What Marketing Actually Works for Residential Trade Businesses?

The short answer

The trade business marketing that’s worked best for me is the boring stuff: a well-run Google Business Profile with plenty of reviews, a customer experience good enough to bring repeat work and referrals, letterbox flyers and clear branding. Google Ads work too, but only if you track every dollar back to booked jobs and keep them as one channel of several.

What trade business marketing actually works?

I’ve spent more on trade business marketing than most owners will in their lifetime, so I’ll start with what’s worked for Smartfix. Reviews and a well-kept Google Business Profile. A customer experience good enough that people call us back and tell their neighbours. Hand-delivered letterbox flyers. Clear branding on the vehicles. And Google Ads, tracked properly, as one channel of several.

That’s the short list. The rest of this article is how I learned it, mostly the expensive way, plus what two podcast guests taught me about tracking and branding.

What did I learn from spending $750,000 on Google Ads in a month?

In my biggest month I spent $750,000 on Google Ads. Across that year, marketing ran at about 30% of revenue, mostly paid ads. That was when Smartfix had 130+ staff and about $30 million in revenue, and the business lost money.

The thinking at the time was to push more money into Google to keep the guys busy. We wanted 10 to 12 quotes a day, a 16% conversion rate and $1,100 net per job. It wasn’t realistic. Our cost per lead from Google ended up about double what it should have been, because we were overpaying to get the volume in. The quoters had 12 jobs in their names, so they rushed. Conversion dropped, average job value dropped, and then we needed more people in the office to answer the calls.

All our eggs were in one basket. We were about nine years in before we properly started on SEO.

We still run Google Ads, and they still work for us. Lead cost moves every day. When I talked about it on the podcast, some days it was $200 for a lead and other days $450. It gets cheaper for air con as the weather cools.

Agencies and account access

I ran my own ads for two or three weeks at the start and realised there was no way I could do it properly. We’ve since used three or four bigger agencies, and now a freelancer over east. If paid ads are a big part of your trade business marketing, speak to whoever runs them at least weekly.

Own your accounts too. When we cancelled one marketing agreement, the agency said they’d need to clear our Google Ads account because it was their data. We’d paid for that data. That’s like me wiring your house and then ripping the wiring out when you hire another electrician. Set up the accounts in your name and give the agency access.

Why do letterbox flyers still work?

Hand-delivered printed flyers have been one of the best returns we’ve ever had on marketing. It took us about two years to actually look at the data and see it. Once we did, it changed how I think about where the money goes.

That lesson pushed me towards slower decisions based on the numbers. If something’s working, you want to know why, and you want to know how much each lead and each job costs you.

How do you track every marketing dollar?

Peter Craft is one of the owners of ASAP Trades, a Perth plumbing business. When he came on the podcast, he told me about their first day running Google Ads: “We spent like $2,800 and we had like two calls.” They turned the ads off, went to the pub and replanned.

Now they set up a separate tracking number for each campaign in ServiceTitan. A call on that number is tagged to the campaign, and they follow it through to booked jobs, sold jobs and revenue. They add what the campaign costs, so they can see the return on each one.

Tracking is the part of trade business marketing most owners skip, and what Peter found surprised him. They’d assumed most of their work came from Google Ads. Once they tracked it properly, a lot of it was coming from their Google Business Profile and other places.

I’ll be honest, Smartfix is in a worse spot here. ServiceM8 doesn’t track this for us. If a customer says they found us online, it goes down as Google, and pushing customers for more detail annoys them. We’ve started trialling ChatGPT paid ads, and right now we can’t tell those leads apart from Google ones.

Peter also made a point about intent. Calls from a how-to blog can look like a great source, but a lot of those callers just want free advice. Judge each source on the revenue it brings in, and treat the call count as a rough guide.

Why do Google reviews matter so much for trades?

Aisha Derrick worked on Smartfix’s branding and marketing for four years. When she came on the marketing episode, she put it simply: homeowners are letting a stranger into their home. Most of them search, see your Google Business Profile and go straight to the reviews. They read what people say and how you reply, including to the bad ones.

So you need a review system, a consistent way of asking every customer. Our installers ask for a Google review before they leave site.

Aisha also pushed Google Business Profile posts, which plenty of owners don’t know exist. They’re free. Their job is to show Google you’re an active business. Smartfix posts once a week. Batch a month of posts in an hour and schedule them.

Peter’s take on one-star reviews is worth hearing. When he reads other companies’ bad reviews, most start with a callback that never happened or a tradie who turned up hours late with no call. Price comes up after that. When we get a one-star review, we ring the customer straight away and go out and fix it. A lot of them change it to five stars or take it down.

Does branding matter for a small trade business?

Aisha says it matters a lot earlier than most owners think. Her point about Perth trades was that nearly everyone runs the same lines: no call-out fee, free quotes, 24/7. We say “fully licensed, fully insured” too. When every business says the same thing, nobody stands out.

Vehicles are a big part of it for us. When we recorded that episode, we were about to fully wrap 26 vehicles for about $160,000. We were also changing the name on them from Multi Trade Services, because people didn’t know what that meant. Having electrical and air conditioning written clearly on every panel was the whole point. It’s a lot of money, so pick a design you won’t want to change in two years.

How do you turn one job into repeat work and referrals?

Repeat customers and referrals are the cheapest work you’ll ever get. Aisha’s view is that it starts with the first job. If the tradie walks in without wiping their feet, does the job and leaves, no email campaign will bring that customer back.

At Smartfix the customer touches a lot of points. They find us on Google, read our profile, call the office, get a free quote from a site assessor who takes their shoes off and explains the job. Then an installer does the work, explains what they’ve done, cleans up, leaves flyers and magnets, and asks for a review. The invoice goes out and the email campaign starts. One bad experience anywhere in there undoes the rest.

I’ve written more on this in stop renting your leads and how to get more consistent work.

Where should a new trade business start with marketing?

Aisha’s advice for new owners was to pick three things and stay consistent: a Google Business Profile, a review system and one social platform. She also said Google Ads probably isn’t where a startup should begin. Add more once those are running.

Set up a business Facebook page, a proper email address on your own domain, and answer the phone with your business name. Small stuff, and it all builds trust. If you’re new to Perth, I’ve also written about building a reputation for a new trade business.

Whatever trade business marketing you run, track where each job came from from day one. It took me years and a lot of money to get there.

If you want to compare notes with other Perth owners on what’s working for them, come to one of the Hypotential networking nights or have a look at membership.