PPC Advertising Agency for General Contractors

Most general contractors buy paid media the way they buy materials: a monthly amount, spread across whatever platforms sales reps pitched last. That approach ignores what makes this trade different. Your projects vary enormously in size, your sales cycle runs long enough that this month's spend shows up in next season's revenue, and a large share of your leads come from marketplaces that sell the same homeowner to several of your competitors. An agency view of paid media starts with three questions. Which project types do you want more of? How deep is your backlog right now? And what does a signed contract actually cost you through each channel, including the ones you pay per lead? Everything below follows from those answers, from Local Services Ads and search to social and the marketplace accounts you may be quietly overpaying for.

1Allocating Budget Across Project Types

Start from the work you want and the margin it carries, then work backward to spend. Volume is a poor guide here because the highest-volume searches are rarely the most profitable projects.

• Protect the large-project budget from the small one. Separate campaign budgets stop the kitchen campaign from spending what was set aside for additions.
• Review allocation quarterly, not monthly. Monthly swings in large-project leads are mostly noise in a business with this cycle length.

2Letting Backlog Set the Spend

• Agree on a target backlog range. Enough signed work to keep crews steady without pushing new clients so far out that they walk.
• Raise spend as backlog falls toward the bottom of the range. Because new leads take weeks or months to become starts, the increase has to come early.
• Trim spend when the top of the range is reached. Trim, do not stop, since restarting a cold account costs more than holding it warm.
• Shift mix rather than total when one crew is overloaded. If kitchens are booked solid but the addition team has room, move budget between campaigns instead of cutting.
• Share the backlog number with whoever runs your ads. An agency that only sees lead counts will keep pushing volume you cannot use.

This is the opposite of how most contractors budget. The instinct is to spend when the calendar looks empty, but by then the spend arrives too late to help. Tying budget to backlog depth gives you a number to manage against, and it turns marketing from a reaction into a plan.

3What Each Budget Level Supports

We recommend a $3,000 minimum monthly ad budget for a general contractor. Below that, there is rarely enough click volume in high-intent remodel terms to separate project types and still learn anything within a reasonable time.

Commercial and custom home budgets are best treated as tests until the residential base is fully funded. Their search volume is thin enough that a small budget may produce only a handful of leads per quarter, which is fine as long as everyone understands that before judging the results.

4Local Services Ads Versus Search

• Local Services Ads trade control for trust. The Google Verified badge and top placement are valuable, but you choose job types and service areas rather than keywords and copy.
• Search lets you speak to a project. Separate ads and pages for additions, kitchens, and custom homes are only possible in standard search.
• Pay per lead changes the screening job. Every small repair request that reaches you through Local Services Ads costs money, so disputes and job type settings need weekly attention.
• Category availability varies. General contractor is a listed category, but check whether it is open in your market and which job types it offers.
• Use both and compare at the contract level. Cost per lead will flatter one or the other, while cost per signed project tells the real story.

Run both for a full quarter before comparing them, since one month of pay per lead data in a slow season can mislead you.

5Houzz, Angi, and Pay Per Lead

Lead marketplaces are a fixture in remodeling. They deserve the same scrutiny as any other line item, and most contractors have never measured them past the lead.

• Know whether leads are shared. Marketplace leads often go to more than one contractor, so the first to call usually wins and price pressure follows.
• Separate the subscription from the result. A monthly platform fee that produces profile views but no signed projects is a branding expense, and it should be judged that way.
• Houzz has value beyond its paid tools. Homeowners browse project photos there, so a complete profile helps even if you stop paying for placement.
• Track every marketplace lead to its outcome. Consult held, estimate sent, contract signed, or lost, recorded the same way as your other channels.
• Watch the time cost. Racing to call shared leads pulls your estimator away from qualified referrals who would have signed.
• Move budget to owned channels when they match the cost. Once search and local produce signed work at a similar cost, the owned version builds assets the marketplace never will.

None of this means marketplaces are bad. For a newer contractor without reviews or a strong site, they can be a reasonable way to get projects while the owned channels mature. The mistake is never measuring them, so the subscription renews every year on habit.

6The Rest of the Paid Mix

1. Branded search first. Cheap, and it catches the referrals your reputation already earned.
2. Core remodel search second. The project types you most want, on exact and phrase match.
3. Local Services Ads where the category is open. Funded with a cap you can actually screen.
4. Retargeting across Google and Meta. A long decision means past visitors are worth reaching for months.
5. Meta project video to local homeowners. Builds familiarity before the planning searches start.
6. Microsoft Ads as a small add-on. Smaller volume and a different audience mix, worth a test once Google is stable.
7. Commercial outreach outside paid search. LinkedIn and relationship work with brokers often beats search for tenant improvement leads.

The order matters because each step depends on the one before. Retargeting needs traffic, social needs project content, and Microsoft needs a proven Google structure to copy. Building in sequence keeps a smaller budget from being spread too thin to learn anything.

7Seasonality and Planning Lead Time

• Planning searches run ahead of building season. Homeowners who want a spring or summer project are researching and interviewing contractors in winter.
• Holiday deadlines drive late summer demand. People who want a kitchen finished before hosting family start looking well before fall.
• Basement work leans toward colder months. Interior projects fill the calendar when exterior work slows in northern markets.
• Home sales create renovation spikes. New owners plan changes around closing dates, so local housing activity is a leading signal.
• Interest rates move larger projects. Financing costs affect additions and custom homes far more than smaller remodels, so watch close rates by segment when rates change.
• Do not cut spend in the slow quarter by default. The quiet months are often when next season's best clients are choosing a builder.

Seasonality varies a lot by region, so treat these as patterns to verify in your own data rather than rules. Two years of signed contracts by month will tell you more about your market than any national trend.

8Cost Per Signed Project

• Ask for source on every signed contract. Your CRM or even a spreadsheet, but every contract tied to where it began.
• Divide spend by signed projects, by channel and segment. Including marketplace fees, Local Services Ads charges, and management costs.
• Compare against gross margin, not contract value. A large project with thin margin can be worth less than a smaller one you build efficiently.
• Wait long enough before deciding. Judge additions and custom homes on a rolling six or twelve month view, not a single month.
• Count design agreements as a milestone. A paid design phase is a strong early signal that a project will proceed.
• Count repeat and referral work from paid clients. A first project that came from search often produces the next room and a neighbor's addition.

Once you have cost per signed project by channel, most budget arguments settle themselves. The channel producing profitable contracts gets more, and the one producing busy work gets less.

9What We Manage for Contractors

• Google search and Local Services Ads. Campaigns by project type, disputes handled, and job types tuned.
• Meta and retargeting. Project video and long-window audiences for homeowners still deciding.
• Microsoft Ads where it earns a place. Mirrored from Google once the core account is stable.
• Marketplace review. Your Houzz, Angi, and similar spend measured against signed work, with a recommendation on each.
• Conversion tracking and offline import. Qualified consults and signed contracts sent back to the platforms.
• License and financing copy checks. Flagged for your own review with your licensing board and lender.
• Monthly reporting tied to backlog. Spend, qualified consults, signed projects, and the backlog number side by side.