, then ads for work today. Most contractors do best running all three once the free work is done.
A common range is 5 to 10 percent of revenue, weighted toward what you can measure. Track cost per booked job, not per click, and let the budget follow what closes.
Fine to fill a slow week, poor as a foundation. The leads are shared and you never own them. Owned channels cost less per booked job over time.
Send your company name and city — we'll confirm your market is open and build a working demo within 48 hours. Free, no card, no commitment. One contractor per market.
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